Saints, indeed.

I wanted to make a few comments on the July Odds & Ends column, "Tuesdays with Mormons" by Peter Gilmour. When my third son was young, his dad was ill (he has since passed away) and the local Mormon Church leaders took my son into their Boy Scout program. There was never any attempt to proselytize him or us. I knew that there would be no components of larger social issues ingrained through the tool of Boy Scouts. Scouting was simply the training of young boys in traditional scouting values. Period.

My best friends throughout my adult life have been Mormon women who unabashedly have large families and who raise decent children.

I returned to Catholicism due to Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI. They were and are remarkable men in difficult times. Pope Benedict XVI's singular devotion to traditional Roman Catholicism and the structural, traditional, and central role of theology as the source of enlightenment is nothing short of refreshing and redeeming.

The strength of a recommitment to Roman Catholic theology as Christ-centered is essential if we are to build a solid Catholic world comparable to what the Latter-day Saints have and continue to achieve. Such a world comes out in the basic human treatment of one to another, treatment that I have been blessed to receive at the hands of the Mormons.

When a church focuses on man's interpretation of Christ rather than on timelessness in the message, "social movements" versus society as a whole, there is a consequent absence--the absence of the rest of us. Not so with the Mormons who believe and who seek to bring Christ into the world with very traditional endeavors.

Gloria T. August

Louisville, Colo.

I read Gilmour's column on Mormons and the statement that he considers them Christians. I have lived in Colorado for the past 18 years and I can assure you that Mormons do not resemble Christians at all, except in pushing family life.

In the West they do not consider Jesus an equal to God the Father. They consider Jesus a lesser God, similar to Arianism, and The Book of Mormon makes no sense at all. When you pass a Mormon church on Christmas, Holy Thursday, or Good Friday, their churches are dark. Easter is not a Sunday of special importance.

I am not denigrating Mormons, but they are very secretive concerning their theology. For example, you cannot enter their temples unless you meet their criteria. And, yes, they are fervent in evangelizing their religion, a trait we would do well to emulate. But a former Mormon speaking at the local seminary, a descendant of Joseph Smith, maintains that the reason Mormons send the young people out two by two is to discourage them from learning the truth.

So, yes, the Mormons have much to offer and to teach us in the area of evangelization, but they cannot claim to be Christians based on their view of who Jesus is. And based on their monetary policies, it would appear that their true God is fiscal wealth.

George Brown

Foxfield, Colo.