Former Mormon Explains Why Mitt Romney Should Never Be President

[daaron]

26. "as bigoted as anything I've ever seen here"

Ah. They pull the old "bigot" card, here, too? Ima transplant from Randi.org and the very religious keep that knee-jerk handy there, as well, for use whenever irrational beliefs are questioned.

The fact of the matter is that the hierarchs of Churches have put their believers in this awkward position of defending the indefensible. By inserting the Church into politics at the institutional level, as with Prop. 8 in the Mormon case, or with contraception coverage in the Catholic case, the Churches themselves have provoked this genuine populist reaction against their religiously-based bigotry, bias, and privilege.

I have known many Jack Mormons (having grown up in a neighboring state), and the author of the OP's quote publicly expresses, none-too-eloquently, pretty much the same exasperated, resentful disrespect for their former religion that these others have, in private. More bluntly put, every Jack Mormon I've known left the Church feeling that they'd escaped from a cult in the nick of time, before they were truly lost.

Would you call an escapee from the Branch Davidians a bigot for publicly exposing the cult from which they had escaped? Would you call a mother of 14 who escaped from the Quiverful movement a bigot for exposing the abusive beliefs and practices of that cult? That's how Jack Mormons feel, and in fact it's bigoted to dismiss their direct life experience and claim that you're purely intellectual understanding is the proper one.