Mitt Romney should be leading the pack of Republican presidential candidates.
He's spent more money, hired more staff and made more campaign stops than any other candidate. Some Republicans refuse to support him because he's a Mormon, a Christian denomination at odds with fundamentalist doctrine.
Mitt faces an uphill battle against an entire industry devoted toward the destruction of his beliefs. Walk into any Christian bookstore, and you'll find an entire shelf devoted to anti-Mormon literature, books and videos. Web Sites, seminars and traveling "Mormon experts" warn Christians about the church's dangerous doctrines.
Their goal is to paint a different picture of the church members. Beneath the veneer of clean living, Mormons worship pagan gods, perform cult rituals and plot to control the world — or so the anti-Mormons claim.
In his latest book, anti-Mormon guru Ed Decker urges Christians to not vote for Romney because he'll replace the Constitution with a "Mormon theocracy." Decker's films mocking church ordinances received rave reviews from sympathetic preachers and scared Christians.
Hatred of Mormons is nothing new. Persecution against members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has existed since it was founded in 1830 in rural New York.
Church founder Joseph Smith moved the headquarters to a remote area in northwest Missouri to avoid problems with New England neighbors.
Missouri residents disproved of their doctrine, their Yankee lifestyle and opposition to slavery. Church members were forced to flee the state after Democratic Gov. Lilburn Boggs issued an extermination order in 1838.
Mormons weren't allowed to stay in the disease-filled swamps of Navoo, Ill. An angry mob killed Smith and his brother Hyrum, evicting the Mormons from the country in the dead of winter. With nowhere to go, they chose the one place no one wanted: the Utah desert.
Opposition didn't stop the church from growing into one of the largest denominations in America. Jealous of their success, the messengers of hate continue to attack a church that has hurt no one.
I experienced some of their hate while serving a mission in Southern California. On two occasions, vehicles swerved onto the shoulder to hit me while I was riding my bicycle to an appointment. One person even attempted to harm me. Thankfully, many Samoans and Tongans are church members.
I also noticed it when I attended a church conference in Salt Lake City. Anti-Mormon protesters carried giant signs and heckled those walking to the Conference Center. With the help of the ACLU, these protesters fought for their right to ruin wedding photos of newly married couples at the Salt Lake Temple.
The political left often claims that the right is home to closet bigots and hate-mongers. Sadly, they're correct. Jeremiah Films, a group of social conservatives who produced Decker's movies, created other films claiming that Harry Potter and Halloween are tools of the devil, leading millions of children to hell.
The far right wants to exclude people from heaven by labeling those who aren't fundamentalists as non-Christians and exclude people from the Republican Party who don't subscribe to their hateful views as nonconservatives.
Christ didn't reject anyone who sought to believe in his teachings. And Abraham Lincoln didn't reject the Mormons, who weren't welcome in the Democratic Party.
There is no room in the big tent of the Republican Party or the Christian faith for hate. Decker and his minions can pack their bags and join the Constitution Party, which hates everybody.
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