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Loading ...Petitioners to Mormons: Soften gay marriage stance
06.23.2009 10:45am EDT
(Salt Lake City) A group of current and former Mormons at odds with the church’s position on gay marriage and its political activism to ban it has launched a Web site asking the faith to soften its stance.
The site, http://www.ldsapology.org , includes a petition for reconciliation that calls on leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to end what it says are hurtful anti-gay policies and its involvement in anti-gay politics and fundraising.Janeen Thompson, a site organizer, said in an e-mail to The Associated Press that the petition is a direct reaction to Mormon church involvement in a coalition that worked last fall to pass Proposition 8, which banned gay marriage in California’s state constitution.
A May ruling by the California Supreme Court upheld the vote.
“We felt prompted to undertake this project on behalf of the gay community whose rights have been taken away largely because of the LDS involvement in the campaign,” said Thompson, a lifetime Mormon who lives in Boulder Creek, Calif.
Church spokeswoman Kim Farah said Monday that the church had no comment on the site.
As of Monday, 162 individuals had signed the petition. Thompson said signatures will be gathered through the fall and organizers plan to deliver the petition to the church’s Salt Lake City headquarters Nov. 4 – the anniversary of the 2008 Proposition 8 vote.
Like many religions, Mormonism teaches that traditional marriage is an institution ordained by God and that homosexual sex is a sin. Gays are welcome to attend church but must remain celibate to retain service callings.
The church has been consistent in its position and actively worked against marriage equality legislation since the 1990s.
Following the November vote, the church became a target for protests, vandalism and hate speech. Church leaders have called for civility in the discussion of the issues and say the dialogue is not helped when people on both sides demonize each other.
Site organizers – who include Mormons, non-Mormons, gays and heterosexuals living in several states – agree.
Site material includes a chronicle of church involvement in gay marriage legislation, personal stories from gay and lesbian Mormons, the current Mormon pamphlet on the theology related to homosexuality and a list of known gay Mormons who have committed suicide.
The church once taught homosexuality was an illness and offered cures such as electroshock therapy, medication, marriage to heterosexual women and other therapies as treatments. In 2007, Dallin Oaks, of the faith’s Quorum of Twelve Apostles, acknowledged the past use of some abusive therapies and said they had been phased out.
Cheryl Nunn of Santa Cruz, Calif., owns the site domain. She said her discomfort with those past practices raised her awareness of gays in the church. Last fall, Nunn and Thompson became active in the campaign against Proposition 8, attending marches and rallies.
Nunn is unequivocal about wanting an apology.
“Most likely that may not happen, but any reduction in aggressive Mormon Church fund raising, sermons to campaign and block vote or to promote anti-gay legislation, would mean the petition message had been heard.”
The LDS church has always allowed NON-PRACTICING gay and lesbian members to remain active in the church. It is only when they are actively engaging in homosexual activities that they are excommunicated. The LDS church does not, in my opinion, have a bigoted and hypocritical stance against gays. Like it or not the bible states that homosexuality is a SIN in the eyes of GOD. Whether you agree with this or not is your right, but the LDS church follows the word of GOD and therefore strives to follow his teachings. Those who do not agree with this stance call Mormons bigoted, hateful and other names simply because they have chosen to take a moral stand for what they believe in. If you are gay you are still welcome in the LDS church, but you WILL be reminded that your activities are against the will of GOD and may face excommunication should you choose to actively participate in homosexual acts. The same goes for heterosexual couples who have sex outside of marriage or with another partner while married. Rather than trying to get the church to change its stance the BGLT community should try to understand their stance and respect it. If someone chooses to be an active gay they can do so, just not as a member of the LDS church.
@Robert: I agree in general with your comments. Growing up mormon, serving a mormon mission etc. I am more than familiar with the ideology. I do however, question one statement you made…”If the church were to reverse itself, it would likely cause problems for them as members would wonder how the prophet could have been wrong initially.”
