Religion Dispatches
Even after Mitt Romney lost, Mormon media observers felt that his campaign must have yielded a net positive for public understanding of the Mormon faith. But new data released by the Pew Forum suggests otherwise. 82% of Americans surveyed by Pew say they learned little to nothing about Mormonism during the 2012 campaign. Nearly 50% said they still know “little to nothing” about Mormonism, a proportion unchanged from 2011. And only about 40% co…
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Storm and flood, bad bishops, nones on the bus, vegan leather queens, God’s mom: in this list Peter Laarman plots the angles that were largely invisible in mainstream religion coverage this past year—and likely in our own. A road map for 2013—and a sign to us that there might be more important things to focus on this year than the launch of our signature fragrance, RD’s Apocalypse-Begone (subtle notes of ash, hints of ocean breeze, a wisp of sulp…
Read MoreAs Hurricane Sandy heads ashore on the east coast of the U.S., far right-wing religious zealots are already calling it a sign from God for everything from U.S. policy on Israel to, of course, the gays. The conspiratorial World Net Daily says Sandy is a sign that God is angry with the U.S. for defying his will on Israel: In fact, in his book Eye to Eye: Facing the Consequences of Dividing Israel, [William] Koenig points out that nine of the 10 cos…
Read MoreEveryone is talking about Mitt Romney’s “softer side.” That’s how some reporters are characterizing a recent shift in Romney’s stump speeches. Because Governor Romney has started talking about dead people: the Navy SEAL who died in Benghazi. The 14-year-old boy who died of leukemia (profiled at the Convention). The long-lost friend stricken with multiple disabilities, who drags himself to meet Mitt Romney at a campaign rally. And dies the next da…
Read MoreIf this were to show up in a storyline for a police procedural—and by the way, I give that two months, max—it would prompt rolled eyes and audience harrumphs about cartoonishly implausible characters. But it’s real. Charlie Fuqua, a Republican candidate for the Arkansas House of Representatives who is an opponent of abortion, makes a case for the legal execution of disobedient children by their parents. The book in which he makes the case is call…
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There are many stories on which a Mormon is raised: narratives of the elect, America and the Constitution, the latter days, and free agency—all of which play a role in Mitt Romney’s “severe” conservatism. The bombshell release of video in which he trumpets his disdain for moochers, and reveals a remarkably casual approach to Middle East politics, all resonate with the Calvinist heritage of Mormon theology, as well as with principal Mormon narrati…
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For years, now, the press has been beating down the door of Judy Dushku, a Mormon feminist, global women’s rights activist, and professor at Suffolk University. It was Dushku who during Romney’s Senate run in 1994 broke the now infamous story of Romney’s pressuring a woman in his congregation not to have an abortion even though her life was in danger. That’s a brave stance to take in a community that prizes conformity and group loyalty. But Judy…
Read MoreBefore you read my post, especially if you didn’t watch the Republican National Convention last night, go read Joanna’s. She explains the role of Mormon speakers humanizing Mitt Romney last night, and how the image of a kind, generous, selfless lay bishop fails to square with cruel economic policy. Of course this was a political convention, and as Joanna points out, hagiography. But like Joanna, I felt like those speeches from non-politicians (C…
Read MoreI am a scholar of religion by profession, but I like to play in technology. So when the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the body responsible for generic top level domains (gTLD) like .com, .org., and .net, asked for proposals for new gTLD, I watched with some fascination. One of the earliest discussions was around allowing “.xxx” to indicate pornography-related sites. However, I am interested in a new round of names…
Read MoreCoverage is beginning to pick up on a story first reported last Friday in Provo, Utah’s Daily Herald about the LDS Church applying a form of ecclesiastical pressure to get local residents who oppose the building of a nine-story LDS Church building in their neighborhood to relent. Residents in the Pleasant View neighborhood of northeast Provo had been assured by their local LDS Church leaders that it was okay to express concern about the building…
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