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Washington • The former pastor of Nevada Republican Senate-hopeful Sharron Angle has offered a scathing screed against Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's Mormon faith, calling it a cult with "kooky" beliefs and alleging the church employs a hit squad to "kill" its enemies.
In an interview with the Reno News & Review, the Rev. John Reed of Sonrise Church in Reno pulled no punches in slamming the faith.
"Harry Reid's allegiance is to Salt Lake City," Reed told the alternative weekly paper. "The Mormon church is rich, powerful, they do illegal things. They do secretive things."
Reed, the pastor, went on to ask why no one questions the Senate leader about his faith's undergarments, temple ceremonies and "the hit squad of the Mormon church and why they need people to kill Mormons that go against them."
The pastor made similar comments to The Associated Press, including that Reid is beholden to LDS Church headquarters in Salt Lake City, not the American people.
The pastor's reported comments are somewhat reminiscent of the fiery rhetoric of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, who had been the longtime Chicago pastor of President Barack Obama.
Wright's remarks on race and other issues caused controversy during the 2008 presidential campaign and prompted Obama to distance himself from the preacher.
Reed did not return a call seeking comment Thursday.
Angle, a tea party-backed candidate who is seeking to topple Reid, listed the Sonrise Church as her place of worship in a 2005 biography for the Nevada State Assembly, and in July 2008 as a candidate for the state Senate, Angle listed "music ministry, Sonrise Church" on a candidate survey, the Las Vegas Sun reported.
But Angle spokesman Jarrod Agen says she hasn't been a member of the church for six years and the pastor does not speak for her.
"She strongly disagrees with his comments," Agen said. "Sharron has nothing but the utmost respect for the Mormon community."
But Reed, the pastor, told the AP that Angle sang in a contemporary Christian band and taught Sunday school for more than a decade at his Reno church until her husband urged her earlier this year to switch to a different house of worship, where he could hold a more prominent volunteer position.
Reid, who is locked in one of the toughest re-election battles of his career, is the highest-ranking elected Mormon in the faith's history. His campaign jumped on the pastor's comments.
"These disturbing and hateful expressions of extreme religious bigotry from Sharron Angle's spiritual adviser should alarm any Nevadan that believes in religious freedom and the separation of church and state," Reid campaign spokesman Kelly Steele said.
Steele called on Angle to publicly denounce the pastor's remarks. Angle has denied media requests in the run-up to the election.