This is not the case. The mormon “prophets” have been wrong on many counts, have changed directions many times and because Mormon culture engrains in its memebers the ideology NOT TO QUESTION, they would not even question the shift as they are raised without a molecule of critical thinking skills. Such is the case with the following teachings that they adhered to and believed in and in some cases “would never change”.
A) They taught that Adam was god.
B) They taught that Christs sacrifice was not enough in some cases and only through BLOOD ATONEMENT could the person be redeemed.
C) They taught plural marriage was the only TRUE marriage and the only way to the Celestial Kingdom (their version of heavan)…they ridiculed 1 man/1 woman marriages as selfish/evil.
The list goes on and on, but they no longer practise any of these teachings (no openly at least). They have changed the text of the Book of Mormon, Doctrine & Covenants, and Pearl or Great Price repeatedly over the years as science and history have disproven things in them. For those that want references, you can look at http://www.trialsofascension.net/mormon.html for the details.
My point simply put, Mormons are taught not to question their Prophet and Apostles and most of them adher to this and are trapped in a brainless religion/culture. From my own personal experience, coming out wasn’t the issue – knowing I would be rejected from the church is what caused great pain and took years to reconcile. I am still in recovery.
“Same rights, just don’t call it a marriage” is oxymoronic logic. In my opinion, everyone has the right to be treated with equal dignity by their government. For government to insist that the word “marriage” only be legally applied to hetero couples is to insist on treating gays with less dignity than straights. Though individuals are free to THINK of one another as less dignified, their GOVERNMENT ought to treat every law-abiding citizen with equal dignity. Requiring gay couples to stand in the “Domestic partnership” line while everyone else is free to join the “Marriage” line is an indignation. Again, let each person regard his neighbor with whatever amount of dignity he sees fit, but GOVERNMENT must not make those personal judgements, nor codify them into law.
Now this is progress. This is the kind of progress that is going on at a faster pass than ever. People are not dumb and can see through the hate and bigotry. Just takes time. Fear of the unknown. Education is the key. We will prevail. Equality for ALL.
Mormons follow a religion founded by a psychotic nutcase. Polygamy was sanctioned until it became illegal, but is still widely practised. Any average news reporter can find a polygamist cult even if the cops can’t. Mormons discriminated against Blacks until forced to back off. Given free rein no telling what terrible things they’ll come up with. Mormons and those that follow Heil Benedict should be forced from our shores. What we need is freedom FROM r3eligion.
With many religions one could quote bible passages about slavery, the subjugation of women, etc… to make a case that the Bible is not infallible. And you could then lump homophobia as something culturally acceptable then, but something we need not accept today.
But this would not work with the Mormons. They already know the Bible is flawed.
But unlike any other Christian denomination, they have other books of scripture. And those books are infallible in their minds. And the Doctrine and Covenants and the Pearl of Great Price are pretty poetic on marriage. Nothing is mentioned in these books about homosexuality or gay people.
Worse, they have a ‘living prophet’ whose utterances they regard as equal in authority to scripture. Whatever a prophet states in an official capacity is as equally binding on them as the Bible or any of the other 4 books of scripture they adhere to.
Therefore, when the Mormon prophet denounces homosexuality, that is it. No petition is going to help. On of their favorite sayings is ‘when the prophet has spoken, the thinking has been done.’ End of subject!
If the church were to reverse itself, it would likely cause problems for them as members would wonder how the prophet could have been wrong initially. They aren’t going to rock their boat of infallibity.
When I left the church I joined the group for gay Mormons – Affirmation. It was a nice experience, but I eventually realized we would never budge the church on this issue. Wanting to cut myself off from it entirely, I left the group.
I admire those making the effort. But it won’t do any good… Only when the political climate changes to the point that homophobia is no longer culturally acceptable will they then have a new ‘revelation,’ where God will change course. Just as was the case with allowing black people to have the priesthood in the 70s (which prior to that time was disallowed because black people were made black as a mark to show they were the spirits who were not valiant in the war in heaven – prior to the earth being made)….
