For years now, the Mormon Church has gone out of its way to gay-bash. They get involved in gay-bashing efforts far beyond Utah -- gay-bashing efforts that have no impact on their church -- dumping millions of dollars to help take away the rights of gays and lesbians in states across America. And they're doing it again in California this year.
The Mormon Church has given $8.4 million to the anti-gay proposition in California - the one that would revoke the already-existing marriages of gay couples, instantly turning their children into bastards. And in fact, other estimates show the Mormons giving as much as $17.67 million to the California gay-bashing effort - a full 77% of the homophobes' budget.
Why are the Mormons getting involved? Not because they have an interest in what happens in California - there are only 770,000 Mormons in California, a state of 38 million people. That's only 2% of the population. The real reason may be that the Mormons don't feel accepted as a "real" religion by other major faiths:
"For whatever reason, they're trying to get some respect from other religions," he told The Advocate Tuesday. "They've always been looked down upon by the Christians, the Catholics, and evangelicals."So, the argument goes, the Mormons regularly get involved in legislative gay-bashing, in states that aren't Utah, in order to curry favor with the gay-hating religious right.
The thing is, what about the rest of us?
I don't know much about the Mormon faith. I do know that, as a Christian myself, I find some of their beliefs a bit, well, different (such as the belief that Jesus and the devil were brothers). What I do know about Mormons are three things:
1. Donny and Marie.
2. The choir.
3. Their church really seems to hate gays, a lot.
Put aside the fact, for a moment, that a people who were persecuted, and run out of their homes, for being different really ought not be doing the same to another persecuted people. (And really put aside the fact that one of the reasons Mormons were persecuted was because of their beliefs on marriage.) If the Mormon Church is so concerned about being a part of the mainstream religious club, about being loved by other faiths across America, then why are they saddling up to one of the most reviled groups of bigots in America?
Hell of a well to win friends and influence people.
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