LETTER TO EDITOR: Slander not true

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Once again, the very small bigoted minority among evangelical Christians are assailing Mitt Romney as being disqualified to be vice president solely because he is a Mormon, that is, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints ("Evangelicals warn against McCain-Romney ticket," Page 1, July 29).

They say that if Mr. McCain chooses Mr. Romney, they will oppose Mr. McCain. Why? Because Mr. Romney is a Mormon whom they falsely accuse of not being Christian even though Mormons worship Jesus Christ as their Savior, the son of God and the Messiah to come and embrace the Holy Bible.

This small group led by the Rev. Rob McCoy, according to your article, obviously is fronting for Mike Huckabee, who wants to head off Mr. Romney so he can get the nomination instead.

Mr. Huckabee's blatant anti-Mormonism during the campaign was geared to stop Mr. Romney and to obscure his own political liberalism.

Mr. McCoy claims all 62 million evangelicals join him in his bigotry. I know many great and decent evangelicals, so I am sure that slander is not true.

Apparently these few extremists prefer Sen. Barack Obama to Mr. Romney despite Mr. Obama's passionate support of abortion and homosexual marriages, which Mr. Romney and his fellow Mormons strongly oppose. Why? Because these self-appointed judges and defenders of religious orthodoxy spuriously claim that Mormons are not Christians.

In contrast, former President Jimmy Carter demonstrated the true Christian spirit in a national teleconference speech in 1997 when addressing his fellow evangelicals, including Southern Baptists.

He targeted that minority of evangelicals who presume to judge Mormons and some other Christian faiths as non-Christian.

He charged that these religious leader-judges "are trying to act as the Pharisees did, who were condemned by Christ." Just 11 years later, this same small minority of intolerant evangelicals are acting as Pharisees by condemning Mr. Romney and all Mormons as unworthy to hold national office.

It is doubly ironic for some evangelicals to behave like Pharisees instead of Christians by condemning their fellow Christian Mormons because they share more of their views on the great, religiously based social issues of our time than any other church. They should welcome Mormons as fellow Christian allies instead of condemning them.

L. RALPH MECHAM

Potomac