I’ve been out of the church for 20 years now. With each year I wonder how so many people can be so hoodwinked as those who live for it..
Bot,
I shouldn’t dignify your comments with a rebuttal, but here goes.
Child marriage is a straw-man arguments, put forth as a scare tactic. Most “successful” societies, if “success” is defined as a “society” with a growing population, actually favor the taking of underaged girls and forcing them into marriages that benefit the familial group, the girl’s wishes not withstanding. No-one on the side of marriage equality favors forcing minors into marriages. Not even if the minor wants said marriage.
As to polygamy, many “expanding” cultures allow it. but, again, it’s irrelevant to the discussion at hand.
Citing “fail” cultures (a definition of a failed culture would be helpful) is asinine. Mostly when people make this argument, they’re referring to Rome. Well, when Rome fell it was a Christian, heterosexual centrist empire. Homosexuality was illegal and punishable by death. Every society “fails”, period. Eventually, even the United States will “fail” to be replaced by either a regressive, or even more progressive society, and it’s going to be because of myriad factors, not because it’s “lost” it’s moral compass.
Please, in future, cite actual examples to back up your statements, not just ideas from some “professor” or other to back up your claims. Vagaries really don’t make for strong arguments.
When marriage loses its unique status, women and children most frequently are the direct victims. Giving same-sex relationships or out-of-wedlock heterosexual couples the same special status and benefits as the marital bond would not be the expansion of a right but the destruction of a principle. . If the one-man/one-woman definition of marriage is broken, there is no logical stopping point for continuing the assault on marriage.
If feelings are the key requirement, then why not let three people marry, or two adults and a child, or consenting blood relatives of any age? . Marriage-based kinship is essential to stability and continuity in our state. Child abuse is much more prevalent when a living arrangement is not based on kinship. Kinship imparts family names, heritage, and property, secures the identity and commitment of fathers for the sake of the children, and entails mutual obligations to the community.
The US Supreme Court declared in 1885 that states’ marriage laws must be based on “the idea of the family, as consisting in and springing from the union for life of one man and one woman in the holy estate of matrimony; the sure foundation of all that is stable and noble in our civilization, the best guaranty of that reverent morality which is the source of all beneficent progress in social and political improvement.”
Marriage reflects the natural moral and social law evidenced the world over. As the late British social anthropologist Joseph Daniel Unwin noted in his study of world civilizations, any society that devalued the nuclear family soon lost what he called “expansive energy,” which might best be summarized as society’s will to make things better for the next generation. In fact, no society that has loosened sexual morality outside of man-woman marriage has survived.
Analyzing studies of cultures spanning several thousands of years on several continents, Harvard sociologist Pitirim Sorokin found that virtually all political revolutions that brought about societal collapse were preceded by a sexual revolution in which marriage and family were devalued by the culture’s acceptance of homosexuality.
“Mr” says “Protect the institution of Marriage” you sound like George W. Bush! LOL Loser. Protect Marriage from what? The boogeyman. Please.
Go get a life. People like you have turned me into what you consider “mean” O poor lil guy, everyone is picking on you. Its exactly your statement that has us ANGRY! Did I stutter? ANGRY.
So you better back the Fu8k off and go bring your sorry you know what back to your sorry silly goofball, cultist “Church.”
What a silly, psycho “religion” follow some guy who said “god” came down and talked to him and told him to marry as many woman as he wants (since they are property anyways) right? Sounds like someone on LSD. We need to protect our society from you and Nuts like Joseph Smith (young girl molestors) etc. Furthermore, what sickos marry their own neices? Thats what you are trying to “protect”? LOL
Probably if Joseph Smith and Brigham Young told you all to drink Arsenic Lace Kool Aid, you would? We couldnt be that lucky… darn.
Please you can have that “institution!”
Bye Loser.
Mr.: Did the gay community do these things you mention, against the Mormons as a group? I don’t think so. It was more like a few individuals. The Mormons as a group, raised money, and helped to propagate fear, in order to trample the rights of gay people.