Mormon candidates would test Bible Belt voters' political faith

[rug]

COLUMBIA, S.C. — Under the conventional wisdom about Southern Baptists -- a group that has in the past condemned Mormonism as a cult and its followers as non-Christian -- devout Baptist Rex Rish should quickly dismiss the idea of voting for a Mormon for president.

Except that he doesn't.

"If they can fix this country, I'd vote for someone with purple polka dots," says Rish, after a recent Sunday service at the historic First Baptist Church here.

Since their founding in 1830, Latter-day Saints have faced critics who say the religion doesn't fit within the Christian fold. And nowhere in the United States is that concern as palpable as deep in the Bible Belt of the South, where Baptist and Protestant faiths are woven into the community fabric.

http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2011/may/24/baptist-devout-cult-non-christian/