In accepting the Tony, Parker thanked Mormonism's founder Joseph Smith Jr.: "You did it, Joseph," Trey Parker gleefully declared, "You got the Tony!"

Never mind, according to Jared Farmer's extensive and thorough review of The Book of Mormon for Religion Dispatches ("Why The Book of Mormon (the Musical) is Awesomely Lame" - http://www.religiondispatches.org/archive/culture/4743/why_the_bo ok_of_mormon_%28the_musical%29_is_awesomely_lame__/), that while the play "is fun, and occasionally uproarious," it appears that "Many of ... [its] ethnographic details are wrong."

'LDS church takes center stage'

With two Mormons - Mitt Romney and Jon M. Huntsman Jr. -- now in the race for the Republican Party's presidential nomination, there will be lots of talk about Mormonism in the coming months. As Religion Link pointed out in a piece called "The Mormon moment: The LDS church takes center stage" (http://www.religionlink.com/tip_110520.php), "the fact that Romney and Huntsman, who addressed [Ralph Reed's] Faith and Freedom Conference and Strategy Briefing, are considered top prospects for the GOP nomination is viewed by many experts as a sign of political progress for" Mormons.

According to an early June poll by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press,  "A substantial majority of Americans (68%) say it would not matter to them if a presidential candidate was Mormon. A quarter (25%) says they would be less likely to support a Mormon, while 5% say they would be more likely to support a Mormon candidate. These opinions are little changed from February 2007 (64% said this would not matter, 30% less likely, 2% more likely)."

The poll pointed out that in addition to differences by Party affiliation, there "are differences by religious affiliation": "About a third of white evangelical Protestants (34%) say they would less likely to support a Mormon candidate, compared with 24% of the religiously unaffiliated, and just 19% of white mainline Protestants and about the same percentage of white Catholics (16%). These opinions have changed little since 2007."

However, for some conservative Christian evangelicals, including journalist Warren Cole Smith,  Romney and Huntsman's Mormonism may undercut the viability of their candidacies. Smith, author of A Lover's Quarrel With The Evangelical Church, wrote in a late May column posted at Patheos and titled "A Vote for Romney Is a Vote for the LDS Church" (http://www.patheos.com//Resources/Additional-Resources/Vote-for-R omney-Is-a-Vote-for-the-LDS-Church-Warren-Cole-Smith-05-24-2011.h tml), that Romney's "religious worldview will be vital to his governing philosophy, and will ultimately be the issue that undermines his candidacy."

Despite the fact that "the theology of Mormonism is very different from orthodox Christian theology, its social teachings on abortion, same-sex marriage, and a range of other issues are very similar," Romney supporters might argue. But Smith maintained that "Even if a Mormon social teaching happens to concur with orthodox Christianity at this point in time, it is unreliable and subject to alteration. It's tempting to say that 'continuing revelation' has defined Romney's career, who has changed his positions on same-sex marriage and abortion and just about every major 'culture war' issue."

Smith acknowledged that "The vast majority of Americans won't care about these theological implications. Indeed, Americans are generally tone-deaf to theological nuances. But to all American voters-religious or not-I would ask this question: Do we want a person who believes that history is something you can "make up as you go along" negotiating the outcomes of conflicts with real histories that go back thousands of years?"

Nevertheless, a column in The Economist's Democracy in America blog titled "They're here, they're square, get used to it!" (http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2011/06/mormons ), asks the question: "why don't people like Mormons?"

"No other faith, save perhaps Islam, catches so much flak in the United States," blogger E.G. asserts. "Even among Americans who aren't hostile to Mormonism, the default position seems to be skepticism or ridicule rather than anodyne appreciation for the varieties of religious experience."

The Mormon 'moment' has lasted at least a decade

Regardless of what people know, or think they know, about Mormonism, Farmer, the author of On Zion's Mount: Mormons, Indians, and the American Landscape, and a history teacher at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, also pointed out "the past ten years in America has been something of a Mormon moment."

In addition to Romney and Huntsman's current bid for the presidency, there's "the power of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, the power of Fox News demagogue Glenn Beck," and the political power exercised by the church in the fight over Proposition 8.  Such cultural markers as the '7 Habits' empire of business management guru Stephen R. Covey, the widespread commentary about the Mormon influences in Stephanie Meyer's phenomenally popular Twilight series, ... the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, the Elizabeth Smart kidnapping and its judicial aftermath, the Warren Jeffs trial, American Idol runner-up David Archuleta, all-time Jeopardy winner Ken Jennings, ex-Mormon bad boy playwright-screenwriter-director Neil LaBute."

Add to the list "Jared and Jerusha Hess' sleeper indie hit Napoleon Dynamite, the PBS documentary The Mormons, HBO's adaptation of Angels in America, HBO's original series Big Love, TLC's reality show Sister Wives, Richard and Joan Ostling's investigative nonfiction Mormon America, John Krakauer's polemical nonfiction Under the Banner of Heaven, Martha Beck's scandalous memoir Leaving the Saints, David Ebershoff's experimental fiction The 19th Wife, Brady Udall's tragicomic novel The Lonely Polygamist, and the South Park episode about Joseph Smith (who also shows up as one of the 'Super Best Friends' in other episodes satirizing religion)."

Does anyone remember the Osmond family? And who hasn't spent at least part of a Christmas Eve watching the Mormon Tabernacle Choir?

So, in the coming months, we are going to hear and learn lots more about Mormons. We'll learn about the famous and the infamous. We'll learn more about the actors, producers, directors and other entertainers, athletes, artists, writers and authors, politicians and businessmen that have contributed to the diverse fabric of America ("Famous Mormons" -- http://famousmormons.net/artists.html).

We'll also learn that the religion has spawned its fair share of killers and murderers (Ted Bundy, Arthur Gary Bishop) and bank robbers and thieves (Butch Cassidy). For more, see "Infamous Mormons: Latter-day Saints who have behaved very badly, notorious criminals" -- http://famousmormons.net/infamous.html.

"There are aspects of Mormonism that are objectionable, but not more so than we see in other religions," The Economist's E.G. pointed put. "For example, they do a lot of missionary work, which some people find offensive, but that's not unique to the Latter-Day Saints. And some Mormon fundamentalists display grotesque personal behavior, but that's true of some fundamentalist anybodies. The biggest difference between Mormonism and other widespread world religions is that Mormonism is relatively new; that may contribute to the skepticism about it, which contributes to the faith's insularity, which contributes to additional skepticism, and so on."

The newness of the LDS is not journalist Warren Cole Smith's biggest objection to both Mormonism and a Romney candidacy. Smith claimed that "At its core, Mormonism is - by Christian standards or by reasonable secular standards - an a-historical (and at times anti-historical) worldview. Evangelicals and others who argue that you cannot dismiss Romney based on his religion either miss or ignore this critical point. The boat of Mormonism is not tied to the anchor of either historical Christianity or even commonly accepted historical facts. Because the boat of Mormonism has been cut loose from that anchor, and is adrift in a sea of philosophies and ideas, any similarity between Christian and Mormon is historically temporary and not a reliable gauge of how Romney will govern."

While Romney is certainly not the first choice of Religious Right leaders (nor the Tea Party for that matter), it is extremely unlikely that should he become the GOP's presidential nominee, the Religious Right would forsake him.