KSL Radio has recently been airing ads for maple syrup from Vermont, dubbed "Land of Joseph Pure Maple Syrup" because LDS Church founder Joseph Smith was born in Vermont. The Web site for the syrup, www.timesandseasons.net, adds that the prophet's family made maple syrup and that he probably received his First Vision during the maple syrup harvest.

The bicentennial of the church founder's birth next December will likely provide an incubator for other products seeking a link to him or his birth and the planned churchwide celebrations and scholarly events surrounding it.

Yet Rhoads maintains that such regional marketing is the latest trend and that an Angel Moroni replica being sold at Wal-Mart shows that the giant retailer is realizing there is a niche market in Utah.

Are such endeavors simply cashing in on LDS theology?

The question "assumes that developing products for the LDS community is a bad thing and I can't see where that is ever the case," Rhoads said. "They vote with their dollars. If you launch a product and they vote your way, that was a good thing. It shows there was a need in the market and you filled it."

Some take it a step further, attaching religious significance to such dealings.

One Web site, www.buildingthekingdom.com, boasts that philosophy, offering a virtual marketplace for LDS businesses to list their services so other church members can find them.

It says those who organized the site "feel that when Latter-Day Saints support each other in our individual professions, we really are helping to further the work of the Lord. Did you ever stop to think that by hiring an LDS plumber, you're helping his son to serve a mission in Russia? . . . Every time we support a faithful LDS businessperson we help build chapels and temples throughout the world."

That combination of tight-knit community, well-defined values and trust in other Latter-day Saints also provides what state and local officials have come to know is a steady pool of locals who become victims of con artists who exploit relationships with fellow church members to get them to invest in bogus ventures, Rhoads said.

"There's a reason they start in Utah."

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E-mail: carrie@desnews.com