More Filler: The Mormon Church Attempts to Rationalize Its Bigotry, Take 700,926
Check out the Mormon church’s August 13 press release on “The Divine Institution of Marriage“—i.e., on all the reasons for that church’s bigoted all-out war on marriage equality. Pay especial attention to the footnotes:
- To support their claim for the need for “gender-differentiated parenting,” the best they can do is cite two books from 1996 (which were really about single-parent homes), before any of the research on same-sex parenting came in.
- At one point they cite conservative hack Maggie Gallagher’s ridiculous sky-is-falling piece, “Banned in Boston: The Coming Conflict Between Same-Sex Marriage and Religious Liberty” from 2006.
- They never even glance at the actual evidence out of Europe, which indicates that same-sex unions have not had any negative effect on society or marriage, and, if anything, have been of benefit.
Best of all: the majority of the quotes come from Mormon religious leaders, doctrines and scriptures. This is not the kind of press release anyone should be paying attention to—not Mormons, not gays, not anyone—except to recognize it for what it is: a pathetic, bigoted diatribe, cloaked in warm, cloying, condescending language.
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August 15th, 2008 at 2:14 pm
Where else would you expect a press-release from the LDS Church to come from, if not from its leaders, doctrine, and scriptures? Men of faith (such as the LDS leaders) would put much more value on the scriptures than on the theories and research of men.
August 15th, 2008 at 2:30 pm
The real problem (besides how utterly bigoted the Mormon church’s stance is, and how little it has to do with the real world) is that the press release tries to mix both faith and science, to the detriment of both. While I agree with almost none of the pronouncements found in the Proclamation on the Family, at least its authors didn’t try to cite invalid research or statistics to shore up their claims.
August 17th, 2008 at 10:43 am
LOL at Jesse. So the world should be beholden to a few prophets from a tiny religion based out of Utah?
I’m sorry, if they can’t come up with rational, real-world arguments against gay marriage, their diatribe deserves to be ignored.
August 18th, 2008 at 2:27 am
@ measure76: Have you read the article? It addresses the God-given reasons against allowing same-sex marriage, as well as the “real-world arguments.” If you haven’t read it yet, I highly recommend you read it, especially the part about tolerance.
God bless.
August 18th, 2008 at 8:52 am
Cog has a good post about why the reasons given aren’t from “god,” and why the section on tolerance is an insulting misrepresentation of the facts.
As for the “real-world reasons,” there lies, as I indicated, the main problem. The two books cited to support the Mormon ideal of “gender-differentiated parenting,” Fatherless America and Life without Father are popular, nonscientific works from 1996 that were aimed at reversing the single-parent trend and have next to no value in a discussion of same-sex parenting—both because of their age and also because of their irrelevancy to the topic. Two of the other references are to Maggie Gallagher, who has no credentials other than a burning hatred for gay people and everything they stand for. The rest of the citations are to cherry-picked, controversial studies that stand alone against massive evidence that contradicts them. And some of the most important and alarming statements are simply left unsupported—such as the claims about European marriage trends. Why all the obfuscation? Because the real-world evidence does not bear out the Mormon church’s position, and they know it.
The Mormon church’s press release is not meant to inform. It is an apologia of the most pernicious kind: the philosophies of men, mingled with scripture, intended to lull the Mormon masses into thinking they have Science on their side and to shut their eyes, and their minds, in peaceful repose. Unfortunately, since it’s a pack of lies, half-truths and slanderous falsehoods, those of us whose marital rights it concerns cannot go to sleep, but must stay awake and fight it out.
August 18th, 2008 at 10:43 am
This document is troubling to me for so many reasons, but the one that felt like a sucker punch to the gut was the line about abortion. See, the gay arguments I’d heard before and they’re totally stupid but not surprising. What is surprising is the way that a single line (“ince 1973, abortion has taken the lives of over 45 million innocents.”) can blow away thirty years of very carefully staying out of the “life begins at conception” camp. Also, how does this line make sense, given the position of Mormonism on abortion not always being a bad idea?
Incidentally, I prefer when the leaders rely on LDS quotes and doctrine, because (in the worldview of Mormonism) that can change in an instant. Once they start using “research”, it makes it harder for the leadership and the membership to admit a possibility of changing their position.
August 18th, 2008 at 11:32 am
True, alea; also, it sounds less like good sense to the undiscerning.
August 19th, 2008 at 11:09 am
Yes, Jesse, I’ve read the article. On my blog, I also have a good point-by-point destruction of the church’s stance. It is absolutely horrible what the church is doing here, and it is naked bigotry, made worse by the fact that the church has a history of institutional bigotry.
See this entry: http://rfmorg.wordpress.com/2008/08/18/86/
August 20th, 2008 at 5:20 pm
I used to think that it was valid to claim that marriage was a religious institution and that it should be kept in the terms in which was established. (There are a lot of things I used to believe.) But recently the whole thing suddenly became so clear in my mind. I was actually watching a documentary on transgendered people in the UK, where transsexuals cannot change the sex on their birth certificates and therefore cannot legally marry. One guy’s argument was simple. People should be able to protect their families and there are a lot of rights established by marriage that cannot be gained in other ways. He is father to three children he cannot legally adopt because he cannot marry their mother. Even if he leaves his estate to those children, the lack of legal connection could result in someone contesting their right and taking from them the security that he, as their father, wants to give them.
