"The Mormons are back at it." This is the title of an information from the Efe agency, signed by Lucía Leal , which we reproduce below, followed by other press articles.

They believe in a triple heaven, wear special underwear and shun coffee. And now, two of them are fighting to reach the White House, while a national campaign is determined to bring Mormons to the center of the society that saw them born. "I am a Mormon," reads the motto of a huge billboard installed last June in one of the listed lights in New York's Times Square. The position of Mormons in American society

About the phrase, a dozen photographs of people riding a motorcycle, climbing a mountain, or simply showing off a smile sends the message that Mormons, far from being extravagant and closed characters, are like the neighbor across the street. They occupy positions of power, like the Democratic senator Harry Reid , fall in love on the big screen, like the actress Katherine Heighl , and arouse the sighs of millions of teenagers, like the writer Stephanie Meyers through the books of the Twilight saga.

But the more than 6 million Mormons who live in the United States cannot shake the image of sectarians, controllers and even polygamists, despite the fact that this practice was prohibited in their ranks at the end of the 19th century. The idea of ​​voting for a Mormon, like Republican presidential hopefuls Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman , repels one in five Americans, according to a recent Gallup poll, and the second of those candidates doesn't even dare to confess if today for today he is a practitioner of the faith.

Almost two hundred years after its creation in communities in western New York, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (IJSUD) is determined to once and for all conquer the heart of the United States, where barely half of his parishioners. To do this, the campaign launched in Times Square will parade the pride of 30,000 Mormons through billboards, bus sides and television screens in 24 states, in order to better define their faith and counteract images of polygamy and secrecy such as those created by the HBO series Big Love.

It will not be an easy task, judging by the response provoked in the country by the most bizarre chapters of his doctrine, reflected in the Book of Mormon and satirized in a musical of the same name that triumphs on Broadway. They are prohibited from smoking and drinking alcohol or coffee, must fast on the first Sunday of each month, and many wear colossal undergarments designed to "protect from temptation and evil."

Through a devout practice of faith, they aspire to reach the third heaven, the one that surpasses those reserved for evildoers and all non-Mormons, and in which each of them will become a god and create billions of spirits that they will arrive on Earth as new prophets of the faith. Polygamy, which is still practiced in life by more than 40,000 fundamentalist Mormons, is accepted in heaven, in the event that the Mormon, united for eternity with his wife, remarries when widowed and seals a new bond unwavering.

The Mormon faith also involves economic sacrifices: about 10 percent of the annual salary must be allocated to the cause, in a kind of "tithe" that has raised the church's assets to over 30,000 million dollars. But it is a simple tip for most of its members, perched in positions of power in the country's large corporations and wanted by the CIA or the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

Forced to undertake evangelistic missions in their youth, Mormons have managed, through perseverance, to become the fourth largest religion in the United States, and one of the fastest growing, with a million new members every three years, according to sect data. And on the thorny road to the White House, Mormons have on their side the most purely American prophecy imaginable: that Jesus will return to Earth, and his first stop will, of course, be the United States. The national presidency in the spotlight

The political power that the IJSUD is gaining becomes more evident with the announcement of two Republicans with votes from that religion, Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman, to participate in the race for the US presidential candidacy. This is how J. Jaime Hernández , correspondent for the Mexican newspaper El Universal.

The entry of two devout Mormon Republicans, Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman, into the race for the presidency of the United States has reawakened the hopes of those who are part of the powerful IJSUD and the mistrust of a Christian base that has never seen with good eyes to the Mormon community.

With this in mind, the fifth largest religion in the United States has launched an ambitious advertising campaign through billboards in cities like New York or on the ubiquitous Internet, in order to show the friendliest and least known face of a religion. that has been installed in the center of economic and political power in the United States.

The advertising campaign undertaken by the IJSUD aims to remove the old stigmas of a religion that most Americans consider as a form of "secret brotherhood", as a religion in "extreme militant" and with an agenda that goes " beyond faith and compassion” they claim to practice. With more than 6 million followers in the United States, the Mormon Church is today one of the most dynamic, influential and expansive. His political power on Capitol Hill, where at least 15 members of Congress are devoted to the Prophet Joseph Smith , is now more apparent than ever.

