Much has been made about the way Sharron Angle chooses to manifest her religion into almost every aspect of her Nevada Senate campaign.
And now, Dennis Myers of the Reno News & Review is out with a piece that includes an extensive interview with Angle's Pastor, John Reed, that is sure to raise some eyebrows.
During the interview with Myers, Reed made a big deal about Harry Reid's Mormonism. Ironically enough, he used the word "kooky" a lot:
"His religion's a cult," Pastor Reed said. "The Christian community--all the Christians, theologians and scholars, all recognize that, that Mormonism is a cult. I have books in my library on cults, and it lists Mormonism right there with all these bizarre cults. Well, there must be a reason. I mean, here a member of a cult is one of the most powerful people in the United States. Doesn't that alarm you? And his allegiance is to Salt Lake City. Something is up with that. Something's weird. But nobody touches that. ... Harry Reid's allegiance is to Salt Lake City. The Mormon church is rich, powerful, they do illegal things. They do secretive things. They've got all this money. They own American businesses. There's weirdness going on there. Churches are not multi-millionaire organizations like the Mormon church. You know, there's some weirdness with that, but nobody questions it, nobody asks one question to Harry Reid and says, 'Tell us about your faith. What does a Mormon believe?' Ask him about the holy garments that he wears that protect him from evil. Isn't that kooky? Ask him about getting his body parts anointed by oil. Isn't that kooky? Ask him about when he goes to the temple and he gets baptized for dead people. Isn't that kooky? Ask him about the hit squad of the Mormon church and why they need people to kill Mormons that go against them. Isn't that controlling? Ask him how they shun people, then they get their family members to disown them and divorce them if they dare leave the Mormon church. Isn't that cultish? I mean, I could go on and on. The Mormon church is a cult, and Harry Reid is a powerful person in a cult, and nobody even questions it."
In Reed's eyes, the difference between the supposed immorality of Harry Reid and the purity of Sharron Angle couldn't be more clear cut:
"Very involved in the church in all different aspects," he said of [Angle's] role at Sonrise [Church]. "The sweetest, kindest--I mean, Snow White. There's no dirt. I mean, everyone comes--'Tell us the dirt.' There's no dirt on Sharron," Reed told Myers. "The dirt's on Harry Reid, you know--the whole Mormon thing. I could tell you the junk about Mormonism and the weird things that go on."
Though Myers is quick to point out that Reed "does not speak for Angle any more than Barack Obama is responsible for Jeremiah Wright's pronouncements," comments coming from a spiritual adviser to a candidate that is so open about her devoutness may be alarming to some.
Shortly after winning Nevada's GOP Senate Primary, Angle notoriously sparred with Jon Ralston over whether the Constitution really called for the separation of church and state. She said it didn't.
Angle's views on abortion -- she believes it's unacceptable even in cases of rape and incest -- have also been admittedly shaped by her religion. She has also signaled that she would favor banning gay adoption and allowing the clergy to endorse from the pulpit.
In an interview earlier this year, Sharron Angle claimed that Democrats were violating the First Commandment by building entitlement programs and "mak[ing] government our God."
And in perhaps her most peculiar religiously driven initiative, a Nevada paper reported earlier this year that Sharron Angle had spearheaded a campaign to forbid a local high school team from wearing black jerseys to their homecoming game on the grounds that the color was evil.