Again, you don't have to take anybody's report of the speech, salt or no salt. (Reid's pre-speech text is already online--although his caustic "evangelical" remark was apparently an afterthought of his and is not in the text) One blogger said that "maybe half" of the student stood up for the ovation...now while that could be an overestimate, it sounds like your "quite small" guess is "quite" an underestimate.
I also expect that there soon will be a house-cleaning at the increasing liberal, albeit Church-owned, Deseret News and at BYU itself.
Hey, Harry Reid's "testimony" is part of the Deseret Book published, "Why I Believe" from 2002. Deseret's been pushing Reid for 5 years (doesn't sound like there's any rush to house-cleaning).
As for BYU, would that include the dean of the College of Family, Home and Sciences, David Magleby. (I don't think so). How did Magleby recently describe Reid's forthcoming campus forum? Allow me to quote Magleby:
Senator Harry Reid...will be speaking at Tuesday's forum assembly. As Senate Majority Leader, he is the first member of the LDS Church to lead his party in either the House or the Senate. He is a convert to the church who is frequently described as a committed member of the church. Whether we do or do not agree with Senator Reid on any particular policy matter, he deserves our respect and appreciation for his long career in public service. Within the church there can be and should be room for disagreement about political matters. At the 1968 Commencement exercises President Hugh B. Brown encouraged students to "strive to develop a maturity of mind and emotion, and a depth of spirit which will enable you to differ with others on matters of politics without calling into question the integrity of those with whom you differ. Allow within the bounds of our definition of religious orthodoxy a variation in political belief. Do not have the temerity to dogmatize on issues where the Lord has seen fit to be silent."
So Magleby, who already knew Reid's position on protecting marriage (or rather as not protecting marriage), saw fit to toss in a quote, "Do not have the temerity to dogmatize on issues where the Lord has seen fit to be silent." [Well, Golly Gee Mr. BYU dean of College of Family, Home and Social Sciences, we just didn't know that the Lord was silent on matters like marriage]
expect that the Church leadership used this as a "focus group" to confirm what many have perceived as the sad, sheep-like state of too many LDS youngsters who have been educated in the liberal cesspools that we refer to as "public schools" and whose admiration of Dirty Hairy is about as much as they are able to muster by way of youthful rebellion. I also expect that there soon will be a house-cleaning at the increasing liberal, albeit Church-owned, Deseret News and at BYU itself.
And I suppose since BYU-TV is going repeat Reid's speech eral timesr the next few weeks is yet a further extension of applying a "focus group" test to TV audiences at-large, including the vast number of Mormon adults who watch the program (especially the ones not prominently involved in "youthful rebellions).
And I suppose your "ouse-cleaning" theory will apply to BYU-TV as well?
And, of course, while SLC HQ didn't want to put tape over a guest speaker's mouth...now that he has gone on record to call Evangelicals (the "far right" as being the most "anti-Christian" monsters there could possibly be, we don't see SLC HQ rush into weigh in on BYU-TV's programming staff, now do we?
I guess that truly shows what the LDS general authorities & SLC HQ bureaucrats think of Evangelicals. (Any chance of your "house-cleaning" theory applying to them as well?)
But the Church has had to deal with faculty who have gone off the deep end by anyone's perspective, be they LDS or not. And deal with them it has.
I'm disappointed that the Deseret News has been leaning leftward on a few issues, but sooner or later,I predict, its editorial board, made up of members of the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve,will clean things up a bit while avoidiung throwing the baby out with the bath water.
I know a fair number of LDS educators and journalists and, like their non-LDS counterparts, often are Democrats or liberal Republicans at best.
Jack Anderson (D-The Spirit World) was one journalist that was not exactly admired by President or Elder Benson over the years. I knew and liked Jack Anderson, but he never met a POTUS he could stand, including, to his credit, Jimmuh Carter.
Re: Reid, I remember sitting in the Tabernacle waiting for General Conference (October, 1988) to start (good seats/up close/long story), and saw none other than Senator Orrin Hatch (R?-Utah) saunter in with someone in tow who was identified for me as then non-LDS Senator Harry Reid.
My faith in the Lord and in the leaders of the Church remains quite strong, but I marvel at how the Church moves on -- growing and growing around the world -- despite the frequent cow pies, living and inanimate, that it must avoid stepping in each and every hour.
Its phenomenal success is in and of itself a miracle...