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Harry Reid , the leader of the Democratic majority in the Senate, is one of the Mormons with the greatest political weight and his mere presence in one of the most influential seats in the Capitol is an example of the fundamental changes that the religious demographics of the United States have experienced. United States in the last quarter century.

The campaign in favor of dispelling the fears and prejudices that have accompanied the only religion “made in the USA”, has, however, avoided any form of political proselytism. Instead, the campaign, which will be screened nationally later this summer, is a compendium of first-hand testimonies collected from the thousands of followers of the book of the prophet who come from the most diverse demographics. Thing of the past

The image of the white man, isolated in the state of Utah together with a court of several women and dozens of children and away from temptations such as alcohol and tobacco, is today a thing of the past. Instead, the face of the new Mormon in America is multiracial, its origins as diverse as it is sophisticated. Like his habits, his political militancy remains as discreet as it is stealthy. All in order to leave behind the old stigma that marked the sect founded by Joseph Smith, prophet and touchstone of a religion with a tumultuous past.

Precisely, the fact that for the first time in its history two distinguished members of the IJSUD have declared their intention to run for the presidency of the United States, has forced the top leaders of this religion to distance themselves from the electoral process, in order not to affect their candidates' chances of reaching the White House.

The reasons for this tactical withdrawal are directly related to the level of mistrust and distrust that most voters in the United States still experience towards those who share the Mormon faith. According to the most recent Gallup poll, about one in five Republicans (18%) would not vote for a Mormon candidate. Almost the same proportion among independents would never vote for an IJSUD member for president and as many as 27% of Democratic voters would oppose the idea of ​​having a Mormon leader in the Oval Office of the White House.

With these polls in hand, the president of the IJSUD, Thomas S. Monson , has recently sent a letter to all his congregations to order all their leaders to refrain from participating in the electoral process or openly support the presidential aspirations of the former governor. of Utah, John Huntsman, or the ex-governor of Massachusetts, Mitt Romney.

“All time and responsible (Church) leaders, as well as their wives, should refrain from participating in political campaigns or fundraising events to support candidacies or make contributions,” Monson warned in a letter in the which has made it clear that the Church will honor a policy of “neutrality”.

The decision to distance itself from a campaign in which two Mormons are vying for the Republican Party's presidential nomination has been understood as the urgent need for the Church to eliminate any hint of a Mormon religious crusade in a political contest in which both Romney and Huntsman They will compete for the support of a Republican base, and perhaps a Democratic one, in which the vast majority militates in the ranks of Christianity, Evangelicalism or Catholicism.

For most of the strategists of the Republican Party, who know the strength of the Christian and evangelical bases at the start of any contest for the presidency, the decision of the IJSUD to distance itself has been a "wise measure" so as not to affect the opportunities so much. of Romney and Huntsman in the Iowa caucuses or in the New Hampshire primary, which will take place in early 2012.

“During primary elections, almost half of the Republican electorate is evangelical,” said analyst David Paul Kuhn , to put into perspective the difficulties that Mitt Romney's candidacy for the Republican nomination already experienced in 2008 —when he was defeated in Iowa by the former governor of Arkansas, Mike Huckabee —, and that could be repeated in 2012, in the event that the reservations and misgivings of Christians and evangelicals towards two Mormon candidates become the main obstacle in their attempt to reach the presidency of the United States Joined. The myth of polygamy

For more than a century (1800-1900), the Mormon religion was geographically isolated in the United States. The need to flee religious persecution and their difficult relationship with the federal government forced them to take refuge in the state of Utah. Their ideas and practices, especially that of polygamy instituted by their founder and prophet Joseph Smith, kept them away from institutions and society.

When they settled in Utah, the leaders of the Mormon Church declared that their practice of polygamy was not only a religious practice, but was protected by the United States Constitution. When the government condemned polygamy, the followers of this Church saw it as an affront and an abuse of federal power.

After a legal process that reached the Supreme Court of the United States, the nine justices of the high court resolved that it is beliefs, but not practices, that the US Constitution protected. In the midst of an act of rebellion by the Mormon community, the federal government proceeded to confiscate all the properties and financial resources of the sect. Faced with an untenable situation, John Taylor 's successor, Wilford Woodruff , declared in 1890 the official end of polygamy in a document called the Manifesto.