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LDS Church leaders will meet with the Rev. Al Sharpton — the only question is how soon.
"Mr. Sharpton and church leaders are looking at possible dates for a meeting, but nothing is imminent. It won't happen next week, but they are looking at dates," Scott Trotter, a spokesman for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, said Friday.
Sharpton asked for the meeting when he apologized to two LDS Church apostles by telephone Thursday for a comment he made during a debate on religion in New York City that suggested members of the church did not believe in God.
The Pentecostal minister and former Democratic presidential candidate said during the debate that, "as for the one Mormon running for office, those who really believe in God will defeat him anyway, so don't worry about that, that's a temporary situation."
Sharpton, who was referring to the only Latter-day Saint seeking the White House in 2008, Republican Mitt Romney, said his comment was distorted for political purposes but apologized publicly to "regular Mormons" for any hurt his words may have caused.
He did not, however, extend an apology to Romney, although he asked to "engage in a dialogue of reconciliation." Romney spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom told the Boston Herald "nothing constructive would be served" by a meeting with Sharpton.
Romney had called Sharpton's comment "extraordinarily bigoted." Sharpton had responded by raising questions about Romney's views on the LDS Church's treatment of African-Americans before its priesthood was opened to males of all races in 1978.
It is not clear if that issue would be raised by Sharpton in a meeting with church officials or even with whom he would meet. He spoke on Thursday to Elder Russell M. Nelson and Elder Henry B. Eyring of the LDS Church's Quorum of the Twelve.
Sharpton told CNN's Glenn Beck during an interview Thursday that "in the last 48 hours, I've heard a lot about Mormons I didn't know" and that he would come to Utah to meet with church leaders because, "I want to know all of this you're talking about."
Glenn Beck, a Latter-day Saint who has a national radio program in addition to his slot on CNN Headline News, is scheduled to be in Salt Lake City on May 19 to perform "stand-up comedy with a message" at Kingsbury Hall.
Asked if Sharpton would be in Salt Lake City at the same time, a spokesman for Beck answered, "maybe." Sharpton promised Beck on Thursday's program that he would return to talk about his meeting with LDS Church officials.
Meanwhile, on the Web site salon.com, Alex Koppelman, who attended the debate at which Sharpton was speaking earlier this week, writes that he did not at that time interpret Sharpton's comments to be bigoted. Atheist author Christopher Hitchens had been downplaying the role of religion in the civil rights movement, Koppelman said, and Sharpton was countering that view.
In a later conversation, Sharpton told Koppelman, "I wasn't saying that Mormons didn't believe in God, I was saying that we weren't going to have to rely on atheists" to defeat Romney.
E-mail: lisa@desnews.com