The whole Rush Limbaugh “slut” incident has brought to the forefront the issue of “reproductive rights.” The woman whom Rush called a slut was speaking at a congressional event. Rush later apologized. She called for the Catholic university Georgetown, where she is a law student, to pay for her birth control. She considers this one of her “reproductive rights.”

When somebody says they have a “right” to something, I think it behooves all people to consider what a right is and a right isn’t. Is there such a thing as “reproductive rights?”

The answer is yes and no.

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I just discovered the FAIR podcasts (as usual, I am at least a year or two behind the times). If you have any interest in Mormon topics, I cannot recommend these podcasts enough.

Recent subjects have included an interview with an LDS man with same-sex attraction who is still living with his lover but has taken a vow of chastity and is temple-worthy. In addition, there are very well-done podcasts discussing controversial issues and providing good defenses of the Church. I loved the recent interview of Matt Bowman regarding his new Mormon history book “The Mormon People.” The FAIR interviewer, Blair Hodges, made the task of an interviewer look incredibly easy, and I can tell you it is not. Listening to two smart Mormons discuss the Church in a faith-promoting, respectful way was really a joy.

In sum, I highly recommend these podcasts. You can get them from Itunes here. While you are there, you can also add General Conference to your Itunes playlist. I always try to listen to any sessions or talks I missed in the weeks after Conference.

Great work from the folks at FAIR.

Imagine if you will a new, popular cult in Brazil called “The Believers who Baptize Their Dead.” Its members seem to be pretty good people, but they have this weird cultist practice: they gather in places they call “temples” and they pretend to “baptize” relatives and occasionally even friends. They keep track of who has been baptized and who hasn’t by a computer program, and people are encouraged to spend time when they can doing “work” for the people who have already passed on.

These “Believers” think that once people die they may change their minds about the religions they practiced while alive. They believe that they may choose to accept the new religion of the “Believers.” So, by baptizing them they are doing a service, ie, they are offering them a choice of joining this new religion. They think a lot of these people will be eternally grateful they were offered the choice.

So, let’s say this weird cult gets your name and baptizes you after you die. Would you care?

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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.

A new book on James Madison makes the bold claim that it was Madison, not Thomas Jefferson, who was the greatest proponent of religious liberty. Kevin Gutzman’s new book “James Madison and the Making of America” points out that it was Madison who pushed through the Virginia Statue for Religious Freedom, which was the ground-breaking foundation for the First Amendment. (Jefferson was a key player in the process, but it was Madison who actually got the statute enacted).

If we look at history from a Mormon perspective, it seems clear that Madison is the person who most helped create an environment that went beyond simple religious “tolerance” to true religious liberty. Madison was uniquely and acutely aware of the sufferings of minority religious groups, even in the colonies, and he fought incessantly against the establishment of a majority religion. I think we can make a strong argument that the religious environment for Joseph Smith would have been very different, and much less welcoming, if it weren’t for Madison.

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