If this isn't amazing and despicable, I don't know what is!
The LDS Church, pumping tons of money and virtually hounding their members into passing the discriminatory and mean-spirited Prop. 8 in California whose passage now denies the Constitutional protections of same-sex marriage as adjudicated by the California Supreme Court last May, has the temerity to have a major official within that Church give out this message upon that Proposition's passage:
"Now that California voters have outlawed same-sex marriage, an LDS Church leader called Wednesday for members to heal rifts caused by the emotional campaign by treating each other with 'civility, with respect and with love.'
"'We hope that everyone would treat [each other] that way no matter which side of this issue they were on, said Elder L. Whitney Clayton, of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' Presidency of the Seventy."
To add insult to injury, here's what a Mormon who opposed Proposition 8 said:
"Morris Thurston, of Orange County, an LDS member who opposed the ballot initiative, said he received a lot of 'feedback that was either outright hostile or self-righteous preaching' from strangers because of his moral concern about imposing religious beliefs on others.
"Thurston's hope is that Latter-day Saints on both sides of the issue 'will reach out and try to embrace people who might not have agreed with them. It doesn't mean we will change our minds about it, but it does mean we need to be brothers and sisters in the gospel.'"
[For the full article, see here.] [For some reason, this morning, I can't find that article that appeared on November 6th in the previous link to its source, the "Salt Lake Tribune." However, this link provides some of the information contained in that article.]
What "gospel" is he talking about? It's certainly not the Gospel of grace, faith, love, peace, reconciliation, and inclusiveness that Jesus lived and taught!
As far as I'm concerned, these statements are nothing short of obscene!
That Church, along with so many churches and denominations within the institutional Church (Which is particularly remarkable, given the LDS Church's checkered past regarding marriage and sexuality, along with the Roman Catholic Church that has its clergy comprised of presumably celibate men who presume to lecture us on love and sex.), have consistently demeaned and oppressed LGBT people, culminating in those and many other churches being instrumental in spreading downright lies concerning the realities of same-sex marriage, and having fomented lies about the reality of Prop. 8, just as they continue to propagate lies about the reality of Gay people and their lives. And now these representatives of the LDS Church expect everyone to let bygones be bygones!
No Christian who is a Christian in fact advocates discrimination against other people! No Christian seeks to deny other people full and equal civil rights! No Christian advocates writing discrimination into any state of federal Constitution! No Christian spreads lies and distortions about other people! No Christian seeks to impose his or her theocratic values upon citizens of a Democratic Republic!
"
So much for the use of sweet reason, and a meeting of the minds!
And where were these sanctimonious "brothers and sisters in the gospel," and where was the reality of "civility," "respect," and "love," when they continued, and still continue, to cause the untold suffering of countless numbers of God's Gay children?
No comments:
Post a Comment