Is Romney not Christian enough?

Anyone who meets Mitt Romney comes away with a good feeling. He's a very decent man and the people of Massachusetts chose wisely in 2002. Governor Romney is certainly playing coy with his presidential ambitions, opting not to run for re-election in 2006. But the early wordis that Romney faces problems with the religous right not an insignificant force in Republican circles. A resolute chaste man who refuses to indulge in so much as foul language, Governor Romney's problem appears to be that he is a Mormon. In today's excellent profile of Romney, James Taranto of theWall Street Journal notes

The trouble is that much of today's anti-Mormon sentiment is found on the religious right, a constituency that looms much larger in the GOP now than it did in 1968, or than it ever has in Massachusetts. Ask a conservative Christian what he thinks of Mormonism, and there's a good chance he'll call it a "cult" or say Mormons "aren't Christian."

I am not a congenial basher of the "religious right" but I do think religious conservatives who hold such views on Mormonism behind their lace curtains are an increasing threat to the Republican party. It would be a shame if they foreclose opportunities for "non-Chrisitians" like Romney.

What's happening to the party of Goldwater?