Mitt, I feel your pain:

Some years ago I moved to the South having been a life long New Englander, Alabama to be specific.  I looked forward to it, I liked the South.  Much of the experience was positive, met a lot of nice folks.

I was brought up a Catholic although I had drifted away from it and was essentially non practicing.  I quickly came to understand that that church and religious affiliation was a much more significant issue in Alabama than it ever was in New England.  I ran a business and encountered Evangelicals on a daily basis.  They tended to be very, shall we say,  “up front” about their commitment to their faith.  I had no problem with that as I maintain a fundamental respect for whatever faith one might find themselves committed to.  Not an issue.

The shock however came when I discovered that a significant number of the committed Christian folks I encountered did not consider Catholics to be Christians!  “What are they” I asked but never really got a straight answer.  I was, to say the least, confused having been brought up and educated as a Catholic with Christ being the centerpiece of the churches teaching and ritual. 

Then another shocker! My wife and I were, at one point in time, affiliated with a Unitarian congregation.  My wife mentioned it casually to one of our neighbors and was quickly advised “Oh, that’s the church that the witches go to”.   

Therein comes my inclination to quickly and fully dismiss the Evangelical definition of what a Christian is or is not and by extension what a cult might or might not be. Mormons are part of a cult, Catholics are not Christians, Unitarian’s are witches and so on.  The degree of chauvinism existent in an Evangelical’s view of the faith of others is, to my mind, diametrically opposed to my understanding of Christian values.

So Mitt, I feel your pain.  I commend you for not expressing the frustration you must feel over an issue that should not be an issue in America.  Unfortunately, but to be expected, the media is on the wrong track for focusing on the fact that you did not offer a theological explanation of Mormonism.  The same commentators that have derided fundamentalist Christian views and expressed their fear of them as a political force are now on the train with those selfsame folks in insisting you explain your faith to them.