9 responses so far ↓

• 1 Elaine // Jun 20, 2008 at 9:42 pm

  You go, John.

  I’m also planning on doing whatever I can (as limited as my time and ability to get out is right now) to make sure that that hideous anti-same-sex-marriage proposition does not get passed in November.

  The thing that really ticks me off is when the opponents of same-sex marriage assume that the majority gets to pass laws that discriminate against the minority. Well, the Constitution I grew up studying protects the minority from oppression by the majority.

  Of course, these are the same people who think that creationism should be taught in the schools because some poll numbers say that more people in the US believe in Genesis than accept evolution.

  They’d probably think that if a majority of people answered a poll that they believe the moon is made of green cheese, that makes it true.

  Oops. Sorry for the ramble and rant. It’s late. This happens sometimes when I’m sleepy.

• 2 wren // Jun 21, 2008 at 5:35 am

  When Nebraskans were trying to get DOMA (“defense of marriage”) on the ballot, our bishop or stake president handed out petition packets in a joint rs/priesthood meeting at least a couple weeks in a row. It was not even “Here, these are up here on the table if you want to take one.” They handed them down each aisle. I passed the stack along. I wish in retrospect I’d been vocal as well or got up and walked out. It was at this time of year, too, because they asked for volunteers to leave church and troll the College World Series fans down by the stadium for signatures.

  It’s also one of the few times that stake lowered itself to work with other churches in town – that petition and one against a gambling initiative.

  When I think about the many hours of work that went into those petition drives and I have to wonder how much real good the church could have done had they spent that time doing something else. So many things… the church has a veritable army of do-gooders at its disposal and they use it for some of the lamest things when they use it at all. Sure, if a disaster happens, they’re all over that. But there are little disasters going on everyday all around.

  Another case in point, Amber Alerts are issued from time to time in the midwest. There was one particularly heartbreaking incident in my then hometown where a girl was missing for many months before being found dead. The church did not organize and help with fliers or billboards or searches. We were, however, called at home and asked to all meet up at the stake center to plaster the city with fliers for Elizabeth Smart. I guess the status of a bi-racial girl from the the poor side of town was less worthy of help than “one of our own” who lived over 800 miles away.

• 3 chandelle // Jun 21, 2008 at 5:44 am

  when the church actively and loudly supported the DOMA the first time around here in utah, talking about it in sacrament meeting and passing out directives (as wren mentioned), that was a turning point for me. to that point i’d been able to ignore or reconcile the clamoring in my head that said that this was wrong, wrong, wrong, but when the church started getting openly political (and then i did a little reading and found out that they’d actually been A LOT political in the past, blocking the ERA, of all things), i couldn’t squelch my disgust and unease any longer. i cite that as the point at which i allowed myself to be honest about my doubts and discomforts and even though it was another three years before i left, that was the point at which i actively allowed myself to consider that it wasn’t true. it was a hideous moment, but so essential and ultimately, beautiful – the culmination of cog-dis.

• 4 Zenaida // Jun 21, 2008 at 7:56 am

  John, I love the image of showing up to church with an atheist on each arm, so you are welcome to come. ; )

• 5 Jana // Jun 21, 2008 at 1:23 pm

  You can read the church’s first salvo in the California (re-)vote here.

• 6 xJane // Jun 21, 2008 at 7:40 pm

  Sorry we missed you, John: hope you had an awesome (and air conditioned) visit!

  There’s been a lot of buzz in the blogosphere (that I read) recently about churches losing their tax-exempt status for stunts like those. Although my sister & her church are starting the fight the good fight against it, too. *sigh* I just don’t understand people who want to legislate fewer rights. Shouldn’t conservatives want less government in their lives…? Maybe that just means more government in everyone else’s.

• 7 Elaine // Jun 21, 2008 at 8:45 pm

  See, that’s the thing, xJane. When conservatives talk about “less government”, what they mean is that they want less government regulation of business so that the rich can get richer at the expense of the rest of us.

  What they neglect to mention is that they are actually in favor of more government regulation of the lives of individuals, because they are absolutely sure that those of us who make up the unwashed masses are too evil to run our own lives.

  I’m reading an interesting book right now, “Conservatives Without Conscience” by John Dean (yes, Nixon’s John Dean), and one point he makes early on is that one of the few things which have tied all flavors of American conservatism together, ever since the first theorists on the right, is that they hold “a dark view of human nature.” (p. 7)

• 8 Lessie // Jun 22, 2008 at 8:59 pm

  Thanks John

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