The Washington DC Temple
Poor Maureen Dowd and The New York Times tried to take Mitt Romney down a notch today with an anti-Mormon/anti-Christian rant on his terrific speech on religion:
When I was a kid, we used to drive on the Beltway past the big Mormon temple outside Washington. The spires rose up like a white Oz, and some wag had spray-painted the message on a bridge beneath: “Surrender Dorothy!”
It did seem like an alien world, an impression that was enhanced when we took a tour of the temple and saw all the women wearing white outfits and light pink lipstick.
Of course, it was no more scary than scowling nuns with long rulers preaching about the virgin birth, the Holy Ghost and the hideous fates that would befall girls who wore too much makeup or French-kissed.
However, Glenn Reynolds reported this on Miss Dowd:
But if you’re imagining Dowd as a pigtailed six-year-old in the back of the family station wagon, think again.
The temple was finished in 1974. Maureen Dowd was born in 1952. So she was a “kid” who was old enough to vote and drink. (According to this source, the graffiti first appeared in 1973, when Dowd would have been 21.) Thanks to reader Conrad Kiechel for the tip. I remember the graffiti, too, though, which was still there in the 1980s when I was a “kid” practicing law in Washington. By then Dowd was pushing 40.
UPDATE: Apparently, there are MORE PROBLEMS with Miss Dowd’s report:
This is complete and total B.S.
Once a Temple is dedicated, only those with valid Temple Recommends can enter. Even LDS Members cannot enter unless they hold a Temple Recommend from their Bishop. And you would never see a woman in her Temple clothes outside the Temple. And no one says pink lipstick or any other shade. That is just plain ignorant as are all her remarks.
This Dowd woman is a liar in more ways than one.
