Some people helping Senator McCain’s campaign are quietly providing helpful new information for those seeking to better understand Mormons: Mitt Romney’s church (the “Mormon Church”) is actually supporting terrorists, Mormon leaders are like the Taliban gang, and Mormons are not Christians. (Sloppy journalists at the Boston Globe left out the part about our weekly child sacrifices and our dislike of rock and roll music – also sure to be key talking points for Senator McCain’s whisper campaign.) So there’s the foundation of hope for McCain: bringing Americans together to reject anti-American, unchristian, pro-terrorist oppressors of women and promoters of violence.

McCain’s political team and other campaign teams have an interesting pattern of making bigoted statements about Mormons and then issuing apologies later, explaining that it was just a joke or misunderstood. We must stop this kind of bigotry and name-calling, and I’d like to apologize in advance for any of us Mormons who make rude statements in reply, such as stating that religious bigots are a bunch of ninnies. Oops! That won’t happen again. Ninnies. Or again.

Some excerpts from the Boston Globe (Boston.com) (page 1 and page 2):

Gathering for their April meeting at the county courthouse, Republican activists from Warren County, Iowa, planned for this summer’s county fair and vented about illegal immigration.

And then the county chairman for Senator John McCain’s presidential campaign, Chad Workman, made an unexpected digression: He took direct aim at Mitt Romney’s religion, according to four people at the meeting.

Workman questioned whether Mormons were Christians, discussed an article alleging that the Mormon Church helps fund Hamas, and likened the Mormons’ treatment of women to the Taliban’s, said participants, who requested anonymity to discuss the meeting freely.

One participant summed up Workman’s argument this way: “The fundamental flaw of Mitt Romney . . . was that he was Mormon, not because he thinks this way or that way on one issue.”

Workman did not return calls seeking comment. . . .

Romney has faced repeated slights against his religion from other quarters as well. A Florida televangelist, Bill Keller, told followers recently that a vote for Romney is a vote for Satan. And a small group of worshipers from the Faith Christian Outreach Church in Mount Pleasant, Iowa, has been going door-to-door distributing a DVD that takes a critical look at the Mormon Church.

“Our concern was simply that Mormonism has continued to try and pass itself off as a Christian religion, which it is not,” said Monte Knudsen, senior pastor at the church, who insisted the effort was not aimed at hurting Romney’s candidacy. . . .

Romney’s detractors have also used e-mail to stir suspicions about his faith. One note sent to South Carolina voters warned of the “dark suspicions” about Mormonism, telling recipients to “trust your instincts” because “Mitt Romney has a family secret he doesn’t want you to know,” Salon, the online magazine, reported recently. The “secret” was the long-acknowledged fact that Romney has polygamous ancestors, Salon reported.

Again, deprecating terms such as “religious bigot,” “son of Belial,” “loser” and “ninny” are contrary to the lofty editorial standards of this blog and will not be tolerated again, even when blogging about them – especially religious bigot ninnies.

Disclosure: I’m not associated with the Romney campaign and actually lean toward a different candidate, but am appalled at the religious bigotry shown by some of Romney’s opponents (you know, the religious bigot ninny types).