US Political Scene A right of center view of American politics

Did Mormons Steal Rights?

I discovered a website today that could almost be humorous if it wasn't filled with misinformation and bridled hatred. Here's the link to Mormons Stole Our Rights.

What is great about our country is that people are allowed to believe what they want to believe. People can also generally act how they want to act, within limits of course. Let's look at some of the arguments on this site.

"Was it because Californians no longer saw their constitution as a foundational document that is amended carefully, but a document as pliable as putty and subject to the whims of a narrow majority? No."

Let's look at this argument. This website condemns Californians (actually they only condemn Mormons) for changing the state constitution and treating it like it is "pliable as putty." The funny part is that same-sex "marriages" were only allowed as a result of judges very loosely interpreting the state constitution and reading things into it that weren't there. The only people treating the California constitution like putty are the activist judges and gay "marriage" supporters.

"How, then, did Proposition 8 become law?" They then answer the question in big, bold, block letters. "THE MORMON CHURCH." At least they are partially honest when they say that "Mormon votes did not steal our rights." Of course, that begs the question that same-sex "marriage" is a right (previously, only California, Massachusetts, and Connecticut have said that it is a "right" {actually even in those states it's not called a right, it was just allowed to occur} - now Californians have stated that no, it is not a right).

Then the website goes on to blame the passing of Prop 8 on "Mormon money." Let's look at that argument. I'll use their argument to make an alternative one of my own. If the money donated by Mormons stole away the rights of gays in California, then all the money raised by Obama stole the candidacy from Clinton and the presidency from some other candidate, arguably McCain (additionally, he chose to campaign with public money and therefore had a limit on what he could spend, unlike Obama). My argument really isn't valid but that is because their original argument about Mormon money isn't valid. Besides, what they conveniently fail to mention is that opponents of Prop 8 raised and spent $6 million more than the proponents of Prop 8 ($38 to $32 million). How can "Mormon money" steal away rights if the anti-Prop 8 side raised and spent more money?

The website goes downhill from there. It becomes more and more incorrect (for example they argue, "The Mormon story is possible because our country is a tolerant and forgiving place." The persecution of Mormons, which they glossed over, showed just how tolerant we are as a country. Yep, our country was so tolerant that Mormons' lands were stolen and Mormons were killed, raped, and driven from their homes). What's ironic is that if our country is so tolerant and forgiving, where is the tolerance and forgiveness from many same-sex "marriage" advocates (especially this website that attacks Mormons and claims falsely that Mormons stole their rights)? Where is their tolerance and forgiveness of religion and religious beliefs? Where is their tolerance for majority rule and democracy (or, to be pedantic, representative democracy - although the voters in California passing Prop 8 is an example of pure democracy because they directly voted on the matter).

I'll point out another misleading statement: "The Mormons began [i.e., forcing their beliefs upon gays] with the Boy Scouts of America, originally a children's club meant to introduce boys and girls to the natural beauty of America." Robert Baden-Powell, the founder of the Boy Scouting movement started Boy Scouts to teach young men how to camp, cook, and survive in the wild; mainly, his goal was to build strong men of strong character who were honest, chaste, chivalrous, and good people. He was a military man who wanted to teach the boys many of the skills he learned in the military (in part so they would be ready for military service should the call arise). Appreciation of the earth and the "wild" were only secondary goals (and added only later as a focus). The authors of this website clearly have not read Baden-Powell's Scouting for Boys, which talks about such activities as tracking, woodcraft, scouting (military scouting), hunting, saving a life, and patriotism. The American scouting movement was based on Baden-Powell's work and was not about introducing "boys and girls to the natural beauty of America" (although that is an important but secondary aspect today).

The site goes on to briefly mention the "minority vote." "Many people have commented that minorities voted overwhelmingly for Prop 8. This was especially disappointing given the history of bigotry and discrimination these groups have faced. This vote serves as evidence of the degree to which minority groups can be pitted against each other with misinformation and fear. Californians were 60-40 against Prop 8 prior to the Mormon tidal wave of money in September, 2008. Prop 8 demonstrates how readily money moves elections." Notice how careful they are not to single out any minority groups (i.e., they don't name any group) and they certainly don't attack them as they attack Mormons because that would be racist. They are also condescending toward minorities when they say, "This vote serves as evidence of the degree to which minority groups can be pitted against each other with misinformation and fear" (emphasis added); in other words, minorities apparently are not intelligent enough to make their own decisions and only voted based on misinformation and fear. How offensive! Further, they bring up the money issue again; however, they fail to point out that the $38 million raised to fight Prop 8 was trying to move the election in their favor. They hypocritically condemn supporters of Prop 8 for doing exactly what they themselves did - spending money to try to affect the outcome of the election.

Here is one of the highlights of the website: "To the rest of those silent Mormon protesters [who silently opposed Prop 8], one can offer the words of Elie Wiesel..." then they quote Wiesel. This is a clever quote and use of Wiesel's name because they use them to stir up sympathy for their cause among the silent anti-Prop 8 Mormons. By using Wiesel's quote, they compare gays being denied 'marriage' to their partners to the Jews who experienced great persecution and the Holocaust at the hands of the Nazis. How offensive to Jews that this comparison is being made! Gays are not being branded, taken away from their homes, and worked/killed in concentration camps. They are not being gassed or incinerated. They are not even being denied any rights - they have the right to marry someone of the opposite sex. If that is not a desired outcome then they have the right to choose not to get married; they can also form a civil union, which is allowed in California. The LDS Church does not and never will condone anger and hostility: "The Church’s opposition to same-sex marriage neither constitutes nor condones any kind of hostility towards homosexual men and women. Protecting marriage between a man and a woman does not affect Church members’ Christian obligations of love, kindness and humanity toward all people" (Source).

The website then goes on to call for the Church to lose its tax-exempt status, even though the Church has always been very open about its involvement and has produced or will produce by the deadline all of its contributions (which were all non-monetary - the only money given from the "Mormon Church" came from individual members acting of their own free will) to the Prop 8 cause. The LDS Church acted well within its constitutional and legal rights to become involved in the Prop 8 movement.

Here's what the website says after stating that the Church did not violate the letter of the law (although they said that their "experts" said that it was "unclear" if the Church did or not violate the law - which is legalspeak for "there is no evidence of wrongdoing"): "Because it is already illegal for churches to support candidates or lobby and remain tax-exempt, we must close this loophole and make it illegal for churches to support propsitions at such disproportionate levels without classifying themselves as a Political Action Committee. We must clarify our tax law to prohibit this behavior." What are they saying? They are saying that it is not illegal for the Church to be involved like it was and still remain tax-exempt, so that means that they want to make it illegal in the future for the Church to act in a like manner. In essence they are saying: "We have to make it illegal for churches to be involved in issues like this so they can't stop us trying to force our beliefs onto everyone else."

Further, at the bottom of the page they link to sites where you can buy ridiculously overpriced t-shirts showing your support for same-sex "marriage". What's hypocritical is a link to a "No more Mr. Nice Gay" t-shirt right by a link to a "NoTime2H8" shirt. Isn't that a bit contradictory?

It's sad when people resort to such hatred and lies about and towards another group of people. I recognize that they may be very sincere in their beliefs but stooping to such tactics is uncouth and dishonest.

Update: Here is further commentary about the Mormons Stole Our Rights site, which might be an anti-Mormon site fronting as a pro-gay marriage site.