Thursday, November 12, 2015
Thousands To Quit Mormon Church Over New Anti-Gay Decree
This is as bad as it gets.
When will human beings understand that homosexuality is very much a part of being human? It always has been and always will be. It is a minority sexual orientation. It is not evil any more than having blue eyes or being left-handed is. But what the Church of the LDS has done is evil.
The tragedy of fundamental religions is that instead of accepting and understanding our humanity, they stigmatize, separate, and ultimately destroy the people and their families who are this minority. However, there are many, many religions that welcome and accept our gay brothers and sisters. It is only the unbending and, in my opinion, inhumane fundamentalists who don't.
I salute the Mormons who have pushed back against this horrible treatment of families and their children by the leaders of the Church of the Latter Day Saints.
Thousands To Quit Mormon Church Over New Anti-Gay Decree
Public Mass Resignation Event Saturday
Thousands of Mormons are leaving their faith after the LDS Church last week attacked same-sex families, including their children.
The Mormon Church's decree last week that people in same-sex relationships are now apostates and their children cannot be baptized without literally denouncing and distancing themselves from their parents has had devastating effects on LGBTQ Mormons and their families.
First, there has been a spike in calls to suicide prevention groups, and the mother of a transgender teen says she's "aware of a couple of suicides that have happened." Kate Kendell, the well-respected executive director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, which is one of the nation's most-effective LGBT civil rights organizations, published an op-ed in the Washington Post on Tuesday, announcing she is leaving the Mormon Church.
Kendell blames the LDS Church's "gratuitously cruel and stigmatizing treatment of children" in its latest anti-LGBT move for pushing her "to disavow the church" of her childhood. "It is impossible for me to be a part of a religion that would attack its own members and punish them by denying their children involvement in the church.
The move is as clever as it is draconian. Members seeking to live lives of integrity as openly LGBT people must not only leave the church, but take their children with them. It requires a particular streak of evil genius to manufacture such a 'Sophie’s choice.'"
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17 comments:
The LDS leadership just shot itself in the foot. This decision will drive away countless Mormons, which is exactly what the church deserves. If it's going to persecute innocent people, the LDS deserves to lose members and money.
A streak of evil indeed, but sophisticated cruelty doesn't require much genius -- Abrahamic religions have plenty of experience at it, after all.
A mass resignation is a perfect response. Once again we see a church going out of its way to shun and exclude those it disapproves of (now that it can't simply kill them any more, much as Kevin Swanson would like to), but the result is that the church itself is being shunned and rejected.
But it's horrifying to contemplate what must have been going through the minds of those who committed suicide over this. This vile faith had such a tight grip on their minds that they could not go on with life if they walked away from it -- or perhaps they knew that their own families were so in thrall to it that they would choose it over their own flesh and blood. What must it be like, existing under such abject mental slavery?
Remember those who claimed marriage equality would destroy families? Well, they were correct, except for one thing: It isn't marriage equality that, in this case, is destroying families, it is a church, a religious sect that believes they're doing God's work on Earth, doing the destroying, not the gay couples.
Ironic, isn't it?
Ironic indeed.
I think it is poetic justice. Kind of like a Greek tragedy in a sense.
One of the founding principles of this country is freedom of religion.
Why would anyone think that a religion that was started by a self ordained maniacal profitt would be tolerant of anything.
Good thing is, people can choose to stay or go.
"...while Democrats were participating in a candidates forum, Republicans Mike Huckabee, Bobby Jindal and Ted Cruz were guests at "religious freedom" event led by a pastor who preaches that homosexuality should be punished with death."
Guilt by association? Maybe not. But what kind of "values" do candidates Huckabee, Jindal, and Cruz show when they consent to be seen with a crackpot and idiot like Swanson who believes gays should be punished with death? I would guess that showing up with a jerk like Swanson is putting one's stamp of approval on his call to kill the gays. Cruz, Huckabee, and Jindal all brag about their "Christian values." Gag!
hmmmmm....another reason why I worship at the Church of the Big Oak Tree....it never tells me what to do....it leaves me acorn.
It is a shame to see a church with such a large following punishing children for the "sins" of their parents. Can you say "Republican family values"?
They've been licking their wounds on this issue ever since they were overturned in California.
They spent quite a bit on their National Organization for Marriage front group and that has come to nothing.
So go after the kids. Cowards.
Maybe Mittens will offer a statement.
Stealth candidate Mittens, Ducky?
I doubt it will be a supportive one. I could be wrong, maybe.
Hey it's their church, they should do what they want.....not what you want.
Its the fastest growing church in the US..... with LOTS of money..... don't be scared of them, accept them as another voice.
Accept a "church" that turns parents against children? Just because a lot of people belong to it and because the "church" has lots of money? Sounds an awful lot like Scientology. And no one should accept a religion that would destroy families. Sounds more like a business than a religion. But then most religions are aren't they?
Hank,
I thought this was about Mormons not muslims.
"And no one should accept a religion that would destroy families."
Nor should they accept a political party that would do the same.
Stealth candidate Mittens, Dave?
I doubt it. Too late to jump in now but I wonder if he'll have anything to say about the defaming of children by this policy.
This isn't even registering on the right wing radar
"This isn't even registering on the right wing radar"
Yeah. The wingnuts care about offspring only when they're in utero.
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