[From NY Times]
T-shirts of a Mormon angel with coffee flowing into his trumpet are selling well at a coffee shop in this central Salt Lake Valley city. But they do not have the blessing of religious leaders.
The shirts have upset the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
“They’ve been the best-selling T-shirts we’ve ever done,” said Ed Beazer, an owner of the coffee shop, which is called Just Add Coffee.
“If they provide proof, we’re going to comply,” Mr. Beazer said. “We don’t want to break any laws or anything.”
“It was a spoof,” Mr. Beazer said. “It was meant to be fun.”
Read about it here.
[From me]
I would like to invite all Mormon Elders to meet me for at Starbucks to talk Theology over a cup of Venti Verona. I’ll buy!
Have I mentioned that “I Love Mormons?” 
What do you think?
The elders are claiming a trademark on the image of Moroni. (I am not sure how that word is pronounced, but boy, it’s funny.) I think the Mormons are really onto something here, on a number of fronts. I think their ideas should be taken to the logical conclusion.
They have claimed ownership of the likeness of a supernatural entity. If Islam had done that for Muhammad, they could have sued the publishers of those offensive comics right out of business. If they registered Allah’s likeness, they could obligate the US government to enforce their religious law (no images of Allah) within the USA. Of course, that would be a bit tricky, since it would probably require that they draw an image of Allah.
And, hey, why stop at mere images? This could start a real estate gold rush. For a nominal fee, I’m willing to reserve for you your personal slice of the afterlife. Want a cozy cabin overlooking a lake of fire? A hot-dog stand at the foot of Sisyphean Hill? I still have a lovely flat in the neighbourhood favoured by three disciples. Just sign here and it can be yours!
As this story shows, so-called intellectual property can be used to help silence criticism and dissent. This could be invaluable to Christianity to help defend itself in the present holy war against those evil Secular Progressives. A lot of damage is done by people taking parts of the bible out of context. Some of them manage to make God look like a raving butcher of humanity. All this could be fixed with a little bit of DRM protecting biblical text. DRM + the DCMA legislation provide Americans with a very convenient catch-22 they can use to quash this sort of criticism. The DCMA doesn’t take away the “fair use” right granted by copyright laws to allow copying excerpts of text for criticism. What it does is make it criminal to bypass DRM, making fair use an utterly moot point.
Of course, there would be a lot of ground to make up. We’re catching on late in the game. The Scientologists have been using exactly these sorts of methods for decades.
So Kevin, if I make a T-Shirt with a Pharisee addicted to coffee, are you going to sue me? Especially if he is carrying a hockey stick?
Kelly
Kelly,
I’d like to have one!
I wondered if the coffee was a reference to Mr. Gruff: http://objectiveministries.org/kidz/ (See: Spiritual Safety Tip; What should you do if you find an Atheist?) I love the heck out of that site. But, I guess its just a shot at Mormon doctrine.
I find it ironic that the Mormons own Pepsi which produces caffine products. They own Marriott which sells alcohol. They need to be a little more consistent. But don’t all of us?
The Mormons can own the image of Moroni if they want to, afterall, they made it up out of their fantasy/imagination so they should be able to have the licensing just as Nike has the ’swoosh’.
I think they ought to start marketing their “holy underwear”. Maybe they could put moroni’s picture on that, too. It could be like their trademark.
Besides, how do they know that the coffee pouring out of trumpet wasn’t “decaf”?
Nomad,
You crack me up!
I didn’t know that about Pepsi. As it turns out, that’s probably because it is not true: http://www.snopes.com/cokelore/mormon.asp
Marriott is owned by the Marriott family, who happen to be Mormons, not by “the Mormons.” They do make some pretty impressive concessions to their religious beliefs. For example, their Las Vegas hotels do not offer gambling.
Imagination, divine inspiration, what’s the difference?
Geekwad,
You are right. That is what I meant to say. Thanks for keeping me straight.
I’ve been talking about this today with one of my college suitemates. She lives in the Salt Lake area and is mormon, so I really wanted to hear what she had to say about this. Sadly she was offended when she heard about the shirt.
Here is the part that she told me for saying the name:
“Moroni is pronounced “MA-RO (LONG O SOUND)- NI (LONG I SOUND). “
i think it’s interesting that moroni is simply moron with an ‘i’ or put backwards “i moron” – hmm very telling of the mormons or simply telling of myself.
[...] wrote about this a few weeks back here. I think I need to order one of [...]
From a preacher of the Baptist faith:
http://www.greaterthings.com/Ridenhour/Protestant_Evangelism/TwoSticks/index.html