For me this was a crystalising moment. Religions are voluntary organisations. They have a right to their own teachings and their members may choose to limit the actions they will take in response to teachings they believe in. If they don’t believe those things they can leave. None of these things are easy, but they are possible. However, a person can’t escape law, or government. As long as society uses marriage as a way to establish rights that in fact are civil rights, marriage should be available to any couple who choose to join their lives this way.
I believe that the LDS church has the right, like any church/religion, to refuse to perform marriages that do not conform to its doctrines. I believe it has the right, again like any church/religion, to refuse membership or end membership, based on a person’s actions. But that is religion. To say that it has the right to fight against civil marriages that it does not perform or to encourage its members to oppose Bills that would grant civil rights associated with the marriage of people who do not happen to conform to church doctrines, is just wrong. Civil unions are the least the law should offer gay people, and if introduced into the law they should ensure the same civil rights and benefits under the law that are offered by marriage. (Every non-temple wedding is a civil union in the Church’s eyes anyway, so really, why do they care?) Anything else is clear breach of the separation of church and state.
Of all the things about the Church’s view on family on the family that I don’t like, top of the list is the fact that families are acknowledged as the fundamental unit of society, but with the proviso that only certain types of families are valid expressions of what a ‘family’ is. I find this idea offensive and not at all based in the reality that surrounds us in society. To further delineate society this way by denying civil marriages based on religious beliefs deepens the offense.
August 20th, 2008 at 5:57 pm
The only thing I disagree with you about, chosha, is that marriage was originally a religious institution. But I won’t mention that, because that’s not the important part of your comment, which was excellent and well expressed.
Mormonism’s opposition to extending marriage rights to gay couples is wrong on so many levels, the most important (or what should be most important to Mormons) being that it contradicts several of Mormonism’s own principles–to allow others to follow their own consciences; (for American Mormons) to uphold the U.S. and California Constitutions, which establish a separation of church and state; to love and look out for the needs of others, which, in this case, include the families and children of same-sex couples; and more. As my friend Cog says on his blog, the Mormon church–which claims to honor families as the fundamental building block of society–is actively seeking to harm his family, which includes two young children.
August 22nd, 2008 at 3:47 am
You didn’t disagree with me, because I didn’t say that. :P hehehe
August 31st, 2008 at 11:26 am
damn sean… you certainly have a lot to say. but i guess if you put everything i post in groups in one place i would have had a lot to say too. :D i never have like blogs for some reason. mostly i think because i usually have no way of knowing when someone else has commented on a blog like i do in discussion groups. does this place let you know when someone comments on a blog you commented on?
personally, i have been able to pretty much just ignore the mormans since i quit being one [if i ever really was one.] but given this issue is so personal to you, i can see where your interest comes from. i have absolutely no idea what your beliefs on god are now but it seems you no longer agree with the morman thinking. i agree completely that the pulpit should not be utilized as a political tool but the mormans aren’t the only ones that do that. why focus on the mormans on an hypocrisy that’s far beyond just their own?
i won’t pretend to know or appreciate what it’s like growing up gay with my sister as your mother/teacher and in the morman religion on top of it. daisy would have a better feel for that. i may have been rough. my mon [your nana.] pretty much left me alone after dad died. she considered me uncontrollable and was usually smart enough not to try and contain me. i think it’s safe to assume your mom [my sister] was in your life quite a lot more especially if she thought she was loosing you. coulda been rough!
as to your blog, i read about half of that thing… ok maybe a forth… but that constitutes the most i’ve spent thinking about the morman church in a long time. i really don’t care what the mormans believe. they have always made their thoughts on prominent issues known to the members. a big issue for me when i was growing up was their stance on allowing blacks into the church but without the benefit of having the preisthood which of course would effectively keep them out of the celestial kindom.[damn i know too much about this!] when i heard about it, i was 11 . institutionalized bigotry was all it was and i saw it for for that. it started me thinking along a different track. they changed their minds about that eventually so at least they have a precedent for god changing her mind. anyway… the mormans are hypocrites… anything new to reveal?
if you have time you can join me in one of my discussion groups and discuss some things with me. just ask. 8)
September 1st, 2008 at 12:10 pm
Maybe I’ll be able to put Mormonism completely behind me one day. That would be nice. Unfortunately, as a Utah resident, I’m surrounded by Mormons, and Mormon policy has a strong effect on local politics, which ends up affecting me in a very real way. Also, I do blog about the hypocrisy of other religious groups, although not as often.
Some blogs will send you an email when someone has commented after you, but I looked around, and I can’t see any way doing that on WordPress. If you have an RSS reader you can subscribe to my comment feed, but that’s not exactly the same thing.