Romney Bows Out

[UGAalum94]

Originally Posted by KSig RC

I don't know that it makes you a bigot to declare that the story is way out there - I mean, Joseph Smith was a noted huckster who apparently made intimations that he wanted to start a religion to make money years before his "revelation" . . . besides this, the Mormon Church has a history of institutional racism, from blacks being unable to join or become priests until the mid-80s and onward, and so on and so on. I mean.

Still, have you seen the South Park episode that deals with Mormonism? It's quite brilliant - the moral is essentially "we know it's kind of silly but it doesn't matter - it works for us, and we have a good life and love each other, so why does it matter how silly or whatever it might be?"

I'm in no danger of converting, and yet, A) can we really rely on South Park for our presentation of a faith* and B) isn't the moral you've outlined essentially the lesson of multiculturalism to some degree?

(I LOVE South Park, but if you relied on it for its take on all religions, you'd think there was a secret code of Vatican law that promotes pedophilia, right?)

If a person has been raised in a faith, rather than converted as an adult, I don't think you can conclude, as you touch on above, that they've thought about and taken to heart every aspect, especially historical ones, that the religion has ever espoused.

ETA:* I don't mean to seem like I'm so black/white literal minded. I know you aren't suggesting South Park for religious instruction, but while Mormonism may be an easier target that some other religions, South Park can make anything look dum, dum, dum, dum, dum.

[KSig RC]

Originally Posted by UGAalum94

I'm in no danger of converting, and yet, A) can we really rely on South Park for our presentation of a faith* and B) isn't the moral you've outlined essentially the lesson of multiculturalism to some degree?

(I LOVE South Park, but if you relied on it for its take on all religions, you'd think there was a secret code of Vatican law that promotes pedophilia, right?)

If a person has been raised in a faith, rather than converted as an adult, I don't think you can conclude, as you touch on above, that they've thought about and taken to heart every aspect, especially historical ones, that the religion has ever espoused.

ETA:* I don't mean to seem like I'm so black/white literal minded. I know you aren't suggesting South Park for religious instruction, but while Mormonism may be an easier target that some other religions, South Park can make anything look dum, dum, dum, dum, dum.

I have no idea what you're getting at here - as far as I know, everything in the Mormonism episode is completely and 100% factually presented, although with an obvious bias that serves to wonderfully prove their later point by inverting it. It's a literary technique - the episode was meant as a touchstone, not an exhortation to learn shit from South Park.

I'm not concluding anything from the reference, just pointing out that "faith" relies on fancy to some degree, and that some Mormons might be more open to acknowledge it than Romney has been painted in this thread (and that the danger of fanciful beliefs is in the execution, not the belief itself).

[UGAalum94]

Originally Posted by KSig RC

I have no idea what you're getting at here - as far as I know, everything in the Mormonism episode is completely and 100% factually presented, although with an obvious bias that serves to wonderfully prove their later point by inverting it. It's a literary technique - the episode was meant as a touchstone, not an exhortation to learn shit from South Park.

I'm not concluding anything from the reference, just pointing out that "faith" relies on fancy to some degree, and that some Mormons might be more open to acknowledge it than Romney has been painted in this thread (and that the danger of fanciful beliefs is in the execution, not the belief itself).

I wasn't getting at much. Basically I agree with you. I just thought it was worth noting that South Park can make religions look even sillier than they are. And yeah, I understand satire.

What the episode presented also lines up with what I know about Mormonism, as little as it is, and the musical chorus of dum, dum, dum, dum, dum works better the more authentic the presentation is.

And yet, the goofy seeming history probably doesn't inform much of a current Mormon's faith anyway, which I think is part of your point about Romney, but not so much a point of South Park's general attitude toward religions.

Hasn't Romney kind of made the point that it's the faith that he grew up with, maybe as a way to suggest what you are saying, "yep, I'm Mormon but it's something I might have taken for granted rather than embraced intellectually as an adult?"