SALT LAKE CITY - The Mormon church isn't used to this kind of competition in its hometown.
Along with Olympic athletes and spectators, evangelists of every stripe are flooding into Salt Lake City in search of converts. As the games began Friday, Baptist missionaries jockeyed for space on street corners with members of China's Falun Gong sect, and even the Scientologists were in town.
Of course, every Olympics is an opportunity for mission work. Baptist delegates poured into Atlanta for the 1996 Summer Games and the American Bible Society doled out 5 million New Testaments to Olympic visitors there.
But in the shadow of the Mormon temple, many churches have taken on a new mission: to point out the errors of the Mormons' ways. And some aren't subtle about it.
"Mormon Jesus is the Spirit Brother of the Devil," reads the bright yellow sign John Swortfiguer plans to carry through Salt Lake City during the games. Swortfiguer, a born-again Christian, flew in from Fairbanks, Alaska, to preach against what he calls the "plagiarism and libel" of the Mormon church.
"My prayer is that they'll come out of this whole facade and come to Christ," he said. "If it takes a little bit of confrontation, I'm ready to do that."
He's not the only one. One group stationed near the Mormon Temple distributed official-looking "Guides to Temple Square" that were really anti-Mormon pamphlets.
"No matter how nice the people may be, the fruit of Mormonism is based on false prophecies and lies about Jesus Christ and the Bible," read another flyer that Dale Brown, an evangelist from Bainbridge Island, Wash., was handing out.
Most evangelical Christians say members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints - who believe that men can be elevated to godhood and that the Book of Mormon is the third book of the Bible - aren't Christian.
Just two years ago, the Methodist church decided that Mormons who become Methodists should be rebaptized like non-Christian converts. The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A) and Southern Baptists have similar policies.
But not all those proselytizing in town are explicitly anti-Mormon. Some just don't want their message to be drowned out by the 200 Mormon missionaries greeting visitors at the church's downtown center, which is just a few blocks from the Olympic medals plaza.
"We're concerned that LDS people are the ones they'll get the most information from and they'll find more out about the Mormon church than other churches," said Doug McAffee Jr., a former Mormon who belongs to Salt Lake City's Anchor Baptist Church.
The church printed up 360,000 brochures to hand out during the games. "We acknowledge that they're good people trying to do the best they can but their focus is on the wrong thing," he said.
The Falun Gong hosted public meditations and candlelight vigils to call attention to their suppression in China. And the Scientologists, who set up an exhibit about their founder, L. Ron Hubbard, in a downtown storefront, said they just wanted to reach out to visitors.
"As far as I'm concerned, any religion that is giving people direction and hope has to continue," said Kaye Conley, public relations director for the Friends of L. Ron Hubbard Foundation, which sponsored the exhibit. "I think the Mormons are great. We have a common goal."