Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney is poised to become the first Mormon major-party nominee for president when the Republican National Convention wraps up next week. But what do adherents of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints believe, and how has Romney’s faith been expressed?

We look into the details of a church that counts more than 14 million followers worldwide — not just the Osmond family and the Hough siblings on television’s “Dancing With the Stars.”

Its founding

The church was born in 1820 based on the spiritual visions of Joseph Smith, a 14-year-old boy living in upstate New York. By 1830, the Book of Mormon, at its heart a story of early Christ followers living on the American continent, had been published. The name “Mormon” comes from the name of the prophet who compiled the original book, which is believed to have been discovered by Smith in 1827 in the form of thin metal sheets of gold. Mormons consider it holy.

Brigham Young, for whom the university in Utah is named, became president of the church after Smith’s death in 1844. He led Mormon settlers to the Salt Lake Valley, and today 35 percent of U.S. Mormons live in Utah, with 76 percent living in Western states.

Joe Valenzano, an assistant professor of communication at the University of Dayton with research interests in religious and political communication, came to UD last year after five years at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas. He says geography has led to a disconnect.

“The East Coast-West Coast bias leads to a lot of not knowing a lot about that faith because people on the East don’t live amongst Mormons to the degree that they are in the West,” he said. “There’s a lack of interaction that leads to a general misunderstanding.”

What they believe

The church teaches that God through Smith restored the ancient church of Jesus Christ through his visions and the Book of Mormon, believing that the Christian faith as expressed since the days of Christ had “fallen away” through martyrdom, persecution, doctrinal conflict and lost truths.

Mission work is mandatory for Mormon youths, and there is a strong scriptural stance against the use of alcohol, tobacco, coffee, tea and illegal drugs. Practicing Mormons are serious — their temple services can last more than 2½ hours — and believe that their leaders are modern-day prophets in a direct line from Joseph Smith. Among its more controversial practices is baptism for the dead, in which a living Mormon is baptized on behalf of a dead person of any faith and whose name is read aloud. They do not become Mormons through the ritual.

Scholars have long scrutinized the divide between so-called mainstream Christianity and Mormons, said John-Charles Duffy, a visiting assistant professor of comparative religion at Miami University. Duffy earned an undergrad degree in English at BYU and was raised Mormon but no longer practices it.

“Particularly since about the 1970s, there was a real surge in anti-cult discourse about Mormonism, a lot of it produced by evangelical (Christians) who themselves were surging during that period and were very concerned about Mormon growth and began producing a lot of literature about Mormonism,” he says. “That literature had a tendency to emphasize aspects of Mormon teaching that are fairly esoteric. People often have a sense of Mormon doctrine being sort of more mysterious or odd than I think it actually is for the everyday lives of Mormons.”

About Gov. Romney

While Romney studiously followed the path of most Mormons well into adulthood, doing missionary work in France in the 1960s and leading portions of temple services later, the rise of his political star put his faith further in the shadows.

That’s not unusual, particularly in entertainment media, says Valenzano. “(Research says that) the U.S. public likes to see a general, what’s called a ‘flattened,’ Christianity: Don’t overtly proselytize, just portray that people are religious, it’s generally Christian and we’re good to go,” he said.

“His religion has ceased to be an overt issue of discussion,” said Duffy. “We have seen already and may continue to see periodic reminders in the media that Romney as a Mormon believes strange things. ‘Do you want your president being someone who believes what the Book of Mormon says about the origin of Native Americans?’ or ‘Do you want your president believing that God lives on a planet called Kolob?’ ”