This is a serious departure for me, and for the context of this blog, but I can’t help but forward on a link to Ken Jenning’s recent open letter to the media-consuming world to just take a breather and think for a second when it comes to the next Mormon joke heard ’round the Late Night Talk Show table, or passed off as humor in your stream of media consumption.

Jennings, well-known for his stint on Jeopardy!, poses some serious questions to the would-be humorists and trying-to-be-serious journalists trying to defend the world against Mormon religious beliefs. Of course, the whole read is worth your 30-second click through, but here’s a few stinging points I want to highlight:

Maybe its just the general rudeness of the Internet age, but it seems like knowing sneers and pot-shots at Mormonism are actually becoming a currency of cool now. Did Jon Krakauers Under the Banner of Heaven, which puzzlingly portrays the mild-mannered Mormon West as a seething American underbelly of violence and fundamentalism, start this off? Was it the South Park episode? (Thats Mormon founder Joseph Smith at left in the picture above.) Or Big Love?

But substantive political argument [against actual Mormon theology] in these [critical journalistic] pieces is rare. Instead, otherwise rational people have straight-facedly taken the position that LDS theology itself is too outlandish to deserve any respect whatsoever. Religious discrimination is wrong, sure, and people should be allowed to believe what they want. Unless youre Mormon, of course. Eww. Theyre just weird.

Look, I dont expect opinion writers to write about the LDS church, or any religion not their own, from a believers point of view. That wouldnt make sense. But you dont get any class points in my book for turning somebodys sacred beliefs into punchlines just to jazz up your prose.

…here are a few points of advice to the would-be basher:

1. After you get off a particularly good zinger at those gullible Mormons, try recasting your sentence so it refers to those gullible Jews or Catholics or Muslims. If, Wonkette, you think Mormon temple garments should be called magic underwear throughout your post, try substituting magic beanie for yarmulke or magic Nilla wafer for Communion host in a similar context and considering whether thats journalism, or whether thats even funny anymore. If youre horrified by the result, its because bigotry is bigotry, no matter the target. Mormons are no strangers to religious discriminationafter all, Missouri had its 1838 extermination order against Mormons on the books until 1976. Discrimination against Mormons isnt any more of a laughing matter than anti-Semitism, anti-Islamic feeling, or any other religious prejudice…

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