I do get a not insignificant amount of email along these lines as well, FWIW:
Mr. Goldberg, Long time reader, but I rarely write. I’m an evangelical in the midwest (Kansas City). I’m well-educated, a partner in a big law firm, and highly active in a large evangelical church. Not saying any of that to boast, but to assure you I’m not a nut. Here’s the problem with Mormonism. In the serious evangelical world, it is seen as a cult. If you carefully study what Mormons believe, it might appear to be absolutely loony. They believe in the absolute truth of thousands of historical data points for which there is absolutely zero historical, archeological, or other evidence except that it’s written in the Book of Mormon. Compare that with Christianity, for which there are literally thousands of confirming authorities and data. The case can be made that it is only slightly less bizarre than Scientologist. If Romney were a Scientologist, would anyone at NRO or anywhere else be taking him seriously? I think not. This is not just an offshoot of Christianity. It is loony-tunes religion. Study up on what the Mormons believe to be absolute truth, and then ask yourself if you can place a man who would believe such things in the Oval Office. I haven’t voted for a Democrat for any office in over 20 years. But I’ll have big problems pulling a lever for Romney, notwithstanding the fact that I agree with him on 90+% of the issues. Best regards. I love your work and the whole NRO website.
And:
I’m an avid skier, and from that have many LDS friends and acquaintances in Utah. (BTW – they don’t say Mormon, but LDS. Mormon is sort of like “colored” in our parents’ day, which was meant to be polite but was taken as less than complimentary.)
One day, someone’s going to ask Romney about his “undergarments”, and the symbols on the undergarments, and he’ll have to give them this blank stare, because they’re not allowed to discuss them with or describe them to you.
Someone’s going to note that you can’t even set foot in the Temple if you’re not LDS in good standing (my friend had the honor of being married in the Temple in Salt Lake, but his father couldn’t attend the service because, although born LDS, Dad was not in good standing).
There are lots of other little things like that. It’s all going to come across all weird and cult-ish. It’s not, and I have a lot of respect for the religion and the culture and the lifestyle (a cousin is in the process of conversion to the LDS – – Jewish Levis who convert are automatically Bishops without counsel – – another long story). But, it’s all going to look very Moonie.