I knew Mitt Romney was a Mormon.  I knew Donny Osmond was a Mormon.  But until seeing this photo, taken at the funeral of Mormon leader Gordon Hinkley, I didn’t know that the Senate Majority Leader, Democrat Harry Reid of Nevada, was a Mormon.  Maybe this is why the media has been relatively easy on Romney’s Mormonism.  After all, it seems to be the Christian media, like us, who’ve raised more fuss about it than anyone else.

Afghanistan’s Islamic clergy have warned President Hamid Karzai to stop missionaries from converting people to Christianity, saying the missionaries threaten Islamic Shariah, the Constitution and political stability: “If not prevented, God forbid, catastrophe will emerge, which will not only destabilize the country, but the region and the world.”

The New York Times looks at anti-Mormon bias, wondering why, in our post-denominational age, some are still uncomfortable with Mitt Romney’s religious beliefs. The article contrasts Mormonism’s wholesome public symbols with its secret sacred rituals: “The marriage of these opposites leaves outsiders uncomfortable, wondering what Mormonism really is.”

Tourists aren’t helping the environment, a group of New Zealand researchers say. Carbon emissions from tourists’ air travel to New Zealand equal the country’s total emissions from coal, gas and oil. In other environmental news, some biofuels are worse for the environment than fossil fuels.

It’s Grand Theft Auto for girls! The Coolest Girl in School is the first mobile role playing game geared for a female audience, so the content isn’t surprising: “Experiment with fashion! Experiment with drugs! Experiment with sexuality! Cut class! Spread rumors! And avoid dying of embarrassment - literally!”

California schools are paying teachers bonuses to attract teachers to poor schools, but Walt Gardner says it won’t work. The schools need 700,000 teachers, and the combat pay may attract some teachers but it won’t make them stay: “Working conditions and student characteristics matter far more than salary in attracting and keeping teachers.”

A Baton Rouge business wants to offer fortune telling, but a Livingston Parish ordinance forbids it. The ordinance bans “soothsaying, fortune telling, palm reading, clairvoyance, crystal ball gazing, mind reading, card reading and the like for money or other consideration.” Gryphon’s Nest Gifts Inc. has filed a federal lawsuit challenging the ban as promoting Christianity over paganism.

Oklahoma City major Mick Cornett has challenged his corpulent constituents to shed 1 million pounds in 2008, attempting to mend Oklahoma City’s reputation as one of America’s fattest cities.

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Signs point to the fact that Mitt Romney took yesterday’s speech seriously. Criticized often for projecting an air critics call robotic or scripted even in informal settings, he spoke convincingly of a faith that’s shaped his heritage. His campaign says he wrote the speech himself.

But what did everyone else think? Most of the media were smitten. So were major voices on the right like Rush Limbaugh and James Dobson. The immediate reaction from speech attendees was also largely positive; press folks like pundit Glenn Beck (also a Mormon) immediately dropped words like “homerun.”

But attendees were either media or by-invitation-only guests — two of the groups least critical of Romney’s Mormonism.The former governor did “a magnificent job,” Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, told a CNN crew. Land, who already gave Romney a few suggestions for the speech, said he personally encouraged Romney to give the speech more than a year ago.

But for the average Joes, many of whom said it did reinforce Romney’s morality, the speech didn’t necessarily sway votes, even though they mostly agreed it was good, even presidential sounding. Rabbi Peter Tarlow, of the Texas A&M Hillel Foundation, said he thought Romney “stood up for the importance of giving equal footing for all faiths in America,” though he remains undecided about who he is supporting in 2008. Scott Talbert, pastor of McDade Baptist Church in McDade, Texas, said he thought Romney “has got a real moral compass.” He added that “what he said was often right — like about how we’ve taken this idea of separation of church and state out of control,” but he’s not won over mainly because it’s hard for him not to support Mike Huckabee, a fellow Southern Baptist and former pastor.

Jenna Tomlinson*, who chairs AARP — Atheists and Agnostics for Ron Paul — at Texas A&M University, said the speech was insulting: “Short version of the speech? ‘I’m Mormon, but at least I’m not an atheist,’ ” she said. “As an atheist and a conservative who considers herself very moral, I was pretty offended that he didn’t talk about the contributions of atheists to America and their right to not believe in any god.”

Rob Sivulka, president of Courageous Christians United, is part of the reason why his campaign thought Romney needed to give the speech. Standing next to a sign that read “JOSEPH LIED” (that is, Joseph Smith), Sivulka doesn’t quibble with Romney on policy positions so much as solely contest his theological ones. But he said he wanted Romney to “come clean in his speech,” to tell everyone that “he is basically a bishop” in the LDS church. “But he didn’t,” Sivulka said, summing the speech up as “pretending like Mormons are Christians.”

* UPDATE: Atheists and Agnostics for Ron Paul, if it exists, apparently does not have a website, and the name “Jenna Tomlinson” is not in the Texas A&M student directory. WoW may have been taken for a ride.

John Dickerson says Romney’s Mormon Speech was really pretty great, but that his ode to religious freedom welcomed all theologies to the buffet of American pie, with one exception.  Romney forgot to say nice things about atheists. 

And for all of his reading of the founders, Romney had none of their concern for nonbelievers. Those with no faith were left out of his pluralistic vision. Even George Bush, the supposed theocratic president, gives a nod to nonbelievers.

Somehow, I don’t think Hitchens will care.

Well, Mitt Romney just gave his big Mormon Speech.  National Review already has their favorite and least favorite lines.

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