For Romney, a role of faith and authority
17.10.11
In ticking off his credentials on the campaign trail – management consultant, businessman, governor – Mitt Romney omits what may have been his most distinctive post: Mormon lay leader, offering pastoral guidance on all manner of human affairs from marriage to divorce, abortion, adoption, addiction, unemployment and even business disputes.
Bryce Clark was a recipient of Romney’s spiritual advice. Late one summer night in 1993, distraught over his descent into alcoholism and drug use, Clark, then a 19-year-old college student, decided to confess that he had strayed from his Mormon faith. So he drove through this well-heeled Boston suburb to Romney’s secluded seven-bedroom home.
As the highest-ranking Mormon leader in Boston, Romney was responsible for determining whether Clark was spiritually fit for a mission, a rite of passage for young Mormon men. Clark had previously lied to him, insisting that he was eligible to go. But instead of condemnation that night, Clark said, Romney
Source: eTaiwan News