The issue rose to public consciousness through the mixed influence of anti-Mormon activity, leftist political motivations, contemporary reports of Mormon political power, and rumors that the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency had recruited Mormons as its agents. In 1982 and 1983, Finnish discussion focused on the Church's microfilming of Finnish Lutheran parish registers three decades previously and the suspicion that these registers were being used for U.S. intelligence purposes. In the spring of 1984, the focus turned to Mormon missionaries and the accusation that they were systematically gathering Finns' political opinions, sending on reports to the United States for further use in intelligence. Both issues were rehashed in mostly leftist newspapers and brought up as questions to the Finnish government by two leftist members of the national parliament.