Obfuscation, Evasion, and Half-Truths: The LDS Church Answers Fox News

Over at the Fox News web site, they have posted 21 questions posed to the LDS church and answered by the voice for the "one true and living church on the face of the earth"--yea, even the unnamed public relations spokesperson.  While some of the questions are poorly worded, they do represent a decent sampling of questions frequently encountered by members of the LDS church.  So, how did the church do in answering?  I present here the questions, the answers, and my commentary.  Before getting to the Q&A, I find this from the article interesting: "The Church objected to answering some of the questions on the grounds that they misrepresent the basic tenets of the Mormon religion."  I am not sure why that would be an objection?  Why not just correct any misrepresentation in the answer?

Also, the church's prefatory statement is curious: "Many of these questions are typically found on anti-Mormon blogs or Web sites which aim to misrepresent or distort Mormon doctrines.  Several of these questions do not represent ... any serious attempt to depict the core values and beliefs of its members."

Which questions? And which blogs and which web sites "aim to misrepresent or distort Mormon doctrines"?  Is the church perhaps referring to the www.josephsmith.net web site and its misrepresentations of the gold-plate translation process and Joseph Smith's family life?  It's hard to know.  And should questions that people have about Mormonism make a "serious attempt to depict the core values and beliefs of" Mormons?  Isn't the point of the questions to find out about those beliefs and values?  A strange objection, to be sure.  On to the Q&A.

Is Romney's Religion Fair Game?

This article in today's Deseret News is just the latest to discuss the subject of how Mitt Romney's Mormonism is a recurring theme in his quest for the Presidency.  This morning I was watching the local Fox News affiliate and they had Chris Wallace on talking about the number of questions Romney received about his personal religious views in a recent debate.  And a video clip of Romney debating with a conservative radio talk-show host in Iowa has been one of the more popular clips of the week on YouTube.  The question people are asking is this: to what extent is Romney's Mormon faith fair game?