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 By: Jerry Higgins

NAUVOO, Ill. (BP)--Nestled along the banks of the Mississippi River about 270 miles southwest of Chicago, the Illinois town of Nauvoo is just a dot on the map for most people.
Nauvoo had seen better days as a thriving producer of cheese and wine until the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints built a $30 million temple in the community...
Now an estimated 300,000 to 400,000 visitors come to Nauvoo each year. Many of them pass the stucco storefront of the Christian Visitors Center, where Rocky Hulse and his wife Helen stand ready to tell anyone who will listen the differences between Mormonism and authentic Christian faith...
Hulse has a weekly television show...and is the author of a new book, "When Salt Lake City Calls: Is There a Conflict Between Mormonism and the Public Trust?" dealing largely with Mormon doctrines. He says all he is doing is comparing Mormon teachings to the Bible and exposing the true history of Mormonism.
Not everyone welcomes his message.
Bishop David Wright, a Mormon leader in Nauvoo, described Hulse's ministry to The Chicago Tribune as "a non-Christian center or anti-Mormon center," saying, "I don't see anything Christian about it."...
Hulse said his home office above the visitors center has been trashed and he has received several threatening e-mails. One e-mail, received a couple of days before Christmas 2006, read: "id love to watch you all die, then witness the looks on your faces when you realize how stupid and counterproductive your fight really was."...
Nauvoo Chief of Police Don Faulkner said Utah authorities refused to prosecute because they didn't have enough evidence. Faulkner, who is not a Mormon, said, "It's up to the state, the county and the attorney in the jurisdiction. It's up to the attorney whether he thinks the case is winnable. Opinions bear no weight. He won't take a case to court if he doesn't have enough evidence regardless of what anyone thinks."...Faulkner said he believes they have nothing to worry about from the locals. Police investigations have not come up with any suspects in the ransacking of his office. "He [Hulse] spent time in the Navy protecting everyone's rights," Faulkner said. "He protected Mormons' religious beliefs, whether he agrees or not, along with Islam, Catholic, Baptist, Jewish … whatever religious beliefs." But, Faulkner said, "When you have radio and TV programs and a storefront establishment preaching against a religion, people of that faith look at you and will make comments about you."...
Hulse's straightforward evangelistic technique obviously rubs people the wrong way, said Jane Langford, editor of the local weekly newspaper, The Nauvoo New Independent. She said Hulse's expertise gives him credibility and rankles the Mormons.
"Rocky has done his research," said Langford, a Catholic who has published several of Hulse's articles. "I've given him a platform and he took it. At times maybe he took it too far. I've had a backlash, but I've tried to keep the tradition of the newspaper. I'm sure if I folded up, the Mormon Church would finance and start a newspaper which would have their slant to it."
The Nauvoo Christian Visitors Center is one of three visitors centers in the community. One is operated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the other by the reorganized Community of Christ, an offshoot of the main Mormon body. The other visitors centers, Hulse said, claim the only true church is the one started by Joseph Smith. The visitors center the Hulses operate existed before they arrived in Nauvoo in 2005. "No one ever challenges the Mormon Church at the level we do it," Hulse said. "Our TV show has us in many markets. They [Mormon leaders] have rewritten doctrines that they don't tell anyone. "If we are being untruthful, they have every right to expose us. No one has come forth because there is nothing to expose."