Anti-gay Mormon bigot calls for 'respect' now that they've made their religious views part of state constitutions

Posted by NewsEditor  at 3:36 PM (PT)
In: religion, initiative
Wednesday November 5, 2008

Source: Salt Lake Tribune
Now that California and Arizona voters have followed the advice of LDS church leaders by adopting constitutional amendments mandating discrimination against gay and lesbian couples, an LDS Church leader called Wednesday for members of their church to heal any rifts caused by their emotional campaign.

Elder L. Whitney Clayton said that the members who won in the church's campaign for intolerance should now treat each other with "civility, with respect and with love."

"We hope that every one would treat each that way no matter which side of this issue they were on," said Clayton, a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' Presidency of the Seventy.

He apparently was not talking about gay people in the statement, but trying only to ease over frayed feelings among Mormons who followed their leaders' support for intolerance and other (straight) Mormons who advocated for equality.

Clayton claimed the church never considered mean-spirited and mendacious campaigns financed mostly by church members to be a "political issue".

"We consider this to be a moral issue," he said, before adding the knee-splapper of a punchline. "We're not anti-gay, we're pro marriage between a man and a woman." He is not believed to have added, "Some of our best friends are gay."

Three big states, Arizona, California and Florida, voted to change their constitutions to define marriage as a heterosexuals-only institution. Another state, Arkansas, voted to block gay men and lesbians from becoming adoptive or foster parents.

The Salt Lake City-based church is usually careful to hide its considerable political influence in mountain west states, but its campaign to pass Proposition 8 was its most vigorous since the 1970s, when it joined the effort to defeat the Equal Rights Amendment. 

Source: Mormon leaders urge respect for foes in gay-marriage debate | Salt Lake Tribune 

Last modified: 5 Nov 08 03:03

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Comments (5)

Comments

Matt
Matt
11/5/2008 6:19:49 PM #
We're not anti-semitic, we're pro one type of people.   - The Nazi's
Mel
Mel
11/7/2008 9:22:40 AM #
Remember when people said that Mitt Romney could be a fair president, and not have to vote the way his Prophet told him to? Did you see how many people described voting for Prop 8 as "apostasy?" In my own part of LDS California, our leaders have said, in no uncertain terms, that not voting for Prop 8 is wicked, sinful, and declares that we have no allegiance to God. Many people felt that could not go against the church's teachings, or they would risk losing their Eternal Reward. Other felt that "when the prophet speaks, the debate is over."

It looks like the southern evangelicals might have been right. A Mormon should never be President, because a "good" Mormon could never, in good conscience, truly represent the people.

Robin Evans
Robin Evans
11/7/2008 11:59:41 AM #
Excellent point, Mel.

I had guessed (and it's only a guess) that Romney's problems in the primaries might have had something to do with the church leaders decision to go all out in support for Prop. 8.

My early guess on it all went something like this: The 'prophets' in SLC felt the need to do something to show their solidarity with right-wing Xtian fundies, so that the fundies would be more willing to support Romney (or another Mormon) in the future. Prop 8 (and Prop 102 in AZ) were their opportunities.

But, I think you're correct that it all backfired on them if they had hoped to make a Mormon candidate less objectionable in the future.

The LDS church in Utah and Idaho is the closest thing we have in this country to a theocracy. In the Prop. 8 campaign, they showed their true theocratic colors. And that should make any future candidacy by a Mormon politician less appealing.

Laissez Faire
Laissez Faire
11/7/2008 7:38:25 PM #
When it comes to creepy cults, the Mormons are one step south of the Scientologists. Find one and heap a good dose of verbal abuse on them. Repeatedly. They are truly an awful, disgusting people.
Robin Evans
Robin Evans
11/8/2008 7:05:58 AM #
That kind of anti-Mormon bigotry has no place in this discussion. The problem isn't that the church is a "creepy cult" or anything of the sort, but that this church joined with several others to impose an item of religious intolerance into the state constitution.

I generally consider most religions to be kind of creepy and cultish. I'd reserve more general distate for many evangelical Christian outfits like the San Diego megachurch where Prop. 8 started.

I have more respect for the LDS church as an institution than I do for many of those outfits, because it strikes me as more outward looking and more charitable, in general.

I must also say that I've yet to meet a Mormon who is "awful, disgusting" so I'm pretty sure that your general (and bigoted) description of them as a "people" is flat wrong.

Their church leaders were wrong on this political measure. The members who followed their leaders were wrong. The church deserves to be criticized for its political stance on this issue. But that's it.

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