Race, religion fuel US election campaign

Republican hopefuls insist the 2012 White House race will hinge on the economy, but it is the conservative hot-button issues of race and religion that currently dominate the campaign.

Frontrunner Mitt Romney's Mormon faith, debated at length when he ran for president in 2008, was decried as a "cult" by an evangelical supporter of his main challenger, Texas Governor Rick Perry.

Race relations ensnared Perry after the Washington Post pointed out that his family's rented hunting lodge had, for many years, the abhorrent name "Niggerhead" emblazoned on a large rock at its entrance.

Social issues are massively important in US elections, especially in the Republican primaries. Americans have always had a Christian president, and until Barack Obama, they've always been white.

Religion swept to the fore last Friday when a supporter for Perry said Romney's faith was a non-Christian "cult."

Mormonism, which originated in the 1820s in western New York state, is controversial because it fuses Christian theology with teachings that some religious scholars feel are not consistent with standard Christian doctrine.

Perry quickly distanced himself from the remarks, saying he did not see Mormonism -- also the faith of longshot candidate Jon Huntsman, the former governor of Utah -- as a cult.

CHRISTIAN BACKING

But he clearly sees Christian backing as crucial, having rallied thousands in prayer in August at a Texas stadium as he sought to burnish his credentials among religious conservatives.

The supporter who made the "cult" comment, Reverend Robert Jeffress, had introduced Perry at a convention of social conservatives as "a genuine follower of Jesus Christ."

The next day Jeffress did not shy away, insisting to CNN that "evangelicals have a right to select a competent Christian over a competent non-Christian."

Several of the main Republican challengers declined to pass judgment on Romney's faith on Sunday.

Minnesota congresswoman Michele Bachmann called the issue "inconsequential," but at the same time spoke on CNN of America's "religious tolerance" and stressed: "I have a very strong sincerely held faith."

EVANGELICAL FORCE

The next major Republican debate, on Tuesday in the key early-voting state of New Hampshire, will focus on the economy, but candidates who can will no doubt flaunt their Christian bona fides.

More than three of four Americans identify themselves as Christian.

Evangelicals are a strong force in crucial early-voting states and Romney's religion still attracts debate, especially among many southern Baptists, said Democratic strategist Donna Brazile.

"This is an issue, he has to address it and then move past it," Brazile told ABC News.

Over the years, Romney, the former governor of the liberal-leaning state of Massachusetts, has shifted to the right on social issues like abortion, which are crucial to evangelical voters.

He has recently sought to parry concerns about his conservative authenticity. Last week he invoked religious imagery when he declared that God created America to lead the world.

'ACHILLES HEEL'

But even a former aide has said religion could be Romney's Achilles heel.

Carl Forti, Romney's deputy campaign manager in 2008, told a conference in late March that religious prejudice is "not something you can test, it's not something you can poll.... There's just a bias out there."

On Saturday at the Values Voter Summit in Washington, Romney largely sidestepped pastor Jeffress's attack.

Also ducking the controversy was Herman Cain, a former pizza company executive who has never held elected office but has surprisingly surged into the top-tier of Republican candidates.

"I'm not running for theologian in chief," he told CNN Sunday, declining to assert whether or not Romney is a Christian.

Cain has been outspoken on another of America's most contentious issues, race, as he aims to become the second black president in a row and the first black Republican nominee.

"I don't believe racism in this country today holds anybody back in a big way," he told CNN on Sunday.

But statistics show blacks are suffering disproportionately during the downturn, with their unemployment rate several points higher than the national average and Cain has acknowledged some racism still exists.

Last week he said he was disgusted by revelations of the use on the Perry hunting lodge rock of one of the most reviled words in the American lexicon.

There is "no more vile negative word than the N-word, and for him to leave it there as long as he did, before I hear that they finally painted it over, is just plain insensitive to a lot of black people in this country."