The British New Statesman is running a series of first-person columns written by members of its staff about their own faiths. Tom Quinn's multi-part series on the LDS Church is refreshing in its across-the-Atlantic frankness.

Here's Quinn explaining the Mormon idea of a personal relationship with God:

Unfortunately, many Mormons forget the importance of acquiring one's own personal conviction, and are instead coerced onto said bandwagon via intense social pressure or threats of eternal damnation. In that sense, I understand why the the LDS Church can appear cult-like to those outside the tradition. This behaviour, however, has its roots not in Mormon doctrine, but in Mormon culture, two entirely different—and often opposing—belief systems.

Sadly, even some members have a hard time distinguishing between the two. Believe me, I could fill volumes with tales of negative experiences I've had with well-meaning but ill-informed Mormons.

Closer to home, Orson Scott Card takes to task the brethren & sistren for beating up on Mormon actor Kirby Heyborne who had the audacity to take a part in a beer commercial. Seems he had to feed his family or something. Says Card:

From the storm of condemnation Kirby has had dumped on him, I realize now that the church is far more pure than I had supposed. Good Mormons don't make such compromises!

We are in a golden age of righteousness!

Because many Utahns have difficult with sarcasm, I'll point out that Card is, indeed, being viciously sarcastic.

...to the Mormon lady who wrote to me that she was sure I must not have been a Mormon when I wrote "Ender's Game," because of the "graphic violence" in the book: I was a Mormon then, and am a Mormon now, and would hand that book to the Savior if the occasion arose, because I'm proud of the complex moral reasoning in that story. I believe that those who read it with understanding are changed for the better by the experience.

Will anyone be changed for the better by Kirby Heyborne's appearance in a beer ad?

In other Mormon news, Main Street Plaza puts to rest a beloved myth: Albert Einstein never described LDS Apostle James E. Talmage was "the smartest man he’d ever met." Profxm says he has tracked the rumor down and the closest Talmage ever came to meeting Einstein was attending a lecture by someone else on the Theory of Relativity in 1924 in Toronto.

Darn, I guess I'll have to stop mocking my brainiac friends with, "You're a regular James E. Talmage."