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Re: New website from Mormon church: 'Sexuality is not a choice'
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Dänk 42Ø
Dec 8, 2012, 2:14:19 AM12/8/12
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On 12/07/2012 09:29 PM, Mod/independent wrote:
> New website from Mormon church: 'Sexuality is not a choice'
>
> The Mormon Church has launched a new website in an attempt to
> "encourage understanding" with gays and lesbians, an effort heralded
> by activists as a departure from the church's perceived hostility
> toward the LGBT community.
>
> Presented as a “collection of conversations” with LDS leaders and
> Mormons “who are attracted to people of the same sex,” the website,
> mormonsandgays.org, launched Thursday.
>
> The site includes an unusual statement for a major religious body:
> that sexuality, including same-sex attraction, is not a personal
> choice. But it maintains that acting on that attraction is still a
> "sin."
Though I was not raised as a Mormon, I do have Mormon heritage and
currently occupy space in a gawd-forsaken wasteland called "Utah"
(temporarily and for economic reasons), and I also happen to be gay and
voted *FOR* Proposition 8 when I lived in California, if only because
opponents insisted on linking it to the Obama campaign, and I hate Obama.
That said, the reason the LDS cult is so obsessed with same-sex marriage
is not its opposition to homosexuality so much as its history of
polygamy. Mormons migrated west to escape persecution in the east,
settling in the gawd-forsaken wasteland now called Utah or "Zion."
Though they had battled government forces for decades, they decided that
they wanted Utah to join the Union. Congress refused to consider
statehood unless the rouge territory abolished polygamy, and by a
miraculous coincidence, the LDS president/prophet received a revelation
from gawd that polygamy was henceforth forbidden in 1890 (Utah joined
the Union in 1896).
Since polygamy was a fundamental tenet of Mormonism, and not all Mormons
can be THAT gullible, this led to a schism, with the true-believing
polygamists forming a splinter sect known as the FLDS. I encounter
polygamous FLDS members regularly at the store, easily distinguished by
their archaic Little House on the Prairie dress. (They are absolutely
surreal, dressed like refugees from 1850 while chatting on cellphones as
they load up pallets of Pop-Tarts at Costco.)
Like other religious factions, LDS and FLDS hate each other, just like
Sunnis and Shi'ites or Protestants and Catholics. The "mainstream" LDS
faction controls the Utah state government, and uses its power to
persecute the heretical FLDS faction. A stalemate exists after a
botched raid on a polygamist compound in the 1950s, and the
LDS-controlled state government no longer attempts to enforce the
anti-polygamy law, though it continues to assert its right to do so.
How opposition to same-sex marriage relates to opposition to same-sex
marriage should already be evident. Were the public or courts to
legalize gay marriage, this would obviously set the stage for
legalization of polygamy. Consenting adults should have the right to
form personal relationships of their own choosing. Legalization of
same-sex marriage *MUST* lead to legalization of plural marriage. The
moral authority of the LDS over the FLDS stems from the fact that the
latter's lifestyle is illegal, and legalization of polygamy would erode
that authority -- which is why the LDS is so hell-bent on fighting
against same-sex marriage laws.
> New website from Mormon church: 'Sexuality is not a choice'
>
> The Mormon Church has launched a new website in an attempt to
> "encourage understanding" with gays and lesbians, an effort heralded
> by activists as a departure from the church's perceived hostility
> toward the LGBT community.
>
> Presented as a “collection of conversations” with LDS leaders and
> Mormons “who are attracted to people of the same sex,” the website,
> mormonsandgays.org, launched Thursday.
>
> The site includes an unusual statement for a major religious body:
> that sexuality, including same-sex attraction, is not a personal
> choice. But it maintains that acting on that attraction is still a
> "sin."
Though I was not raised as a Mormon, I do have Mormon heritage and
currently occupy space in a gawd-forsaken wasteland called "Utah"
(temporarily and for economic reasons), and I also happen to be gay and
voted *FOR* Proposition 8 when I lived in California, if only because
opponents insisted on linking it to the Obama campaign, and I hate Obama.
That said, the reason the LDS cult is so obsessed with same-sex marriage
is not its opposition to homosexuality so much as its history of
polygamy. Mormons migrated west to escape persecution in the east,
settling in the gawd-forsaken wasteland now called Utah or "Zion."
Though they had battled government forces for decades, they decided that
they wanted Utah to join the Union. Congress refused to consider
statehood unless the rouge territory abolished polygamy, and by a
miraculous coincidence, the LDS president/prophet received a revelation
from gawd that polygamy was henceforth forbidden in 1890 (Utah joined
the Union in 1896).
Since polygamy was a fundamental tenet of Mormonism, and not all Mormons
can be THAT gullible, this led to a schism, with the true-believing
polygamists forming a splinter sect known as the FLDS. I encounter
polygamous FLDS members regularly at the store, easily distinguished by
their archaic Little House on the Prairie dress. (They are absolutely
surreal, dressed like refugees from 1850 while chatting on cellphones as
they load up pallets of Pop-Tarts at Costco.)
Like other religious factions, LDS and FLDS hate each other, just like
Sunnis and Shi'ites or Protestants and Catholics. The "mainstream" LDS
faction controls the Utah state government, and uses its power to
persecute the heretical FLDS faction. A stalemate exists after a
botched raid on a polygamist compound in the 1950s, and the
LDS-controlled state government no longer attempts to enforce the
anti-polygamy law, though it continues to assert its right to do so.
How opposition to same-sex marriage relates to opposition to same-sex
marriage should already be evident. Were the public or courts to
legalize gay marriage, this would obviously set the stage for
legalization of polygamy. Consenting adults should have the right to
form personal relationships of their own choosing. Legalization of
same-sex marriage *MUST* lead to legalization of plural marriage. The
moral authority of the LDS over the FLDS stems from the fact that the
latter's lifestyle is illegal, and legalization of polygamy would erode
that authority -- which is why the LDS is so hell-bent on fighting
against same-sex marriage laws.
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