Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert (who, with his book God’s Debris makes a bid for the stoner philosopher of the 21st centrury) just made, on his blog, an interesting comment about Mormons.
I respect the Mormons for doing a great job of creating good citizens. Whatever they’re doing seems to be working. You rarely hear about a gang of violent Mormons terrorizing a town. But must I also respect their practice of wearing special underpants to ward off evil? Is it a package deal, no pun intended?
A few members went jump into the comments to make some corrections/clarifications, but that isn’t what interested me in the comments. Here are some comments that interested me:
I suppose the key word in this sentence is “rarely” but…not to burst your bubble, but sadly, even the Mormons can be scary, homocidal fanatics — read Under the Banner of Heaven (Jon Krakauer) if you want to read some interesting/scary things about fundamentalism, especially the Mormon variety. If you can’t be bothered, here’s the short version — polygamy + child molestation = Mormon Fundamentalism; also, it’s ok to kill people if God tells you to (that’s where the gang terrorizing a town comes in).
or
Want to read about violent Mormons*? try
Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer
I think you’d enjoy it.
*The church says they’re not real Mormons. Where have we heard that one before.
Not that I think the Dilbert Blog is the source of all that is true and good on the internet, but it seems like these comments show that Krakauer has done some serious damage to the reputation of the church. With polls showing that 39% of Americans view Moromons unfavorably, I wonder.
Perhaps it’s just random internet noise. But it may also be an early warning signal. I wonder if Romney’s (possible) presidential bid might actually trigger a huge cultural backlash against Mormons, rather than create understanding.