Charles Blow, a NY Times columnist, tweeted the following:
“Let me tell you this ‘Mitt Muddle Mouth:’ I’m a single parent and my kids are *amazing*! Stick that in your magic underwear.”
As most readers here know, the Mormon garment is among the most sacred physical expressions of our faith, but is something we don’t spend a lot of time talking about. The basic test here is: what would happen if a New York Times columnist made fun of something similarly sacred to another religion? What if he had told Joe Lieberman to “stick that in your yarmulke?”
I’d like to go on record as saying that as a Mormon I am offended by people making fun of garments. There are many less sacred Mormon cultural symbols and expressions (jello, white shirts and bicycles, epithets like “oh my heck!”) that I think are completely fair game. We could probably come up with a list of dozens of them on this blog. But making fun of temples and garments is simply beyond the pale, and, again, I find it offensive.
Charles Blow should apologize and, in my opinion, he should be suspended by the New York Times because of this action.
UPDATE: Charles Blow has apologized.