To opponents of California Proposition 8, it seems that quite a bit of blame for passage of the Proposition is being placed on the efforts of the Church of Latter Day Saints (the Mormons) in campaigning against the measure.
Thus, there is some backlash.
Seen on the newswires:
Utah’s growing tourism industry and the star-studded Sundance Film Festival are being targeted for a boycott by bloggers, gay rights activists and others seeking to punish the Mormon church for its aggressive promotion of California’s ban on gay marriage.[…]
The church encouraged its members to work to pass California’s Proposition 8 by volunteering their time and money for the campaign. Thousands of Mormons worked as grassroots volunteers and gave tens of millions of dollars to the campaign.[…]
The backlash against the church — and by extension Utah — has been immediate. Protests erupted outside Mormon temples, Facebook groups formed telling people to boycott Utah, and Web sites such as mormonsstoleourrights.com began popping up, calling for an end to the church’s tax-exempt status.
I personally wouldn’t support a boycott on the state of Utah in general. I think such a stance would be rather silly since the State of Utah and the LDS are two separate entities. Yes, the LDS has quite a bit of political influence in Utah…but Utah isn’t a theocracy.
However, the notion of a campaign against the Church’s tax-exempt status is more intriguing. I’m not sure that I’d actually want to see tax-exempt status revoked, but the subject of to what extent religious organizations and other tax-exempt entities are permitted to engage in political activity is interesting.
The question of balancing the value of separating church and state, and protecting free speech is a fascinating one to consider, I think.
Anyway, if one were interested in helping the challenge of the LDS’s tax-exempt status, there is a website dedicated to explaining how to submit a complaint with the IRS.
I am Mormon, and I advocate respect for homosexuals, as do many others of my faith. I mourn the hatred homosexuals face on a daily basis and pledge my efforts to eliminate wrongful hatred towards gays.
thetrying.wordpress.com
The claim that Utah isn’t a theocracy is laughable.
Anyway, I will not set foot in Utah after this, nor will I patronize Utah based businesses. It is the entire state’s responsibility to put an end to the fanatical racism, sexism, heterosexism, and anti atheist bigotry of the Mormon Church.
There really needs to be some accountability here.
I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints,and i supported prop.8 Marriage is ordained of God as the place where one man and one woman can enjoy the rights and blessings of parenthood,have a wholesome sexual relationship with their spouse with the blessings of our Father in Heaven.This gift of sex and procreation has limits however .Any expression of intimate affection outside the bonds of marriage is a very serious sin and those who continue to rebel against the commandments God has given us in Scripture will reap a harvest of spiritual death and misery in this life and in the eternities to come if they refuse to repent.
Now the GOOD NEWS.Our Savior Jesus Christ has suffered for our mistakes and foolishness on the cross to rescue us from all sin regardless of what it is.He loved me when i was proud and foolish and made fun of His mercy in times past.I came to Him with a broken heart and he heard me and washed me clean through his loving,personal sacrifice ,a dept i can never repay.I had no defense or arguement for such love and acceptance.This the gift we offer the gay community.The Savior stands ready and willing to forgive and restore the broken relationship with God and usher you in to His Kingdom without blemish or spot,and your former life and sins will not be mentioned to you ever again,as they are covered by the blood of the Lamb,Christ our Lord.Where there is hatred we will show love AND COMPASSION.
In closing let me offer this olive branch to the gay community. One of my favorite hymns was written by John Wesley. A stanza from that hymn had a powerful impact on me when i was lost and confused.Speaking of Christ it reads:
”He breaks the power of canceled sin,He sets the prisoner free!His blood can make the foulest clean, His blood availed for me!
Please come home ,He loves you.
dan burress… Oh, please…I was born and raised LDS so I know where you are coming from and it is your right to believe whatever craziness gives you the warm fuzzies in your burning bosom. However, as with most “faith thinkers,” there is no logic to your argument. It is all platitudes and blind faith. YOUR blind faith, not what other religions believe. You have the freedom to believe that your God was once a Mormon man who had his own Heavenly Father, but who now lives with his many wives on a planet near the star Kolob…and came down to impregnate the Virgin(?) Mary so that Jesus was his literal son. This is so NOT Christian, but most don’t know about “the meat,” do they? And most Mormons are completely oblivious to their own history and all the changes and contradictions and failed prophecies…but you are still free to believe that you have the one and only truth, even if you are wrong. The point is that it doesn’t matter. Believe what you want but how about letting your God and Jesus judge gays instead of you and your church doing so?
Your Gospel, in fact, still believes in things that most of society would consider to be an “abomination.” Polygamy is still a requirement of the Celestial Kingdom. My great-grandparents were polygamists…polygamy was only stopped (by some) to avoid war with the U.S. Gov. However, your Gospel did not change! Marriage, to a Mormon (LDS included) remains a sacred union between a man and a woman and a woman and as many women as he can handle–perhaps not in this lifetime anymore, but when a good Mormon man becomes a god of his own planet in the hereafter, he believes he will have multiple wives just like is God, Elohim, does now. And lots of eternal sex to populate his own Earth-like planet with “spirit children.” Oh, but that’s the meat before the milk again…I know.
Anyway, Brigham Young fought for the separation of church and state precisely because Mormons were being persecuted for their “abominations” and ironically, now the current “prophet” wants to persecute gays. Brigham Young also warned of a time when the Mormon church would be in apostasy…he prophesied that this would happen when Mormons were no longer persecuted and were accepted into society. Ezra Taft Benson said that much of the church would fall into apostasy 150 years after its inception. Do the math. No longer are you the persecuted, but you are the persecutors. Frankly, I don’t even think polygamy should be illegal so maybe that’s where you should be focusing your energies. As you are well aware, the church sanctions only Temple Marriages. The LDS church will never allow gays to marry in the Temple. So live and let live!!!! Your church and your beliefs have no business in civil unions/marriages or whatever name you give them, and the Mormon church deserves to lose tax-exempt status for pushing its beliefs and money into civil law.
Your “olive branch” to the gay community is that if they accept your beliefs that their foul sins will be made clean by the blood of a dead guy? God created gays. They are born that way. So are a lot of other non-human mammals by the way… How would you like it if somebody told you that being with the opposite sex was a sin and you were FORCED to have sexual relations with the same sex. Pretty repugnant? Well, that’s exactly how gays must feel, not to mention that they are made to feel dirty and worthless, too. I’ve seen several young gay men attempt suicide while the church tried to deprogram them, and one who succeeded. How “Christ-like.”
I am 100% heterosexual, by the way. But I really do need to send in my letter to have my name removed from the church…I”ve seen way too much hypocrisy.
Many different churches in Massachusetts are being persecuted by homosexuals. Pastors have received death threats. My observation: I see Christians living peaceful lives. They don’t bother anyone. They have the right to vote. But if they don’t agree with the homosexual activists – they are persecuted. There’s documented evidence of persecution against the church in Massachusetts and other states across America.
Martino, christians do not live peaceful lives. Perhaps you posted before polls came out showing that the majority of christians in this country support the war. Is that peaceful? Maybe you are somehow unaware that christians hold the highest kill count in the whole of human history, from the crusades to the genocide of the native americans, to the killing of abortion doctors.