To All of My Fellow Mormons

There has been a flurry of activity over the passage of Proposition 8 in California, as well as similar maneuvers in other states (like one in Arkansas; the vague legal rhetoric has so many loopholes it is painful to imagine).

CAVEAT: THIS BLOG POST IS SPEAKING NEITHER FOR OR AGAINST THE PASSAGE OF PROP8.  THAT IS A WHOLE DIFFERENT ISSUE.

For those who don’t know about Proposition 8 in California, here is the gist:

Proposition 8 was a California state ballot proposition that was passed at the 2008 election.  This proposition, ballot-titled “Eliminates right of same-sex couples to marry,” passed with 52% of Californian voters voting for and 48% against.  The entirey of the text to be added to the Californian state constitution reads: “Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.”

There’s been quite a bit of controversy from both camps, with everyone shouting at everyone else.

Those for the proposition insist that the state attorney general reworded the proposition to make it more incendiary, while those against the proposition claim that funding to get the proposition passed came from out-of-state sources, which they call foul play.

I’m not going to touch the actual issue (though, if you know me and my views about the American government and our founding documents, you probably know how I feel about this).

The thing that irks me more than any of this is the supposed involvement of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

I was a member of the LDS church for some of the most formative years of my life, and though I no longer attend  their services, I have a serious respect for the LDS church and its congregation.  I admire their intense devotion to the idea of an eternal family, and they, more than many other Christian churches with which I am familiar, constantly insist that there are only two true laws in following the path of Jesus Christ: love your God, and love your fellow man as yourself.  All strange or unsettling practices aside, my experience with the LDS church has been extremely positive, even when I chose to leave the church.

Which is not to say that I have not had my brushes.  Obviously, I left the Mormon church for substantial reasons, but these were mostly associated with my evolving view of the world and not their practices.  Mostly.

(It wasn’t until just a few years ago that I met several gay people who left the Mormon church after their bishops or stake leaders seriously suggested electro-shock therapy to cure them of their pathology; this didn’t happen in the 1950’s, either; this was just ten years ago…)

Still, my views of the Mormon church have remained mostly positive.

And the primary reason for that blossoms from the LDS church’s non-involvement in political dealings.  Granted, I did not attend the LDS chruch throughout the 2004 and 2008 elections, but I never read stories about the church endorsing any candidate.  And I have a good friend who protested when Brigham Young University (a Mormon college in Utah) asked Dick Cheney to speak at their commencement.  She told me that BYU’s stance has always been to not get involved in politics, and the request for the current United States Vice President was, to her, an endorsement of the man’s politics.

Then, following the passage of Proposition 8, I started reading article after article numerating the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints’ heavy funding of pro-Proposition 8 efforts.  And then I started hearing about their incredible support of ProtectMarriage, the primary group spreading support of Prop8.  And then I found out that the LDS First Presidency issued a letter to be read at every congregation in the country: urging the passage of Prop8.  I thought this must have been a rash decision, something not thought all the way through by the Mormon church.  Then I read THIS.

And now I’m sitting here in shock, my faith in the Mormon church’s ability to keep their hands to themselves totally shattered.  As a religion that should understand fully what it feels like to be ostracized by the law, to be persecuted and attacked, this smacks of hypocrisy in the biggest way.

I have always found kinship with the ideals of the Mormon church partially because it is a religion that has often been hated for its unique view on faith and eternal life.  I wrongly thought they might not seek to push their spiritual laws into our political system out of compassion for what was once done to them.

Please, if you are a Mormon and are reading this, I ask you to explain how this happened!  Have I misjudged the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints?  With this serious and direct involvement in state and national politics, the Mormon leadership has crossed my line.  Please help me see the light, here.

((((SIDE NOTE: I know I have been grievously absent from this blog lately.  Sorry.  It happens.))))