The LDS church recently did an about face on the topic of LGBT issues. Check it out here.
Funny thing about this though is in no way do the leaders want this construed as an apology. Dallin H Oaks commented.
“I know that the history of the church is not to seek apologies or to give them,” Oaks said in an interview. “We sometimes look back on issues and say, ‘Maybe that was counterproductive for what we wish to achieve,’ but we look forward and not backward.”
The church doesn’t “seek apologies,” he said, “and we don’t give them.”
I suppose the mountain meadows massacre was counter productive too. But hey the church eventually apologized for that after 150 years. Maybe Elder Oaks means as long as he is alive there won’t be apologies for this doctrine. Because at a minimum it prevent gays from having an eternal mate according to the church and in worse cases causes members to devalue these people as dealing with temptations akin to rape and child molestation.
But hey we want them to have no problems getting a home or a job, so that makes it all good. Because the church understands this whole being treated equal thing, I mean after all they were persecuted for suggesting an alternate form of marriage1 back when temple oaths drove that massacre in the meadows.
The way this whole deal reads to me is like this. ‘In exchange for our support that you all get treated right we still get to tell you God doesn’t want you to live with the person you love here for all eternity. Plus you got to protect our right to hold that view.’
Umm guess what? You already have that right…. It is in the constitution. You know that same one you Mr Church tried to modify back in 2008 when you worked hard to ban these people so much not only from the temple wedding but any wedding at all. So you really aren’t giving anything up are you. Instead you are basically having your cake and eating it too, and yeah saying you won’t apologize for the mess you made.
The more I watch religion in general the more it is like the petulant whiny kid that seems to think the world revolves around them. Religion gets tax breaks because it calls itself a religion. Do gays or straight people get tax breaks? Yet when religion goes too far by affecting policies in ways that are not allowed to by virtue of their own tax breaks they seem to think they are above the rules. Yet when they come to the table after realizing they are losing the battle they need more protection from criticism? Especially when they aren’t giving up a damn thing or admitting any fault?
Its like the church is saying we just don’t make mistakes, we just take the wrong approach when we dealt with you people that our doctrine deemed were wrong. Sure we viewed you blacks as cursed of God, or that your sexual orientation was a choice. Yeah maybe were forthcoming about how our founder married a 14 year old girl and lied to his followers about it….Sure we should have used more careful wording. But we damn sure we aren’t apologizing for it!
Because hey its God’s church right, how could it possibly screw up?
- incase you missed it polygamy wasn’t legal back in the day we JS took brides as young as 14 to be yet another wife. Maybe leaders just smarted at the thought a bunch of rainbow loving hooligans could change the definition of marriage when they couldn’t. ↩
Well it’s a typicaly response from a institution that wish’s it was still 1955 and ignorance was bliss.You know it is funny they could have done and should have done this decades ago,but only when they are forced do they begrudgingly conseed the fact that all people are equal and should be treated fairly.What a bunch of two face narrow minded sad leaders.Mankinds use and more often abuse of religion has caused more hardship and strife and been a significant contributor to both enslavement physically and mentally and holding mankind back that most any other force I can think of.Why any one of any religion would be proud to be part of that legacy is beyond me.However there is hope that kicking and screaming religion and in this case the Lds church will be dragged into and era of reason and enlightment.Which honestly they should be the leaders of not the followers.But it’s a step small but a step in the right direction.
[…] people analyzed thoroughly and had a lot of fun with. I think they’re going to be regretting that […]
It seemed to me the press conference wasn’t about supporting anti-discrimination in housing and employment at all. Because it sounds like they only support that as long as anyone with religious objections doesn’t have to follow it. And since pretty much no one has a problem renting, employing, riding buses/trains with LGBT people except those with religious objections, that basically makes it a moot point, doesn’t it? I think they’re trying to expand on the Hobby Lobby decision.
I think the authors of these two articles probably saw what the church was really saying:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/01/28/mormon-s-lgbtq-support-is-bigotry-in-disguise.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brooke-p-hunter/how-the-mormons-punked-th_b_6564238.html
This issue makes me so angry I want to throttle Oaks and Holland personally! The reason almost everyone gives for treating LGBT individuals unfairly (often cruelly) is religion! If you couple LGBT protections with religious exemptions you have achieved NOTHING! Discrimination is wrong, no matter why you do it. You don’t have to change your mind and start believing LGBT individuals are on equal footing with you before the Lord but you do need to treat them equally on earth. That means no refusing to let them live in your rental property, no refusing to bake their wedding cake (No really, you don’t have to stay around and watch them eat it. Just deliver the cake and leave.), no giving the job to the straight woman over the more qualified transgendered person. The only acceptable solution is equal treatment with no exemptions b/c no one cares what you believe God believes. People only care how you treat others.
Behold Utah House Bill 66.
It’s probably unconstitutional, just like Amendment 3.
Thing is, it’s not a change. In Salt Lake, the church has been on the side of anti discrimination for housing/employment as long as they don’t have to follow it. It’s what so many hide behind here to say they are anti-gay, just anti-SSM. You know, like white supremacist weren’t racist because they were all for “separate but equal”.