Article VI Blog

I am a long time, hardcore college basketball fan. (I grew up in Indiana and have high school teammates that played for Bob Knight, we are talking stuff that cuts to the core here) Anyway, in more than 30 years of such hardcore fandom, I have never, ever wondered what the BYU athletes do with their temple garments during the game. Given that Slate is home to the worst piece of anti-Mormon bigotry we have seen to date, one is forced to wonder if this well-sourced and seemingly respectful bit of religious arcania is not a potshot. I mean no one asks if the Notre Dame guys take mass before they play.

Carol Platt Liebau on Mormons as the last "legitimate" target of bigotry.

Europe seems to be leading us on all things ugly and religious discrimination is no exception. Should the bigtory Liebau discusses above continue to stand, we will be headed for the kinds of things this London Telegraph piece discusses.

An interesting analysis on Evangelicals in political action. E.J. Dionne has something to say on the issue as well. Dionne crows a bit too much, but then he would be interested in driving the wedge deeper.

Romney's raising big money. I got to see him in action at this one. If you had seen the crowd, you would not be quite as pessimistic as these two pieces try to sound. More proof the MSM has it out for the conservative candidate. Which takes us back to Slate up top….

There can be some amazing subelty to bigotry. Consider this piece from Fort Wayne Indiana. It is another small town paper looking at The Question and not bringing anything new to the table, but then this little gem appears

The LDS Church responded by embarking on a public-relations campaign to downplay its distinctiveness. In 1981, it added the subtitle “Another Testament of Jesus Christ” to the Book of Mormon, and in 1995 changed the church logo to show a super-sized “Jesus Christ” and a minimized “Latter-day Saints.” More recently, it has discouraged use of the term “Mormon,” encouraging members to identify themselves simply as Christians and to avoid discussing their doctrinal differences with other Christians.

Candidate Romney can be seen as pursuing this assimilationist program. Since setting his sights on the presidency, he has talked the evangelical talk – reminding evangelical leaders that, just as they do, he regards Jesus Christ as his “Lord and Savior,” for example, and by opposing embryonic stem cell research (which the LDS Church has no objection to). [emphasis added]

What? Are Mormons the Borg intent on "assimilating" the universe? Why choose an adjective so full of sinsiter implication? Who is assimilating whom here and to what end? This thing just smacks of paranoia.

The most one note profile piece to date. "Gay" D.C. paper The Blade looks at The Question and uses it as an excuse to talk about "gay Mormons."

News of endorsements has been rampant and is really outside this blog's scope, but this one, being from a very important military man, must be read.

Place your bets now as to when this "Odd News" piece will be used as a cudgel against Romney. Of course, it could already be so in the same vein as Slate and basketball, but then the Examiner has not been quite so ugly as Slate.

The power of blogging.

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