With Mitt Romney bringing my faith to the forefront of a lot of attention in the media, I've been rolling the idea around in my head of addressing it here but have never been sure of how to go about doing it. I found Ken Jenning's blog (yes, of Jeopardy! fame) and I think he says most of what I would, and definitely says it better, so I'll refer you there. Speaking of, here's a good quote of Ken's as he addresses the media:After you get off a particularly good zinger at those gullible Mormons, try recasting your sentence so it refers to “those gullible Jews” or “…Catholics” or “…Muslims.” If...you think Mormon temple garments should be called “magic underwear” throughout your post, try substituting “magic beanie” for “yarmulke” or “magic Nilla wafer” for “Communion host” in a similar context and considering whether that’s journalism, or whether that’s even funny anymore. If you’re horrified by the result, it’s because bigotry is bigotry, no matter the target.
Good point. I'm not sure why it's OK to make fun of Mormons, or at least our religion (Utah's bizarre culture, on the other hand, is free game in my opinion).
Side-note: we lived in Ken Jenning's parent's ward for a while when we were first married. As you'd expect, they're incredibly intelligent folks. The kind of people that when you have a conversation with them, you can just tell they're brilliant. It should also be noted that they aren't socially awkward, as some uber-smart people can be.
That was kind of related so I thought I'd mention it. Anyhoo, the post I was referring to can be found here.
I'd be happy to take questions from anyone out there who has any questions about Mormons, what we believe or why we believe it. Just shoot me an e-mail: TheOtherDrummer at the gmail.
Salt Lake Temple pic via Wikipedia
I actually read Ken Jennings' blog occasionally. He's really quite funny, and he posts about random but interesting things, for the most part. And he's pretty loyal blogger. I first heard him on Wait Wait . . . Don't Tell Me! on NPR, and he was pretty funny, so I check his blog out from time to time.
ReplyDeleteIs it true that people held captive in the salt lake temple can jump from the windows into the great salt lake and swim to freedom in Wendover and get a room for 49 dollar a night?
ReplyDeleteNo Matt. But it is true that the spires are really rockets and eventually we'll all pile in and it will lift up and take us into space. Because, you know, those pioneers had some serious rocket-building tools back int he 1800's. :)
ReplyDeleteI did my England crusade in the 1970's. There were some good folks there that were concerned we'd kidnap their daughters and take them to the Liverpool tunnel, which connected directly to the Salt Lake Temple. The mission president confiscated my passport when I first got there, so I was pretty much stuck in England for two years. There are strict rules even for really long tunnels.
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