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Sneak Preview - Proof Positive That John Huntsman Sr. May Have Been Pure Evil

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Harper's magazine's October 2011 cover story, "Pennies From Heaven: How Mormon Economics Shape the G.O.P." (by Chris Lehmann*) is certainly a bombshell for anyone living in Utah, anyone of the LDS persusasion, and/or anyone who has a passing interesting in either post-1970s Evangelical politics or political Mormonism.

It has some excellent research and some decent points, and also, in my opinion, has some significant, crippling flaws that demonstrate a lack of understanding on the author's part of Mormonism's history (aside from its most recent few decades) and modern Evangelical (especially megachurch-Evangelical) self-help theology.

That said, it is exhaustively researched enough to include gems like this one regarding chemical magnate Jon Huntsman Sr., which I think presents the best case thus far for the existence of actual, physical evil:
Even as he worked in the Nixon White House as personal aide to the president, the elder Huntsman was also selling greatest-hits compilations by such easy-listening stalwarts as Perry Como and Andy Williams in supermarket chains.


I need to do some digging to find a damn near dissertation-length thing I wrote about Evangelical politics and megachurches, and do a little research as well, but I should have a post addressing "Pennies From Heaven" up in a day or two. Overall, "Pennies," despite its flaws, does make a valuable contribution to the discussion about Mormonism, religion, and politics, and is worth reading.

*Lehmann is an editor of Bookforum, and, intriguingly, is married to the lovely Ana Marie Cox of progressive blog-and-media-circuit fame (she is, among other things, a founding editor of Wonkette, one of my very favorite blogs and an early and permanent entry in my blogroll).

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