Mitt Romney to warm stage for anti-Mormon shock jock

Mormon presidential hopeful Mitt Romney next weekend will be the opening act for shock jock Bryan Fischer, who recently said that the First Amendment should not apply to Mormons.

Both Romney and Fischer are featured speakers at the Values Voter Summit in Washington, D.C. next weekend, a conference aimed at social conservatives and underwritten by groups such as the American Heritage Foundation and the Family Research Council.

Another sponsor of the summit, the American Family Association, also features Fischer's inflammatory writings on a weekly basis.

Earlier this week on his radio show, Fischer said that the First Amendment was created to "protect the free exercise of the Christian religion," and because "Mormonism is not an orthodox Christian faith," the First Amendment should not apply.

“It was very clear that the founding fathers did not intend to preserve automatically religious liberty for non-Christian faiths, so when Mormonism came along, they practiced polygamy, they believed in polygamy, just like Muslims do today," Fischer said.

Romney and Fischer are scheduled to speak back-to-back during the morning plenary on October 8, after fellow presidential candidate Ron Paul and before a panel entitled "Straight Talk on Gay 'Marriage'."

Romney has largely kept mum on his religion during his campaign, though others have used it as a weapon against him. An early summer poll suggested that less than half of voters had a positive view of Mormonism, and President Barack Obama's reelection team was rumored to be painting Romney — and his religion — as "weird."

Watch video of Fischer's anti-Mormon remarks below, via RightWingWatch.

(h/t: Talking Points Memo)