What Does Mitt Romney Believe?

"I'm voting for your guy!"

"Please tell my neighbors to pray for Mitt Romney."

"Do you have any Romney bumper stickers?"

These are just a few of the things I hear as I traverse the streets of conservative Williamson County, Tennessee. Regardless of their opinions of the man, people associate Mitt Romney with missionaries. He's Mormon; we're Mormon.

I am, quite frankly, excited about the increased attention toward the Church. Good publicity is always good, and bad publicity (of which there is much in any political race) backfires. I represent a missionary church, a church that believes in its divinely-inspired responsibility to carry the gospel to every man, woman and child on earth.

So I'm grateful that people know Romney and Reid and Donny and Marie are Mormons.

But I also hope my friends associate them and us with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This is the church to which we Mormons belong. We are Christians. We believe in Christ. We love Him, we serve Him, we follow Him and we worship Him.

People routinely ask me to teach them about Mitt Romney's beliefs. Perhaps you, my readers, have questions similar to what they're asking. In an effort to address those questions, I'm starting a new series—we'll call it "Mitt Files"—in which I'll talk about the basic tenets of Romney's faith.

Allow me to set some rules for this discussion (and I really hope it will be a discussion; feel free to chime in by making comments)—

1. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints encourages its members to be active in the political process
2. The Church is politically neutral. It does not endorse, support or fund any candidate of any political party
3. This blog is not an official Church website. Links to official Church websites are listed under the heading labeled From the Source
4. Full-time missionaries—like me—are called to represent Jesus Christ. We invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and His atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. The Mitt Files will not be a platform for party politics but rather a forum for discussing faith and family values

I'll post new entries regularly starting with a discussion about God, our loving Heavenly Father. Posts will be listed under Mitt Files, and an appropriate heading will soon appear at the top of this blog so that you can easily access these discussions.

Please contribute, but keep comments centered on the gospel of Jesus Christ—not on Romney's platform or anything else.

I'm looking forward to learning with you!