Was the church issuing takedown notices in the nineties? They didn’t try to trademark ‘Mormon’ until 2002. Could it be the threat of a lawsuit?

I want to see a picture of this shirt!

Years ago I remember a t-shirt selling at the BYU Bookstore that had an image of Brigham Young wearing Ray-Ban sunglasses or something of that nature. I can’t remember if there was a message on the t-shirt or not – but it struck me as an interesting cultural artifact – especially since it was being distributed by a church-owned store. I wonder how people would respond to a similar t-shirt with an image of Joseph Smith or Gordon B. Hinckley.

My impression is that Brigham Young has some kind of iconic status that perhaps sets him slightly apart from other prophets who are a little more “sacred” in their public status – even within the Church.

There is an extremely hard to make out image at the Deseret News site. The photographer and the editor should be fired for not properly highlighting what should be the focus of the story.

Well, yeah… In and of itself, this shirt really isn’t a big deal.

But there really is a vicious streak that runs through the non-Mormon population in Utah. It’s really polarized in Salt Lake, and it creates a different dynamic that Mormons outside Utah, and therefore, “above the fray,” often don’t feel personally.

Utah culture is pretty oppressive at times. I mean, look at me, I’m writing this from Colorado, not my home town of Provo. I can see how it gets on the nerves of those who feel outside that majority. The moronically unquestioning devotion to conservative politics doesn’t help.

But on the other hand, many of these “outsiders” take Mormonism’s localized majority status as carte blanche to engage in, to be honest, unbridled hate speech. Mormonism is ruthlessly ridiculed and mocked on Salt Lake City playhouse stages on a regular basis. Profaning the sacred seems to be a status symbol in certain Utah social circles. All you have to do is pick up one of the local counter-culture news weeklies at a Salt Lake coffee shop to be treated to a stream of profanity and hatred directed at anything “Mormon.”

“Gentiles” visiting from out of state often report to being shocked at the level of venom spewed forth at the local religion.

So to call this merely a “dumb T-shirt” is to ignore an important component of the societal dynamic at work in Utah. There’s a lot of “family history” behind the scenes here and the T-shirt is seen by many as just the latest installment in a string of reprehensible and juvenile behavior by the local snotty counterculturalists.

I agree with Seth. I live in southern Utah and I get sick of the Mormon bashing. It’s like when I gripe about my husband, but nobody else can.

Daniel, that is a very good point. And we are supposed to take it lying (laying?) down.

The thing with the angel Moroni sort of bothers me. I’m not sure why, I’m not normally ultra sensitive, but it bothers me. Not enough to throw a fit, but enough that I don’t find it funny.

I guess it could have been worse . . . like pouring a six pack of Polygamy Porter down the trumpet? ;-)

My DH has a Brigham Young shirt like that. He wore it on our first date (New Year’s Day, 1997: Ohio State in the Rose Bowl, BYU in Some Other Bowl. Both won. We kissed. It was a good day.)

It’s Brigham in Ray-Ban’s with the caption “Brigham Young’s Excellent University.”

btw, I think SLC Weekly isn’t that bad and is at least very well informed. Much better than some of the ignorant rants that show up on Slate.

Latter-day Saints are treated very poorly in SLC. That can and should make all critics of the Church feel very good.

Thought experiment: In Jerusalem, in the orthodox and ultra-orthodox sections, please print a T-shirt of a Jew being force-fed pork. “Just add pork” — come on, you all, it’s funny, just a parody, where’s your sense of humor?

By the way, I agree with DKL and ARJ — Moroni surely wasn’t bound by the Word of Wisdom. Why don’t some LDS seem to understand what is written plainly on the face of the WoW — that it is a law specifically for the last days; that it is given as a consequence of the evil that exists in people’s hearts in the last days, and not because coffee, alcohol, or even tobacco are inherently evil in their own right. The prohibition on copious consumption of meat is just as integrally a part of the WoW, and it likewise is given as a law specifically for the last days.

Personally, I find the T-shirt funny. But I agree with Seth and others that we can’t avoid the fact that it is not an isolated incident but is one part of a larger system of villifying the Mormons in their own city.

Katie–I saw that this morning in the Metro Express.

Personally, I think that when Mormons throw a fit about this t-shirt–the “counterculturists win.” There’s a fine line between apathy and showing those that came up with the shirt that its not a big deal.

Personally, I think the shirt is funny…but this is coming from a girl who has wanted an “I can’t, I’m Mormon” shirt for several years.

I lived one horrible year of my life in Salt Lake City. I will never, ever go back. ’nuff said.

Rhapsidiomite–

Thanks!

One of these days I have a little disposable income (stupid dentist(s))–I’ll buy the shirt and post the pix of a lil’ fashion show with that shirt! Just you wait!

Considering that LDS bookstores carry T-shirts with logos like “Old Nephi” or a Nike swoosh turned into Moroni’s trumpet, I’d say we have very little room to squawk about trademark infringement.

Thanks for the heads up, Ed. Good luck.