I’m Huge in Japan

Let me draw your attention to two Jeremy Lott’s Diary media hits this week because 1) self-promotion! and 2) the articles are by journalists I both like and respect.

The most recent ran today in Politix, a project of Topix, by new editor-in-chief David Mark. Mark was previously editor of a bunch of stuff including Campaigns & Elections, the Politico op-ed page and The Arena.

In a riff on my Rick Warren post, Mark highlighted something that I didn’t think would get as much attention as it has. I said incivility was not really Warren’s concern and then moved on to spell out his real concern: the Obama administration’s somewhat cavalier attitude toward religious liberty.

Now, don’t get me wrong, Warren certainly objects to incivility. Who doesn’t? Yet if that was his only objection it is highly doubtful that we would be writing about a cancelled forum.

The other piece to bring to your attention is by The Observer‘s Paul Harris about Mormons in America.

It’s a meaty article. Harris told me he didn’t have a lot of fixed notions going into it and so he did some good old fashioned journalism. He talked to a bunch of people with differing viewpoints — far more than just the usual liberal-conservative divide of the New York Times template — and, so far as I can tell, represented them accurately.

My favorite small observation, highlighted below, comes when Harris is interviewing Connor Boyack, a libertarian Mormon in Utah who doesn’t want to jump on the Mittwagon:

Sitting in Starbucks in the Utah city of Orem — and, as a devout Mormon, scrupulously avoiding the coffee — Boyack can’t disguise his contempt for Romney. “I think he’s horrible. I say that without hesitation. As a person I am sure that he is a good husband and father and a shrewd businessman. That’s not a statement on his character. It’s a statement on his public policies. They are horrible,” he said.