Religion

A pastor supporting Rick Perry calls Mormonism a "cult. " Is that untrue? Well, what's the difference between a "cult" and a "religion"? Not easy to say. Many people think they know the difference when they see it. Scientology and the Rev. Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church are cults - aren't they? And Judaism and Christianity are surely religions. But in fact, early Christianity was considered just a cult by both Jews and Romans; Islam was long considered just a cult by medieval Christians; and, of course, many Protestant groups, from the Baptists to the Quakers, were considered cults by other Christians.

Evidence of big media's bias against religion that doesn't advance the secular and liberal agenda of the Democratic Party is beyond dispute. Any faith attached to a conservative agenda is to be ridiculed, stereotyped and misrepresented. Islam is a notable exception. The media appear to bend over backward not to offend Muslims. The Washington Post on Monday, reporting from Carrollton, Ark., uncovered an event that occurred nearly 155 years ago and then sought to link it to the presidential candidacy of Mitt Romney: "On Sept.

Fall festival Visit the fall festival at Chesapeake Christian Center, 206 Weston Woods Drive in Pasadena, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Oct. 31 for music, family activities, hay rides, pumpkin- and face-painting, horseshoes and more. A variety of foods and refreshments will be for sale. Information: 410-255-3168.

Services to honor military Active-duty military and veterans will be recognized in worship services at 8 a.m. and 10:45 a.m. Sunday, May 27, at Galilee Lutheran Church, 4652 Mountain Road in Pasadena. Military personnel will be invited to come forward to be recognized. Information: 410-255-8236. Summer camp Woods Memorial Presbyterian Church, 611 Baltimore-Annapolis Blvd., offers a one-week day camp from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Aug. 6-10 for children entering third through ninth grades to teach them how to express their faith through music, drama, movement and fine arts.

Jokes about polygamy and funny long underwear aside, Mitt Romney's Mormon faith has not been, and will not become, a factor in the presidential campaign of 2012. I have a friend who wishes that were not so. She thinks it's creepy that Mormons comb genealogical records to find people to retroactively baptize into the church -- people who were not Mormons when they were alive and probably would not want to be Mormons if they still were. Knowing that the one constant in Mr. Romney's otherwise malleable set of beliefs is his religion, my friend cannot understand why the Obama campaign has not raised the oddities of Mormonism as an issue.

I have seen and heard repeated complaints by both politicians and religious leaders that freedom of religion is denied them when others of competing faiths demand the right to practice what they believe. I rejoice in a First Amendment that allows me to believe what my church teaches, behave according to my church's rules, and share my faith with others by means of example, information and gentle persuasion. I do not assume the right to demand that laws from the state impose the disciplines of my faith on others who don't share it. The rhetoric in today's political arena points ever more clearly to a desire on the part of some believers to have their denominational laws enforced upon all Americans, effectively establishing a government-sponsored national religion.

When I heard about the attack in Oslo, I was terrified it might change government policies affecting Muslims around the world. But then it turned out that the perpetrator was a Christian extremist. My Christian friends were as astonished and disgusted as was I, a Muslim-American. But the attack gave us all a new perspective. Hatred is the common factor among all these terrorists, not religion. There is no such thing as a Christian terrorist or a Muslim terrorist - just a hateful terrorist.

Regarding your editorial "Fueling anti-Islamic fears" (Aug. 8), proposed prohibitions on Sharia law have not been introduced in Annapolis. On the contrary, the Maryland General Assembly has passed legislation protecting the free exercise of religion by Muslims and Jews and, by so doing, the beliefs of all people of faith. Senate Bill 756 and House Bill 474, passed in 2007, do not require funeral directors to learn how to embalm, which is contrary to Islamic belief. Similarly, the legislature enacted a law this session that allows an Orthodox Jewish couple to close their business on Saturday, their Sabbath, and open it on Sunday, when all other used cars dealers in Baltimore City must be closed.

Unless you want a fight to break out at a cocktail party or a family reunion, conventional wisdom has it, don't talk religion or politics. I did both in this space last Monday, and then I crawled in a bunker and waited for the fireworks to begin. "Be prepared," my editor warned. "The long knives will come out. " "There's going to be a cross burning in your front yard," a friend warned; another asked if I had hired bodyguards. In that column, I talked of how difficult it was to be a Catholic woman these days, what with the church fathers taking up the cudgel against American nuns, not to mention the odd teacher struggling to get pregnant or the heartbroken teenage girl dumped by a guy on the eve of her prom.

Jokes about polygamy and funny long underwear aside, Mitt Romney's Mormon faith has not been, and will not become, a factor in the presidential campaign of 2012. I have a friend who wishes that were not so. She thinks it's creepy that Mormons comb genealogical records to find people to retroactively baptize into the church -- people who were not Mormons when they were alive and probably would not want to be Mormons if they still were. Knowing that the one constant in Mr. Romney's otherwise malleable set of beliefs is his religion, my friend cannot understand why the Obama campaign has not raised the oddities of Mormonism as an issue.

On Sunday, I attended mass with my 79-year-old grandmother. Two months ago, she lost her husband, my grandfather. Ever since that day, she could not have a more positive attitude about moving onward in her life. This strength she so fervently displays day to day, she wholeheartedly attributes to her faith. As her top admirer, and as someone who had considered herself a faithful Catholic for much of her life, I decided to begin attending church again to discover this unyielding faith my grandmother seems to possess.