May 2007

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A traffic report that you could only hear in Utah. Just listen to the end. Hilarious.

Sharpton apologizes to Elders Nelson and Eyring for suggesting Mormons don’t believe in God. He also requested to meet with them in the next month. I’d love to see that.

Drudge offers a preview of Romney being interviewed on 60 Minutes this Sunday: “I can’t image anything more awful than polygamy.”

Hitting newsstands tomorrow. Plus, “The Debate Over His Mormon Faith.”

At first Sharpton backtracked (”In no way did I attack Mormons or the Mormon Church . . . “) but later goes on CNN demanding that Romney answer for the Church’s position on blacks and the priesthood.

YouTube - Rev Sharpton On Romney’s Religion

Possibly the best defense I have seen so far of the Romney, Mormonism, and particularly the upcoming Mountain Meadows massacre movie. And its from a former Mormon:

Let’s put it this way: In 2000, the Vatican essentially issued an apology for having persecuted Galileo as part of the inquisition and contributing to his death under house arrest. What if in 1959 a film about Galileo had come out starring Peter Lorre as Pope Urban VIII and Walter Winchell had written a column suggesting that Catholic presidential hopeful John F. Kennedy had better comment on the film and clarify his views on heliocentricity? It would be absurd. Every Catholic in 1959 believed the world revolved around the sun, just as every Mormon now believes that murdering women and children in the name of their church is reprehensible.

Al Sharpton: “As for the one Mormon running for office, those who really believe in God will defeat him anyway, so don’t worry, that’s a temporary situation.”

With today being the National Day of Prayer, there is recurring controversy as the National Day of Prayer Task Force continues to exclude Seventh-Day Adventists, Jews, Buddhists, and yes, Mormons from praying at any of its services. This policy started in 2004. 

Despite its perception as the official organization for the National Day of Prayer the Task Force is just an independent organization run by Evangelicals.  Therefore, it’s entitled to include and exclude anyone it seems fit as tacky as it may be.  

Instead of enforcing divisions, the National Day of Prayer should be used as an opportunity to unite the country on basic, common values such as gratitude, humility, and faith in God.  There are plenty of opportunities to remind us that we’re not Christians the rest of the year!

The Church is hosting an alternative service at the Provo Tabernacle with Elder Holland speaking.

However, the NDP Task Force can’t exclude Mormons completely.  Featured on its home page and also being sold in its store, is Arnold Friberg’s The Prayer at Valley Forge.  Arnold Friberg is a LDS painter probably best known to Mormons for his paintings featured in the Book of Mormon.

Robert Novak  has seen September Dawn and thinks that the upcoming film could be a big problem for Romney. Kathryn Jean Lopez has it right. Does Romney have to answer for any and all aspects of church doctrine and history? Making his “Mormon speech” sounds less and less like it will be the end of questioning his faith, but rather the beginning.  More on September Dawn can best be read at Mormon Wasp.

The Church Newsroom posts some responses to PBS’ The Mormons and promises to post more later in the week.

Even more interesting, it also mentions activity at LDS blogs,  even quoting The Hedgehog Blog, the LDS-half of the always excellent Article VI Blog .  However, the Newsroom seems to have confused the quote as a comment on Article VI Blog instead and provides no link.  But hey,  it’s a start.

The Washington Post’s religion blog, On Faith,  asks this week, “After 175 years of existence, is Mormonism entering the mainstream of American religious life or are people still suspicious of it?”.

The answer seems to me that many people are still suspicious of us although we are certainly considered more mainstream than in the past. While it is unfortunate that so many seem wary of us it’s understandable.  And it’s getting better as painful as much of the recent scrutiny has been.  But I hope that we never become considered mainstream.

I could not disagree more with Professor Jon Butler’s concluding remarks in the PBS documentary, “All religious systems have to move beyond their own creation … many religious systems have found that very difficult to do. Christianity did it; Islam did it; Judaism did it.  The question is, can Mormonism do it?” I’m actually not sure what he means by that but if it means sacrificing the literalness of the Restoration, no thank you.

On Faith features several answers so far from its large panel of contributors.   The Church’s own Michael Otterson answers that as different as Mormons may be, we have a right to be respected while recognizing our differences.

“No Theological Test for Citizenship.”

This is America. We don’t ask Jews to be less Jewish, or Catholics to be less Catholic in order to be a respected part of our multi-faceted society. The differences between Mormons and other Christians are the reasons for our existence as a church. Our understanding of the purpose of life, the nature of God, our relationship to Jesus Christ, and much more, are central to the way Latter-day Saints define themselves, and that ought to be OK with everyone whether they agree or not with the doctrine. Just as there is no religious test for federal office, so there is no theological test for citizenship.

While disagreeing theologically, Mormons have no trouble about embracing Catholics, Baptists and Methodists as fellow Christians, or Jews and Buddhists as respected fellow citizens of faith. Mormons are entitled to the same respect afforded any other part of our society. It is un-American to treat them as one of the last groups about which blatantly intolerant comments are still seen as politically acceptable.

Most of those who have posted so far are worthwhile reading.

Politically speaking, of interest are:

• Chuck Colson, “A Long Way from Mainstream” - while he certainly doesn’t care much for Mormonism as a theology he denounces religious bigotry and says he will openly assess Mitt Romney on his values, not religion.  That must be good news for Romney.
• Cal Thomas, “Good People, Bizarre Beliefs“ - I think he tries to be helpful, in a backhanded way
• John Mark Reynolds, “Should Christians Vote for Mormons?” - “A traditional Christian should only make political alliances with groups that embrace reason, with a theology with agreeable public policy implications, and with a history of successful participation in the Republic. Fortunately for Romney, Mormonism easily passes these tests.”

Non-politically speaking, I found Sulayman S. Nyang’s, “Role Models for Religious Minorities” very interesting as well.  I believe more will be posting throught the week so it will be worth revisiting.

The Church offers a somewhat brief and complimentary response to PBS’ The Mormons.

But addressing these and other topics in a forthright way seems to have allowed viewers less familiar with the Church to see a new and broader dimension of the Church, shorn, perhaps, of one-sided stereotypes and caricatures.

At a time when significant media and public attention is being turned to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and when news media is so often accused of superficiality in its coverage of religion, this serious treatment of a serious subject is a welcome change.

Mormanity offers a great and equally complimentary response that sums it up best for me. I especially appreciated, “Faithful Mormons can also be intellectuals.” 

Messenger and Advocate has a comprehensive listing of bloggernacle commentary.

Very helpful compilation of who’s who in “The Mormons” at Dave’s Mormon Inquiry. It helps to have a better idea where each commentator is coming from. I tried to help but only muddled things more. Fortunately Dave set me straight.

Not only is it weird that Mitt Romney’s favorite book is supposed to be Battlefied Earth, but ironic that the first commenter recommends he try Orson Scott Card instead.  A good suggestion.  UPDATE:  Mitt’s choice is defended at M*.