The Rev. Al Sharpton said Monday he's found "common ground" with LDS Church leaders during a visit to Salt Lake City that included a meeting with Elder M. Russell Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve.

The pair spent two hours together Sunday night, Sharpton told listeners during his nationally syndicated radio talk show broadcast Monday from Salt Lake City, but "talked very little if at all" about his recent comment suggesting Mormons don't believe in God.

It was that comment, made during a debate on religion in New York City earlier this month, that sparked Sharpton's interest in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and prompted his visit to Utah.

Sharpton had already said he's sorry for having said of GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney, "as for the one Mormon running for office, those that really believe in God will defeat him anyway, so don't worry about that, that's a temporary situation."

Romney labeled the comment "extraordinarily bigoted," but Sharpton said again Monday on his radio show that he was unfairly portrayed as "referring in a derogatory way to Mormons ... whatever difference I have with their denomination or their religion, as I might with any that is not my own, has nothing to do with my disregard or disrespect for their faith."

The Pentecostal minister, a former Democratic presidential candidate, said he decided to come to Utah to "have a dialog" with LDS leaders after apologizing on May 10 by telephone to Elder Russell M. Nelson and Elder Henry B. Eyring of the Quorum of the Twelve.

They told him then the matter was closed, Sharpton said. "The church said forget about it. I didn't," he told listeners after explaining, "if all of us claim to be men and women of faith, we should talk to each other in person not at each other through the media."

During his meeting with Ballard, Sharpton said they "talked a lot about common concerns," including the need to clean up the language used in song lyrics and the LDS Church's involvement in genealogy.

Sharpton noted during his radio program that one of his ancestors had been owned by ancestors of the late Sen. Strom Thurmond and said the subject of ancestry is of interest to "a lot of people in our community."

Ballard and Sharpton had dinner, the reverend said, and then went together on an unscheduled visit to Temple Square to view the "Christus" sculpture of Jesus Christ at the visitor's center.

Sharpton, who arrived in Utah Sunday, was to leave later Monday. By early afternoon, he'd toured the church's Welfare Square and broadcast his radio program from the church-owned Bonneville International studio at the Triad Center.

Before leaving Utah, Sharpton was also to tour Temple Square and the Church History Library. His host was Elder Robert C. Oaks, a member of the Presidency of the Seventy, according to church spokesman Scott Trotter.

"He said he came here to learn about the church," Trotter said of Sharpton, describing his visit as typical for a VIP. "That's his main purpose in coming here."

A spokeswoman for Sharpton, Rachel Noerdlinger, referred media inquires about the visit to the LDS Church. "We've put all of the control in the hands of the church," Noerdlinger said. "We have relied on them to do what they see fit."

---

E-mail: lisa@desnews.com