politics archives

I’m going to stop listening to you because I disagree with your politics, even though you aren’t talking about politics

Today we received an email from a concerned subscriber:

It’s a very sad day – I have always found NorthTemple a great, entertaining, and informative read.

But, today I am removing you from my feed, and will no longer be sharing with my team.

I cannot reconcile the Mormon church’s views and directives on Prop 8 with my own, and refuse to support anything associated.

Good luck to all of you – you have a great team.

Northtemple is made up of 30 someodd designers who do work for the LDS Church, yes. But our About page has said for 2 years:

Northtemple.com is not an official publication of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The websites linked, opinions expressed, quotes cited, and articles written do not necessarily express the views of the Church. We bear sole responsibility for, and firmly stand behind, the content featured here.

A few points I wanted to make clear this morning:

  1. This is a design blog. We write about design.
  2. We rarely, if ever, talk about politics. The occasional Obama link has always had a design or tech element to it. We have never voiced an opinion on Proposition 8.
  3. The Church does not own Northtemple.com, and has no control over what we post. The site is not an approved publication of the Church, and is hosted and owned privately. We just all happen to work here.
  4. To reject Northtemple because of the Church’s stance on Prop 8 is like refusing to watch the Utah Jazz because a Mormon owns it, or stay in a Marriott hotel because a Mormon owns it, read any of the Twilight books (or watch the movie this weekend) because a Mormon wrote it, listen to Glenn Beck or Gladys Knight, or watch any of the many professional sports teams that LDS members play for.

While we respect the political views of our readers, we just don’t care about them on this blog. If you care about design, read us. If not, don’t. It’s a design point, not a political one.

posted by jason on Wednesday, Nov 19, 2008 · 14 comments

“I get this. My view is … why say, ever, anything bad about a person? Why don’t we like them and celebrate them and be happy for her elevation to the ticket? And just say that she was a good choice for him and we disagree with them?”
Bill Clinton, on the appeal of Sarah Palin.

posted by jason on Tuesday, Sep 23, 2008

Another interesting interactive tool for tracking the US presidential election. This one allows quick access to the number of news news article references for each candidate. It’s very easily digested data. It’s interesting to see the contrast in coverage between Biden and Palin. Check it out.

posted by kaleb on Tuesday, Sep 16, 2008 · 0 comments

Wonderful address and Q&A session with scholar Richard Bushman of Columbia examining what it might mean for the country if we had a Mormon president . Probably one of the best online discussions of Mormonism and public life that I’ve ever seen. (Sorry if this is slightly political, but I found his comments and the very civil discussion that followed so refreshing I had to share!)

posted by ted on Thursday, Jun 07, 2007