The hottest topic around here this morning is not the war in Iraq or health care or Marie Osmond. It is presidential candidate Mitt Romney's Mormon religion. Romney will deliver a major speech in Houston at 8:30 a.m. MDT in which he will address the issue.

It's going to be interesting. Romney has been overtaken in Iowa polling by former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, an ordained Southern Baptist minister. Iowa is critical to Romney's nomination prospects.

It is unfortunate that many evangelical leaders glibly apply the derogatory and unfair label "cult" to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, which is among the most Christian of Christian churches despite its unconventional tradition.

For many Baptists and evangelicals -- both those whose beliefs descend from European Protestantism and those who trace their roots to the wild spiritual awakening at Cane Ridge, Kentucky in the early 19th century -- Mormon cosmology is difficult to handle. It's easier to resort to name-calling than to seek common ground.

It's sad, really. We would hazard a guess that most rank-and-file evangelicals have never even met an actual Mormon, never had a Mormon as a neighbor, never worked with a Mormon colleague. Yet the "cult" label is coming from somewhere. It appears to us to be promoted, by and large, by evangelical leaders.

This is strange in one way, understandable in another.

Mormons have much in common with evangelicals in their basics. In fact Mormons embrace many characteristics that could be considered evangelical. Threads held in common with others ought to be a binding influence, not cause for contention.

On the other hand, America's evangelicals are in fierce competition for converts with other denominations. Perhaps that is the wellspring of the preachers' animosity toward Mormons.

Whatever the reasons, observers have long wondered if Romney's LDS faith would hurt his candidacy. Many have urged the former Massachusetts governor to make a speech like the one John F. Kennedy made in 1960 addressing his Catholicism.

Kennedy was the first Catholic president; Romney proposes to be the first Mormon one. He hopes to allay whatever misplaced fears are out there.

The logic of attacks on religion eludes us. After all, we're talking about faith. Faith involves supernatural concepts that cannot be proved one way or the other by human means. America's evangelicals and its Mormons are in exactly the same epistemological boat. You need to be careful whose foot you shoot because you may poke a hole in the hull that takes you down, too.

If the question of true religion comes down to pragmatism -- the translation of faith into action that actually does some concrete good (service to one's fellow man, a cohesive society, hope for new life) -- then the Mormons have as good a claim as anyone, and arguably better than most. And so the animosity and name-calling becomes all the more baffling.

A poll released on Tuesday said that bias against Mormons is more intense than prejudice against blacks or women. The survey, conducted by professors from Vanderbilt and Claremont Graduate universities, also concluded that bias against Mormons is especially intense among evangelicals.

Is Mormonism a cultfi And what does this charge have to do with the presidency, anywayfi The answers are no, and nothing.

The basic dictionary definition of cult: "a system of religious belief or worship." Well, so is Christianity, of course. Anti-Mormon groups say the definition they're talking about is closer to this: A cult is a sect led by a charismatic leader; it is generally considered extremist; and its leaders tightly control their followers.

Does this applyfi The founder of the church, Joseph Smith, had great charisma. But he has been dead since 1844, and the LDS Church has grown immensely since then. So it certainly didn't depend on one leader's charisma. That differentiates it from sects that dwindle or die out when their founder leaves the scene.

Are Mormons extremistfi Hardly. If anything, as a group, they're conservative. As for the institutional church, all it ever does is urge its members to live better lives based on the teachings of Christ -- over and over and over again. Are its followers tightly controlledfi Hardly. They are diverse and independent. They just happen to independently believe in many of the same things.

Those who call Mormonism a cult often bandy that term about indiscriminately, applying it to many or all other churches. In 2000, for example, Bob Jones III, then president of Bob Jones University, wrote a public letter that referred to Mormonism and Catholicism as "cults which call themselves Christian." There are valid criticisms of the Catholic church, but it's been around for nearly two millennia. It seems to us that it graduated from "cult" status many centuries ago.

In short, the whole cult charge is nothing but a silly slogan -- a buzzword meant to rouse emotions in attacks on the LDS Church and on Mitt Romney.

It all comes down to a cornerstone of the American system: This nation welcomes people of every creed, including those who profess none. Even many evangelicals recognize value in this. Time magazine reports that Pat Robertson invited Romney to give the commencement address at his Regent University. The group Evangelicals for Mitt argues that religious conservatives can separate faith and politics, as Democrats did when they made Harry Reid, a Mormon, Senate majority leader.

"Southern Baptists understand they are voting for a commander in chief, not a theologian in chief," said Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention.

Americans have in fact often backed presidents of minority or dissenting creeds, or with little visible creed at all. Thomas Jefferson held an idiosyncratic blend of beliefs, including deism, that would not pass muster at Bob Jones University. Lincoln was accused of being an unbeliever, and as an adult never joined a church. William Howard Taft drew criticism because he was a Unitarian (as were John Adams and John Quincy Adams). Dwight Eisenhower grew up a Jehovah's Witness.

Many others claimed a faith but exhibited few outward signs of it. We should also note that Jimmy Carter was a man of deep and sincere evangelical beliefs, but was among the most incompetent presidents in history.

In turn, presidents have worked with people of all faiths, including Mormons. President Theodore Roosevelt supported Reed Smoot when the U.S. Senate was embroiled in a heated debate over whether to let the Mormon apostle take his elected seat. Dwight Eisenhower appointed future church president Ezra Taft Benson to be secretary of agriculture. Richard Nixon had two Mormons in his cabinet: David Kennedy as secretary of the treasury and George Romney (Mitt's father) as secretary of housing and urban development.

Which brings us back to Huckabee. Those presidents weren't afraid to publicly support Mormons. Huckabee has refused to say what he thinks about the LDS faith. If he wants to occupy the office once held by Roosevelt, Eisenhower and Kennedy, he ought to have the courage to speak up and tell us his honest opinion.

Let us hope he and others embrace the American creed of welcoming all faiths. John Kennedy summed it up well back on that 1960 campaign trail. Speaking at the Mormon Tabernacle in Salt Lake City, he said of Mormons: "I am particularly in their debt tonight for their successful battle to make religious liberty a living reality, for having proven to the world that different faiths of different views could flourish harmoniously in our midst, and for having proven to the nation, in this century, that a public servant [Smoot] devout in his chosen faith was still capable of undiminished allegiance to our Constitution and national interest."

He added, "And what has been true of the Mormons has been true of countless other religious faiths -- Jews, Quakers, Catholics, Baptists, Unitarians, Christian Scientists, Seventh Day Adventists, Jehovah's Witnesses, and many, many others. All encountered resistance and oppression. All stuck by both their rights and their country. And in time the fruits of liberty were theirs to share as well; and the very diversity of their beliefs enriched our Nation's spiritual strength."

To that we can only say Amen.