Focus on the Family's Tom Minnery made waves Thursday with his near-endorsement of Mitt Romney, but he also made it clear that the religious right is not going to forget the governor's Mormon-y leanings. "Mitt Romney has acknowledged that Mormonism is not a Christian faith," said Minnery during a webcast profiling the presidential candidates, "and I appreciate him acknowledging that."

And there's the rub: While Romney is slippery enough to have privately promised Minnery that his first act as president would be building an 11-foot wall around Provo and placing the BYU football team on indefinite probation, the governor has never actually said Mormons are not Christians. In fact, over the course of the campaign, Romney actually has taken a firm-for-Mitt stand against those who bash his church.

Neither the Romney campaign nor Focus on the Family responded to Radar's requests for comment about Minnery's revisionist divinity, but the startling disconnect between the candidate and his fundamentalism raises questions as we head toward Super Tuesday about whether a mutual loathing of John McCain is enough to justify the mismatched marriage between Romney and the religious right. Some of those very same matchmaking fundamentalists may be wondering the same thing: Despite joining cohost Minnery in defending Romney's righty credentials, Family Research Council President Tony Perkins seemed less than convinced by Romney had abandoned his Brahmin, baby-killing ways. "I don't know," a weary Perkins explained when questioned about Romney's political and spiritual about-face, "who can judge a man's heart?"