Mormons, Christianity, and the Washington Post

I can't recall a time when I was more outraged by something I read in the national free press than I was today when I read the article, "Un-Mormon and Unchristian," in the Washington Post by Richard Cohen.

It is an opinion piece, but one I feel should not have been linked from the front/top of the page of a major paper and opinion leader. His comments are so heavily biased and yet stated with fact that I am left with an ill taste in my mouth.

For instance, Cohen says, "The Republican presidential field has some feeble minds and some dangerous ones as well, but none has done as much damage as Huckabee has. Religion does not belong in the political arena. It does not lend itself to compromise. It is about belief, not reason, and is ordinarily immutable. Romney is a shifty fellow, but he will always be a Mormon, and it will never make a difference."

Feeble minds? Dangerous feeble minds? Why doesn't he just say "Republicans bad, Democrats good?" Religion is ordinarily immutable? Since when was religion unchanging? Look around at the new religions popping up. Or how some churches change policies every day, with the exception of a few churches. For instance, the Mormon Church which rarely changes positions. It adopts positions as the world changes, but it rarely changes position. So wouldn't by Mr. Cohen's very biased view that give more credit to the Mormon Church? It is more "immutable" than other churches? (Starting with Gov. Huckabee's?)

And to call Gov. Romney a shifty fellow? Why is that written in a major paper? If we were talking about a criminal or otherwise negative figure in the world, sure, use the description. But to describe a viable presidential candidate this way is libel, in my opinion.

Also, Cohen's obvious disgust and contempt for all persons of faith is evident in this one small comment, "... faith is no substitute for thought. A mind honed on the whetstone of doubt might have kept us out of Iraq." Is he really implying that those who have faith do not think?? I find this a great offense to anyone who has ever studied scripture and/or wrestled with faith. His narrow minded comment only shows how little he truly knows about faith and religion.

This entire column appalled me. Beyond that, many of the absolutely false comments left in response to it appalled me even more. I encourage you to read the article and decide for yourself. And to leave your comments as well. To my LDS friends, I hope you will take the chance to correct some of the outright blasphemously wrong information left in the comments section.