Mr. Carroll, Are you suggesting that racism, violence, fraud and polygamy embody American values? Read "Under the Banner of Heaven" by Jon Krakauer.

I believe in the separation clause of the US Constitution. If one wants to believe in the tooth fairy please do I do not care. But do NOT shove it down my throat. There are SO many crack pot crank beliefs and one USED to be Mormonism. Why is has gained respectability I do not have a clue. I personally place it in the crack pot tooth fairy venue but when has that ever stopped those in America who are simply dying to have a state faith. As Richard Dawkins the eminent evolutionary biologist's book is entitled: "The God Delusion" -- In my opinion organized religion will kill us all!

Certainly it's racism and sexism are embody what some people think are "American" values.

This opinion piece totally ignores the wisdom of a separation of church and state. I am an American. I do not need to be "saved" by the Mormons. I have my own belief system and I should not face the assault of missionaries knocking on my door or trying to imposes their religious beliefs on my government.

Who distrusts Mormons? Another example of if the media says it is so, it is!

Many aspects of Joseph Smith's behavior, especially during the last years of his life, appeared strikingly similar to behavior that psychiatrists associate with manic-depressive syndromes. Smith is probably best known for his serial adultery - sexual relationships with teenagers, and what seems to have been a compulsive need for sexual conquests, and wreckless disregard for consequences. In no area were Joseph Smith's manic qualities more evident than in his efforts to introduce and practice polygamy during the last three years of his life. The point at which Joseph Smith began systematically to introduce polygamy to his closest associates has strong suggestions of mania. . . . his subsequent surge of activity with the sixteen or more women with whom he appears to have sustained sexual relations as plural wives (the full number may have been much greater) is even more suggestive of the hypersexuality that often accompanies manic periods. he obviously had NPD - Narcissistic Personality Disorder, and possibly Schizophrenia. I think this article addressing Smith's manic-depression explains much of his behavior, which ultimately led to his death.

Mr. Carroll, Clearly, your column gave the impression that you have accepted everything the Mormans claim as fact. This was very irresponsible. Where are your critical abilities? Are they stifled in the face of religious dogma? What process of evaluation did you use in reaching your decision to leave the priesthood? Was any of it based on logic or just personal feelings and desires? If it was just unexamined feelings and desires, you are evidently a far, far more gullible, less self-aware person than I ever realized. Since I can't trust your intellect any longer, it is no longer worth reading your column.

next the campaign will go after the Mormoms, once their through with Bain Capital. Obama would be smart not to touch religion with his past.

If the Morman religion embodies American values than there is something seriously wrong with American values.  The Morman religion is a sad mix of 19th cenury prejudice and fantasy created by a rural charlatan from upstate New York. To call the collection of weird beliefs that is the LDS faith a religion makes a mockery of religion. Mark Twain made the following comment on the Book of Morman:

The book seems to be merely a prosy detail of imaginary history, with the Old Testament for a model; followed by a tedious plagiarism of the New Testament. The author labored to give his words and phrases the quaint, old-fashioned sound and structure of our King James’s translation of the Scriptures; and the result is a mongrel—half modern glibness, and half ancient simplicity and gravity. The latter is awkward and constrained; the former natural, but grotesque by the contrast. Whenever he found his speech growing too modern—which was about every sentence or two—he ladled in a few such Scriptural phrases as “exceeding sore,” “and it came to pass,” etc., and made things satisfactory again. “And it came to pass” was his pet. If he had left that out, his Bible would have been only a pamphlet.

Well written and researched , contrary to the new psychological and pharmacological critiques.