Hiding in the Backwaters Just one more blog on the net.

Prop 8

Much has been written and said about Prop 8. I've remained largely mum on the subject mostly because I have a hard time getting too worked up about it. Amending a state constitution isn't nearly as difficult as amending the national constitution. Obviously. If it can be amended once it can be amended again. I also think people have over estimated California's ability or desire to completely embrace GLBT folk. (Just like we continue to overestimate Democrats' willingness to support us on Capitol Hill.) San Francisco and West Hollywood are just two very small parts of a very large state. Still, every other similar measure has passed by huge margins: 20-40%. Prop 8 passed with only 4%. That is progress. It really is only a matter of time.

To some degree, I don't get worked up about it because I just can't. It's just too upsetting and I don't want to go around angry all the time. Always in the back of my mind is the thought that were my family living in California, I know exactly how they would vote. It's also very disturbing and is really a slap in the face to hear blatant and deliberate misinformation coming from someone who should know better. I'm looking at you Thomas Monson. Oh, sure, you and the Twleve have remained largely mum on the subject, leaving most of the talking to a lowly President of the Seventy, but you're not fooling anyone. Claiming that the church has only donated $250K to passing Prop 8, all the while encouraging individual members to give generously of their time and money is dishonesty worthy of any Pharisee.

As much distance as the Mormon church tries to put between itself and polygamy, it's own history with marriage is dubious at best. Every argument used today against gay marriage was used in the 1880s against polygamy. Perhaps they can continue to delude themselves they "are not anti-gay. [They are] pro marriage between a man and a woman" because they aren't advocating seizing the property of GLBT folk or advocating terminating their citizenship. Mormons threw their weight around in California because they could. Mormons have always had a very strong presence in California. You didn't hear so much about Mormon involvement in Massachusetts, not because the Church wasn't telling it's members there the same thing it was telling its members in California, but because Mormons aren't a power player there.

Mormons, like most religious groups, suffer from unbelievable arrogance. If their actions are divisive and hurtful it's not because they are assholes. It's because everyone who disagrees with them is not prepared or ready to hear the "true" message of God. No one seems to have caught on that we all worship a god who is most like ourselves. You worship a God who advocates persecution and arrogance because that's who you are. It really has nothing to do with some immutable truth. It's been a while since I read the Doctrine and Covenants, the Mormon scripture from their early history as a church. I seem to remember, however, that God was constantly chastising them for being arrogant and rude to the people around them. We they complained about being driven out of still another town, often as not, his response was, "Well, you asked for it!" Is the Mormon church somehow more true today than it was in 1850? Is that why it's okay to be a political bully now?

The church at times has preserved that which is immoral and unethical. Called to combat social evils, it has remained silent behind stained-glass windows. ... How often the church has been an echo rather than a voice, a taillight behind the Supreme Court rather than a headlight guiding men progressively and decisively to higher levels of understanding.

Dr. Martin Luther King