THE MAGAZINE RACK: TIME ASKS, CAN A MORMON BE PRESIDENT?

From time to time we like to look at some of the more politically oriented articles newly available on the magazine rack.

TIME magazine, in the issue hitting news stands tomorrow, looks at how the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints (LDS) is preparing for the probable presidential bid of one of its leading members, Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

The TIME article says church leaders continue to try to dispel one of the most widely held misconceptions about the Mormon faith, that it permits polygamy.

Even though the church has not allowed members to have multiple wives since 1890, that's not how it comes across on TV, in books or even in the courts. --TIME

It is also working to distance itself from a fundamentalist splinter group, which is not recognized by LDS but has been making news lately.

More recently, the 50-year-old leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a sect that has been disavowed by the LDS, has been on trial on two first-degree felony counts of rape. He is accused of helping arrange the marriage of a 14-year-old girl and her 19-year-old cousin in 2001 --TIME

The public relations effort will have to go beyond dispelling what the church does NOT believe.

Mormons acknowledge works of Scripture that are not in the Bible, believe that their prophets have received revelations directly from God and teach that God has a physical body. Evangelicals consider them heretics. The Southern Baptist Convention lists the LDS church under Cults and Sects, along with Scientology. --TIME

Recent polls show that more than one-third of Americans say they would not vote for a Mormon for president, including this Rasmussen Reports poll released earlier this week which put the number at 43%.

OBAMA FEATURED IN ELLE

Barack Obama has vaulted quickly into the top tier of possible Democratic candidates for president in '08. Elle has a lengthy profile of the man many are calling the leader of the new generation of politicians.