Jennings' religion is part of persona

There are plenty of anti-Jennings comments on various Internet chatboards that are either subtly or openly anti-Mormon. On the other hand, there are plenty of sites where, as the Hartford Courant opined, "The Mormons are, of course, cheering him on; he plans to give 10 percent of his winnings to the church."

Most, maybe, but not all Mormons. As evidenced by a letter to the editor in the Deseret Morning News after Jennings appeared on Letterman's "Late Show" and read a list of the Top 10 Ways to Irritate Alex Trebek that included: "Your only response: 'Who gives a rat's a--?' "

"I was personally quite upset when . . . Jennings used a profane three-letter word as part of a punch line. . . . He should have thought twice before jeopardizing the image of the state and respectively his church to a national audience," the reader wrote.

On the other hand, after the TV columnist at the Albany Times Union wrote a tongue-in-cheek column about how he "hates" Jennings, he received e-mails from members of the LDS Church who accused him of being anti-Mormon. At the time, the columnist wasn't aware of Jennings' religious affiliation.

Not much chance of that now.

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E-mail: pierce@desnews.com