To the Editor:

Re “Why We Fear Mormons,” by J. Spencer Fluhman (Op-Ed, June 4):

As a non-Mormon resident of a Boston suburb adjoining the Latter-day Saints temple attended by Mitt Romney, I have had occasion to meet Mormons and to have them as neighbors. They seem hard-working and family-centered. They don’t drink, they don’t smoke and they delight in raising their children.

Their theology may be a bit fantastical, but not more so than that of other religions, including my own (Roman Catholicism). How or why such people are made the object of ridicule — and sadly, they are — is confounding.

JOHN D. FITZPATRICK

Arlington, Mass., June 4, 2012

To the Editor:

As a former Mormon local leader myself, I am afraid that I, too, used to complain about people not liking Mormons. I gained perspective after quitting Mormonism, whereupon I learned that there is essentially no such thing as “anti-Mormonism.”

Most non-Mormons would agree that Mormons view anything critical of Mormonism — and indeed, anything that does not praise the church — as offensive. With a Mormon candidate for president, it is finally time for Mormons to come of age, to mature and to live in a predominantly non-Mormon world without persistently whining about the “anti-Mormon” boogeyman. It could only help their case.