Public opinion polls assert that many Americans would not vote for Mitt Romney for president simply by reason of religious prejudice. Having the FBI put fundamentalist Warren Jeffs on its Most Wanted List and the rub-off effect of TV's "Big Love" have done Romney no favors. On top of this, Alan Robinson from Melbourne, Australia, writing to the other Salt Lake City newspaper, conjures up the contrived argument that if elected president, Romney couldn't be trusted to use his free will to vote according to his own understanding of political issues because he has an LDS temple recommend.
Robinson would have made a great legislator in Idaho 120 years ago when that body voted to deprive any Mormon of the right to vote based on nothing more than religious prejudice. While if he'd been a French diplomat trying to tell Americans how to vote 200 years ago, he'd have been sent packing back to Australia for interfering in an American election.
Voters nationwide need to be made aware that there are some 18 LDS members of the current U.S. Congress, with members in both parties and that, as noted by Al Smith in his letter to the editor, Harry Reid — leader of the opposition party — is LDS.
The Robinson letter was not only the worst kind of outside political interference, it was viciously wrong and, worse, it was both political and logical nonsense.
David Timms
Salt Lake City