The God-as-exalted man doctrine has profound effects on other areas of Mormon theology, according to scholars. For example, Mormons believe that God has a celestial wife, to whom Jesus was born in a premortal existence.

The good news for Mitt Romney: he won the Iowa caucuses. The bad news for Romney: evangelicals remain reluctant to support him.

Romney bested former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum by a mere eight votes in Tuesday’s (Jan. 3) first-in-the-nation voting. But just 14 percent of evangelicals supported the former Massachusetts governor, according to entrance polls, a third less than he won during his 2008 campaign.

Steve Scheffler, president of the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition, said Romney failed to convince evangelicals that he cares about their issues, particularly outlawing abortion and same-sex marriage.

“What evangelicals are saying is: We don’t know what this guy believes,” Scheffler said. “Does he have any public policy philosophy other than wanting to be elected president?”

Yet numerous polls and anti-Mormon statements suggest that deeper disagreements rooted in core elements of Christian theology are also in play.

A prominent Texas pastor (and Rick Perry supporter) has called Mormonism a non-Christian “cult.” A Florida pastor says a vote for Romney is “a vote for Satan.” The associate publisher of a leading evangelical magazine said a Romney presidency would “normalize the false teachings of Mormonism.” A former staffer for Newt Gingrich’s campaign said thousands of evangelical pastors stand ready to “expose the cult of Mormon.”

Romney has acknowledged that his lifelong membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will cost him some votes. He told The New York Times last month that “most people don’t decide who they’re going to vote for based on the religion that they happen to be a member of. But there will be some for who that’s an issue, and I won’t get those votes in some cases.”

The number could be as high as 15 percent among white evangelicals, according to a November poll by the nonpartisan Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life. That may not prevent Romney from winning the GOP nomination, but it could mean that millions of evangelicals stay home during the general election.

“Evangelicals have come to regard the presidency as a spiritually potent office,” said Mark Silk, an expert on religion and politics at Trinity College in Hartford, Conn. “And the idea of electing someone who will use it on behalf of a religion they consider beyond the pale really bothers them.”

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