Defending the LDS Church? Only with rhetoric..

Going through the interwebz, I read an article on the Deseret News website that I found entertaining and if the author wasn't serious I would have found it hilarious. As it is, he was serious, so in all reality it's almost sad; no it's disappointing.

In the article, the writer attempts to defend the LDS Church from such terrible slights as:

Claiming that Sunday Services are held in Temples! Yes, that is a slight because EVERYONE in the world knows that Mormons don't go to their temples on Sundays right?

Stating that Sunday services are 3 hours long and consist of sacrament (with water swapped in for wine) and then 2 more hours of preaching and meetings. (ummm. Growing up Mormon, that effectively sounds like Sundays in a Mormon meeting house). I realize the description isn't 100% accurate, it is close though. Not really a need to be condescending to the person who wrote the article though.

Speculating that Mitt Romney would attend the same church house as Harry Reid. OMG, Really? That's an issue? Oops, I forgot EVERYONE in the world would KNOW that Mormons have separate congregations called "wards" that meet at different times and are separated geographically right? Because EVERY other religion in the world is organized that way too...

The author then goes on to attack Callahan for the following: (it's easier for me to put the entire piece here for you to read)
• Callahan wrote about going to the Washington D.C. Temple Visitors Center, talking to young female missionaries who "wear calf-length skirts, flat shoes and an indefatigable air of energized piety." Then she added: "Less than two hours after my visit – despite giving staffers only my first name and filling out no paperwork – I was startled to get a voicemail on my cell phone from someone identifying himself as a prophet, saying that he'd like to 'start interceding for your life' and asking me to call an 800 number to join a prayer circle." Callahan blithely linked the two events, inferring that the phone call came as a result of her visit to the visitor's center. The Newsroom article on the LDS missionary program would have told her that missionaries are referred to as "elder" and sister," not "prophet," and that their work has nothing to do with "interceding for your life" or organizing "prayer circles." And common sense should have told her that there's no way the missionaries could have come up with her cell phone number based only on her first name.




There are other issues within Callahan's column, most of them similarly mixing a little truth with a lot of misunderstanding — most of which could have been avoided with a few clicks on the LDS Newsroom website.

Seriously?!?! If I were Maureen Callahan and got a voice mail shortly after visiting with some Mormon missionaries and got the message she got and knew little to nothing about the Mormons, I would INFER the same thing. Rather than attacking her and subtly calling her lazy and stupid, wouldn't it have been better to maybe, just maybe let her know what you would like her to know. Instead of writing a column damning her for her lack of knowledge, EDUCATE her.
 
Sadly though, this is typical Mormon behavior. Attack someone instead of educate them. After all, you are being persecuted by someone right? WRONG!