Those not suspicious or creeped out joke about Mormon underwear, multiple mothers-in-law, and how the Garden of Eden is supposed to be

located somewhere in Missouri. (This is no laughing matter. I work in Missouri, and in fact I'm looking out my window at Eden right now.)

MIKE HUCKABEE STOKED the fires of paranoia in a New York Times Magazine story when he asked, "Don't Mormons believe that Jesus and the devil

are brothers?" One-time presidential candidate the Reverend Al Sharpton spoke for many true believers when he said, "As for the one Mormon

running for office, those who really believe in God will defeat him anyway."

Bill Keller, host of the Florida-based Live Prayer TV warned his reported 2.4 million e-mail subscribers that a vote for Romney would mean a

vote for -- you guess it -- Beelzebub. "The presidency is the most powerful position in the world," Keller told American Spectator

contributor Carrie Sheffield. "If Romney was elected president, it would give mainstream credibility and acceptance to the Mormon cult and

lead millions of people into that cult."

Finally, there was the alleged push polling by the Utah-based company Western Wats that asked Iowa and New Hampshire residents whether they

knew that Romney was a Mormon, that he received military deferments when he served as a Mormon missionary, that his faith did not accept

African-Americans as bishops into the 1970s, and that Mormons believe the Book of Mormon is superior to the Bible.

While most of these remarks were condemned, they nonetheless said volumes about how Mormonism is regarded by many Americans.

"I don't think any of us had any idea how much anti-Mormon stuff was out there," LDS Spokesman Armand Mauss told the Wall Street Journal. A

recent WSJ poll found that half of American voters voiced "some reservations" (29 percent) or were "very uncomfortable" (21 percent) with

even the thought of having a Mormon in the White House.

Last month Beliefnet asked evangelicals whether a candidate's religious beliefs would make them more or less likely to vote for a particular

candidate: 35.6 percent of conservative evangelicals said Romney's religious beliefs would make them less likely to support him.