Poor Mittens:(

[captainsblog]

He's trying so hard to get out in the public eye, in places where he can stay away from spontaneous questions, and safely among his own crowd.

Or not, as it turns out:

Liberty University reacted over the weekend to a brewing controversy over the fact that the evangelical school has selected Mitt Romney, a Mormon, to speak at the school’s graduation.

In a statement from Chancellor Jerry Falwell, Jr., the school says that the complaints have significantly died down and that many of those complaining “had no affiliation with the university.”

You need to read on to find out how the controversy "died down:"

After last week’s announcement, hundreds of comments were registered under the announcement on Liberty’s Facebook page. While some were supportive of the decision to invite Romney, a number of respondents were angered and posted their frustration to Facebook.

As of Monday morning, the announcement was deleted from the page, along with all the comments.

“Complaints died down because they took the ability to complain down from the website,” said Janet Loeffler, a 53-year old freshman at Liberty who takes classes online. Loeffler was a frequent poster to the Facebook page.

Yup, that's how Fundies typically handle statements of dissent: they burn the books containing them.

Though the deletion of the post bothered Loeffler, it was the statement about online students familiarity with Liberty’s traditions that she says deeply offended her.

“It is just a complete lie. You cannot get through your first semester at Liberty Online without taking their Theology 101 and Apologetics 101,” Loeffler said.

Loeffler provided CNN with a copy of the page in the freshman textbook “The Popular Encyclopedia of Apologetics” which includes a number of passages on the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, commonly called Mormons. “Mormon doctrine stands in stark contrast to Jewish and Christian monotheism,” reads the passage, “which teaches that there is only one true God and that every other ‘God’ is a false god.”

Exactly! Many of our Founding Fathers felt the same way! Oops, better not acknowledge any of that Deist heresy. It never happened. The Founding Fathers were always Trinitarians. Oceania has always been at war with Eastasia.

But perhaps the most out-of-far-right-field take in the whole article was this one:

Tony Perkins, a Liberty graduate and the president of the Family Research Council, said he sees the Romney speech as an opportunity.

"As Christians we can disagree strongly but we show respect and I think they will show respect for Mitt Romney," Perkins said on CNN's Starting Point Monday morning.

"They may not warmly applaud him and may continue to express differences and clearly there are differences theologically between Mormons and Christians, but here's an opportunity for Mitt Romney to talk about what he has in common with evangelicals and that is on the value issues," Perkins said.

Right. Homophobia, limiting the rights of women, promoting wealth over concern for the least of us. Let's all get behind THAT.

If nothing else, it shows that the adherents of any religion can be just as godly, or just as stupid, as those of any other. One of my dearest online friends is about to be married in a Mormon temple in a ceremony I cannot attend, but she has gone out of her way to be inclusive and respectful of the faiths and practices of many others besides just dull boring White Bread Methodist Me.  I do not judge her faith any more or less than I judge anyone elses'; I wish these Falorwellians would find it in their Bibles to do the same.

Comments

[horizonchaser.livejournal.com]

Mormons (as Mormons) aren't founding fathers old. They showed up around 1820. LDS are Christian, they're just different.

That's kind of weird but the old Mormon church didn't exactly endear itself to the rest of the religions. That's why it's Latter Day Saints now, and much less divisive.