Who is afraid of Mormonism? Virtually all of the commentary regarding it and the election has focused on the fact that a not-insubstantial part of the Christian evangelical right is hostile towards it. That may be true but there is evidence that an even larger section of the secular Democrat left is even more hostile.
To recap an already-familiar story, the "Mormon issue" jumped back into the news this past weekend when a pastor introducing Texas Governor Rick Perry before a major gathering of religious conservatives said the nomination should go to a "genuine follower of Jesus Christ." The pastor later told several reporters that Mormonism was a "cult."
Mitt Romney, the current frontrunner and Perry's main rival, is a devout Mormon and he and his allies wasted no time in denouncing the remark as bigotry. Perry awkwardly distanced himself from the comments.