Yukonyon appears to have missed my sarcasm when I asked about what was “borderline inappropriate”:
Borderline inappropriate means that you unfairly cast conjecture at the Mormons, without scrutinizing the rest of the Christian mantra. And since you bring it up, let’s call it what it is; sacred, not secret. It is something that the Mormons consider to be very sacred, and you don’t hit any nerves with your conjecture, just infuriate them when you join the other hacks in desecrating what they consider to be so sacred that they don’t talk about it outside of the temple walls. It is nothing special or original, and it gives you no kudos.
One does not need to scrutinize every religious idiosyncracy in order to cast a skeptical eye on the abnormal rituals of any particular group. You’re conflating various commenters with me here, as I never made any reference to anything being secret; as for sacred, I think you know that I am rather well known for being a non-respecter of sacred cows of every kind, even my own. It’s always easy to laugh when someone else’s ox is getting gored; the strength of one’s convictions is revealed in one’s reaction when it’s one’s own ox that’s bleeding.
So, I don’t shy away from the various and occasionally inexplicable oddities of my faith nor do I expect others to do so. It is a testimony to Mormon insecurity that they are so sensitive, even secretive, about what is quite rightly regarded by them as an embarrassing matter. And I note that to talk about something, even in scorn, is not to desecrate it. I’m not a Soviet-style atheist, burning your underwear in front of you as proof that your Mormon god does not exist.
I must vehemently dispute the idea that “Captain Underoos” is neither special nor original. I think it’s almost perfectly appropriate, combining as it does divergent elements of truth, humor, offensivenes and contempt; if Mitt Romney doesn’t look like a figure straight out of Marvel Comics, I don’t know who does. Can’t you see him standing proudly in his temple garments, fists at his side as he juts out his jaw confidently towards the future? His superpower is one that allows him to retroactively change five seconds of the past when he slips on his magic gold spectacles.
Mormons are, for the most part, fine, upstanding people who believe some crazy things. Which is perfectly acceptable and we’d surely be better off with more of them around. But that doesn’t mean the rest of us don’t have a right to laugh at the craziness, and it doesn’t speak well of their collective judgment that they would elect to line up behind a man I hope is a very poor example of Mormon integrity, or rather, the lack thereof, simply because he wears the same sacred underwear that they do.