CJ,
The unfortunate thing about Mitt cozying up to the Religious Right is that, depending on how nationally prominent he becomes, he could single-handedly create a strong association in the public imagination between Mormons and the Religious Right, despite the fact that neither he nor the rest of the Mormons in Washington are that extreme.

Bret,
I think we could be peculiar, and be noticed as such, by believing fervently yet still being tolerant and reasonable. Fervent belief has gotten a very bad rap because it has become associated very much with hatred and extremism. Some people think they are inextricably linked. We can show that they’re not.

Tom – Let me also add an “AMEN” to your final comments. For a minute there I thought you were following a pattern that I see sometimes from church members “Let’s hope we’re getting persecuted in the media, especially the left media.” Despite my self proclaimed “left” status I wouldn’t put a lot of stock in what Slate Magazine has to say about the subject. I think any publication, left or right, that titles an article with the premise of ‘hate’ should be considered questionable. The thing I find interesting about our church is that the social left finds many objectionable things about our ‘conservative’ life style while the religious right objects vociferously to our ‘liberal’ interpretation of the scriptures.

I love that you were already composing a rebuttal in your imagination before even reading the article, Tom.

When I was a kid my parents decided to remove us from an open-concept, liberal arts elementary school we loved and put us in a private Christian school that I always imagined to be a religious right institution, whether or not it actually was. We were told students had to work on their own in cubicles while listening to instruction on headphones. Like a nightmare, coming from a school where I could go anywhere in the entire building with no supervision for my Language Arts class and work on my own.

We never did make it into the private school, though, because my mom finally balked at it when the uniform she made me didn’t quite meet their standards and weren’t allowed. The standard was only red, white and blue could be worn. She’d gotten me some red shirts with little yellow flowers on them.