What was ann romney religion

Romney and the Mormon Moment b y Jan Shipps. Although Mormonism was an issue in his unsuccessful Massachusetts senate campaign, Romney managed to serve a term as the governor of Massachusetts without generating much interest in his religion. As a result, he and his campaign strategists seem to have been reasonably confident that the Mormon question would remain in the background during his presidential run. The same year, the Library of Congress hosted a major conference to mark the bicentennial of the birth of Mormon prophet Joseph Smith.

With considerable fanfare, Alfred A. Knopf released the first full-scale biography of Smith in 28 years. If the Mormon Moment is indeed at hand, how—in an era when presidential aspirants are expected to discuss their faith commitments with the American public—should the Mormon Candidate communicate his faith? In an April 9 op-ed in the New York Times , former Newsweek religion writer Kenneth Woodward recommended that Romney confront his Mormon problem head on by telling the world—especially the conservative Christian world—about his religious tradition.

In an August 21 cover story in Christian Century , Laurie Maffly-Kipp, a non-Mormon historian of religion who knows Mormonism well, posed a series of questions that Romney ought to address:. What is Mormonism? Who are the Mormons? How is authority exercised in the LDS church?

Could the LDS hierarchy exercise power through a Mormon president? What about gender roles in this faith system? And, perhaps of greatest interest, how do Latter-day Saints understand the relationship between church and state?

Thus far, however, while Romney recites, mantra-like, that he is a man of strong faith, he has declined either to explain what he believes or to share with the public how his beliefs fit into his life story. Part of the explanation lies with the nature of Mormon religious practice.

When it comes to worship, Mormonism is both as open as it is possible to be and as closed. But LDS temples are open only to those Saints whose worthiness is attested to by the lay clergyman who presides over their local wards parishes. Within the confines of their temples, Saints participate in what they are convinced are sacred ordinances.

The details of these ordinances and the covenants by which Saints bind themselves to each other in family units must not be fully described to non-Mormons, for such descriptions would, they believe, undercut their sacred nature.

A notorious example of the difficulty this makes for the candidate is the matter of the special under-garments that Latter-day Saints wear to symbolize covenants they made in the temple. But as parents with young children know, it can be a challenge to get everyone to church, so Ann got creative. Sunday morning, presto, they were in church clothes.

Wrinkled, yes, but we got to church on time. Although Ann loved being a stay-at-home mom and insisted on doing everything herself, she acknowledges that there were days when her sons pushed her to her limit.

More than once, I slammed the door, got in the car, and drove away. And even though Mitt was often traveling for business, he still provided tremendous emotional support.

His work was temporary, but my work would last forever. Ann says she always had teaching moments for her boys in the back of her mind—how she wanted them to behave, what she wanted them to care about. Yet, I see them as adults, and they are nice now! Even though they may not be doing what you want at the moment, you just have to persevere. As a grandmother, Ann now cherishes quality time with her grandchildren, as well as the opportunity to watch her sons raise children of their own.

I just love it. For Ann, raising five active boys was challenging, but she always seemed to find the energy she needed—until suddenly, in , she began losing her balance and having trouble walking up and down stairs. She began having difficulty swallowing, needing more sleep than usual, and feeling nauseated. At the urging of her family, Ann went to see a neurologist.

At the appointment, Mitt was crushed as he watched his beloved wife fail test after test. Finally, after an MRI, Ann was diagnosed with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis.

Mitt cried too. It gives you a different perspective—the ability to see through a different lens, to be a little kinder, a little more appreciative of how difficult life can be for some people. He doesn't ever contradict my mother in public. Her "debut as a political wife was somewhere between a disappointment and a disaster," says Jodi Kantor in The New York Times.

When Mitt was challenging Sen. Ted Kennedy D-Mass. Now, "she seems much better at retail politics than her husband. She uses horseback riding to combat her multiple sclerosis In , after months of mysterious weakness and numbness, Ann was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, an often debilitating neurological disorder.

She took steroids to stabilize the disease, but now relies mostly on a combination of alternative treatments, including acupuncture, craniosacral therapy, and her "joy therapy," horseback riding.

She has become quite skilled at dressage, a form of horse training and riding involving "seven-figure horses and four-figure saddles," and competes at amateur and even professional-level competitions, winning several medals. She's so into her hobby-therapy that son Josh Romney got his father a horse mask for Christmas in , with the advice: "Maybe Mom will pay as much attention to you as she does to the horses. Skip to header Skip to main content Skip to footer Fact Sheet.

Here, seven intriguing facts and anecdotes about the woman who could be the next first lady: 1. Mitt Romney Politics. Joel Mathis.