In case anyone missed it, the LDS Church has formally come out encouraging its members to support a constitutional amendment banning same sex marriage in California. Based on our earlier poll, I don’t think anyone is surprised by this. Saddened, maybe, but not surprised.
profxm
I'm a college professor and, well, a professional X-Mormon. Thus, ProfXM. I love my Mormon family, but have issues with LDS Inc. And I'm not afraid to tell LDS Inc. what I really think... anonymously, of course!
Lists of Brodie award winners:
X-Mormon of the Year 2021: Jeff T. Green
X-Mormon of the Year 2020: Jacinda Ardern
X-Mormon of the Year 2019: David Nielsen
X-Mormon of the Year 2018: Sam Young 
X-Mormon of the Year 2017: Savannah
X-Mormon of the Year 2016: Jeremy Runnells
X-Mormon of the Year 2015: John Dehlin
X-Mormon of the Year 2014: Kate Kelly
X-Mormon of the Year 2013: J. Seth Anderson and Michael Ferguson
X-Mormon of the Year 2012: David Twede
X-Mormon of the Year 2011: Joanna Brooks
X-Mormon of the Year 2010: Monica Bielanko
X-Mormon of the Year 2009: Walter Kirn
No, this one was pretty hard to miss.
The thing that struck me about the FP letter was that it lacked any language of support or reconciliation for gay members of the church or their families. It was simply a cold declaration of war, which is likely to fuel the hard-liners for years to come.
Well, at least they are consistent– the church vigorously opposed civil rights in the 1950s and 60s, vigorously opposed equality for women in the 1970s and they have been consistent in their political involvement against marriage equality and gay rights more generally in the 1990s and later.
For the first time, I am finally thinking of resigning my membership. At this exact moment I am so humiliated that I was ever a practicing member of this religion. I want to stick my head in the sand and pretend I was never this rude, but I was once. I am so ashamed that I acted support this the first round in CA. This time I plan on doing anything I can to see that they church doesn’t pull this off again.
They don’t feel righteous enough, unless they’re actively discriminating against some group.
This is one of the main reasons I want my name off their books–I don’t want to be associated with their narrow-minded thinking.
I think this will come back to bite the church. I don’t think they will be as successful as they were in Proposition 22. And when gay marriage is commonplace, and we find out it doesn’t hurt traditional families at all – the stupidity of their position will be hard to defend.
The public has such a short memory, the LDS included, that by the time that it becomes obvious that same-sex marriage doesn’t threaten other marriages, most people will have forgotten the role the church played in denouncing it as the downfall of civilization. The same happened with the Civil Rights Movement and the ERA. (Even though the ERA was never ratified, I understand that most of the rights that would have been granted by the ERA are recognized through the interpretation of the Equal Protection Clause and the Civil Rights Act.)
You know what I’d like to see? I’d like to see a grassroots effort within the LDS religion that opposes these actions vocally, openly, and publicly. Hell, I’d donate money to it and even participate in any way I could as a former Mormon. That would be a great illustration of Mormon autonomy. Maybe we need another poll: Do you think anyone who started such a movement would be ex’d? I say yes.
Great profxm, I’ll send an email to the guys at By Common Consent right. They could put up a critical, yet pithy, post on the subject – for about the thirteenth time now since they founded the blog…
A lot of us in the bloggernacle have always viewed ourselves as a sort of “Mormon insurgency,” and harbor delusions that we might actually change the playing field for Mormonism.
So, at this point, you admit failure?
Don’t get me wrong, Seth, I’m ecstatic that there are mainstream Mormons who aren’t opposed to homosexuals marrying. So, kudos to you. But, why stick with a religion that does stuff like this?
My kid brother accosts random people in public and forces them to listen to monologues about time machines and hover-cars. It’s highly embarrassing.
So why stick with him?
The prime advantage of Mormonism is that it forces you to put up with people you otherwise wouldn’t seek out. Most of the rest of America does not have that advantage.
Ahhh… Masochism. To each his own! 🙂
Right. Not everyone can be as tough as we are.