To Latter-day Saints, those not of the faith are called "Gentiles."
An old joke has it that Salt Lake City is the only place where a Jew is a Gentile.
But the Mormonism issue is not a joke, and deserves respectful airing -- not just evangelical sectarian ranting.
Here is a letter submitted to The NYT, in response to David Brooks's Jan. 20 favorable & thoughtful editorial, "The Wealth Issue," about Mitt Romney's riches:
Normally I'm a fan of David Brooks. But, he missed an important point here:
In the 1830's & 1840's, Brooks says, locals feared Mormons not just "for their polygamy" but because "Mormons tended to outwork them." But even more important was their corporate nature -- they voted as a bloc, they competed economically as a bloc.
As great a people as they were, their group power, reinforced by accumated financial muscle through virtuous tithing, scared neighbors a lot. Such anxiety was similar to the impetus behind David Wilmot's famous "Proviso" of that era: It expressed the fear that new Mexico Cession lands might be settled by slaveowners bringing gang labor with them to the Southwest. That would be daunting competition for individual farmers & townsfolk.
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