Today’s Reading List – February 20, 2007 | Article VI Blog

Just an interesting bit of numerical political analysis – absolutely nothing to do with Romney, but something to do with Evangelicals and kinda funny.

I hope this guy is really, really wrong.

If Romney does well, and especially if he were to become the nominee, his faith's doctrines are going to be of compelling interest to many people. The media are not what they used to be, and there is no bottling up of issues as off-limits. The story can't be done justice in an interview gotcha game.

Stephanopoulos as theologian just does not sell, even though his father was a Greek Orthodox prelate. His ham-handed I had my staff call somebody retort is not a convincing claim to scriptural mastery. I would guess the story is more complicated. That doesn't mean the topic is going to be off limits.

Romney has put the subject in play by addressing it in public. And people are interested, for reasons good, bad and ugly. So expect more attention to the Latter Day Saints.

Such will lead to a general coarsening of American political discourse, an increase in identity politics, and worst of all a de facto violation of the American spirit of religious pluralism, and constitutional thinking among the general public. We will not be a better country, we will be becoming that which we left behind in the old Europe.

Lowell: I find it laughable for Lifson to argue that "Romney has put the subject in play by addressing it in public." Sure he did, after every news media outlet in the world has raised the issue and demanded that he address it. What would the media response have been if he had refused to do so?

At least one USAToday reader more or less agrees with me.

This is the generic UPI story of the "This Week" appearance that is making the rounds. Made interesting only by its appearance in an Asian Indian outlet.

The media discusses the media on The Question. They get nowhere, which is, I think the point. They don't want to arrive at answers. Here's my theory. Brittany Spears melting down is news because people have a morbid curiosity about such things. Unless people know and deal with Mormons routinely and in numbers, all they have are lurid stories of ancient history. So people have a similar morbid curiosity, but it is tabloid curiosity about stories that are either fully relegated to the past, or simply fabricated. The press makes all theology look weird, so I can't fault them too much for that. Anyway, if they simply dispelled the garbage instead of talked around it, they'd no longer have product to sell.

The question is, in the midst of a presidential race, with a highly qualified candidate, will the American public recognize the tabloid curiosity for what it is? To date, when it comes to the tabloids there has been a clear divide between those that read them and those that vote, at least in appreciable numbers. My opinion – those that vote will rely more on new media than old and to date, new media is handling this issue pretty well.

This one is for Lowell. Lowell answers the call: OK, here goes. The author's argument is that Romney's candidacy will provoke defamatory and scurrilous attacks on the LDS Church; therefore, the Church and its members are better off without a Romney candidacy. I will stifle the urge to chop this "op-ed" into little pieces and simply say this: In my opinion, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have nothing to hide and nothing to apologize for. We want people to understand us, and by and large, plenty of sunlight and attention in the age of new media, when there is little control over the way any religion (or candidate) is depicted, only enhances understanding. The process will be messy and untidy, but it's inherently healthy, and everyone involved– anti-Mormons, Mormons, neutrals, and uninformed bystanders will be better off. Everyone benefits.

Interesting suggestion. The author contends that Romney should make the freedom to public religious expression a central campaign theme (a la "under God" in the Pledge, etc.) and by so doing kill two birds with one stone, scoring on "The Question" in the process. Romney has brought up "under God" more than once….