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Tuesday, Oct 9, 2012 7:15 PM UTC

Mormonism, voter enthusiasm concern evangelicals

Evangelical leaders are making a last push for conservative turnout

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Topics: 2012 Elections, Mormon Church, From the Wires, Evangelicals, Barack Obama, Mitt Romney, , ,

Mormonism, voter enthusiasm concern evangelicalsIn this Oct. 8, 2012 file photo, Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney speaks in Lexington, Va. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, File)

NEW YORK (AP) — Evangelical leaders worried that Mitt Romney’s Mormonism could suppress conservative turnout are intensifying appeals for Christians to vote.

About two dozen prominent evangelical leaders issued a statement last month emphasizing conservative moral values over a candidate’s particular religion.

Influential Pentecostal publisher Steve Strang has also been working to get out the vote. He told a group of pastors last week that many churchgoers are having trouble setting aside theological concerns about Mormonism to back the Republican presidential nominee. Strang fears Christian conservatives will stay home on Election Day.

Romney is the first Mormon presidential nominee from a major party. Evangelical voters have said repeatedly in polls that they’d back Romney despite concerns about his religion. But Southern Baptist leader Al Mohler says that hypothetical question now faces a real-word test.

More Rachel Zoll.

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