The OC Weekly, a liberal-leaning publication (and sister paper of The Village Voice), is on the receiving end of a concentrated Mormon Church backlash because of their Nov. 1 election-themed cover, which featured a cartoon of Mitt Romney as the Angel Moroni.

The Angel Moroni is an important part of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints theology. Gold-plated statues of the figure -- horn pressed to his lips -- grace the tops of most of the church's 134 temples around the world.

According to the church's newsroom blog, "Moroni was a real person, an ancient prophet in the Book of Mormon who revealed the location of golden plates to the young Joseph Smith in 1823 from which the sacred book of scripture was translated." He is credited with helping to restore the gospel of Jesus Christ.

The OC Weekly cover's depiction of Romney as Moroni, accompanied by the banner headline, "America's Angel Moron!

Starting on Wednesday and continuing ever since, Mormons from across the country but mostly centered around the Newport Beach LDS temple have called and written in to complain that our cover is offensive to their religion, that Romney is a good man, that Mormons have never hurt anyone (tell that to folks affected by Proposition 8), that they're going to stop their subscription to the Weekly, that we would never mock Muslims that way (we did, by printing an image of the Prophet Mohammed back in 2006, and Muslims didn't give a shit because they understood the context), that they're never going to read the "Register" again (please follow through on that!), and that they're going to start an advertiser boycott unless we apologize for the cover.