The WHOLE Truth
Blogging friend, Holy Coast, reports on Prop 8 result protests affecting the Mormon Temple in Los Angeles. He quotes extensively from local news reports then concludes this way:
I’ll say it again – they’re targeting the wrong people. While the Mormon Church may have encouraged large donations to the Yes on 8 cause, it wasn’t the votes of the Mormons that put the measure over the top. It was the votes of blacks and Latinos who turned out in large numbers for Barack Obama and voted something like 70%-30% for the measure.
If you want to protest the people who were the most responsible for passing the measure, take your angry LGBT crowd and bus them down to South Central or East L.A. and call those people bigots and homophobes. I’d pay good money to see that.
He is very right. Opposition to same sex marriage is broadly based and while religiously energized, all the Mormons, heck even all the Mormons and all the Catholics in California would not have been enough to carry the day. Besides, why aren’t they marching on the beautiful new Roman Catholic Cathedral downtown? – or the Archdiocese offices? Why are individual Mormons being threatened, but Hugh Hewitt, who sent out thousands of robocalls the weekend before, is not?
The answer, in part at least, lies in the Evangelical willingness during the primary, to likewise protest Mormonism – that discussion helped create this opportunity. You see, if the No on 8 forces protested Catholicism, or Evangelicalism, they know they would be protesting against the basics of society. But since so many of our own were willing the relegate Mormons to a corner somewhere, we set them up as a target. Like the wounded member of the zebra herd – we made Mormons look like easy pickings.
Which is why we owe them our allegiance against these threats and protests. Call it penance – it is the least we can do.
Posted in Religious Bigotry | 4 Comments » | 
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smrtdude on 07 Nov 2008 at 8:52 am #
Agreed, and I think you could carry you logic even further. I think this is an effort to associate the marriage ban with the LDS church as if to say: “Oh, you voted for Prop 8? I didn’t realize that you supported the Mormons”.
It’s a rather cynical view of the electorate that suggests the people can be manipulated into supporting gay marriage because they don’t want to be viewed as Mormon sympathizers.
In many ways these protest of the LDS church really are targeting those supporters who really did help pass this initiative. Evangelicals and Catholics for theological reasons; African Americans because of the LDS Church’s past racial history.
The question is whether those other groups are willing to stand up and loudly defend the principles behind their votes. If this were to happen, I think the targeting of Mormons would taper off as their role faded back into the crowd.
AaronRH on 12 Nov 2008 at 2:01 am #
I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. While all of the thanks to local California latter-day saints posted here is immensely appreciated and (surely) graciously accepted, please let’s be careful in expressing this. No latter-day saint wants to feel like they saved the day, here. It is widely accepted and understood in the Church that we were merely acting politically with like-minded citizens of California. It is, likewise, fully understood that our actions at the polls were merely a trickle in the flood of support for this constitutional amendment. I think we’ll all agree that the real thanks (yet again) belongs to God and his expressed divine providence.
Please, if you feel it necessary to personally bring up with a “mormon” his/her roll in this campaign, maybe simply express regret that the temple had been defaced and that their faith has been publicly misrepresented. We all know that latter-day saints have a LONG history of having been constantly persecuted, scorned, reviled, and thrown under the bus. Most of us have pretty thick skin, and some of us keep too much of a guard up. All of us have been malevolently slandered by peers who claim to ask themselves frequently, “What would Jesus do?” and by those who viciously preach the modern doctrine of “tolerance.” I would suggest, John, that seeking penance should be a personal and individual endeavor with God; perhaps not quite so general and collective.
I guess I’m trying to say here that when addressing with a latter-day saint his/her roll in this proposition:
1. A “thanks” is nice, but sometimes uncomfortable because it may seem misplaced or even disingenuous to the more guarded.
2. An apology is probably entirely unwarranted. (unless you have personally injured that particular “mormon”)
3. And the best approach (if you feel that you should do anything, at all) may be a gesture of brief and genuine commiseration.
We all know that what has happened here in California is not the work of man, but of God. Let’s, of course, recognize that and never misplace the recognition.
kayjunior on 14 Nov 2008 at 1:48 pm #
I’m a member of the LDS Church living in Southern California. I’ve read everything here, and must say that I really do appreciate all that’s been said. I have a Catholic friend and another non-Mormon Christian friend with whom I often discuss what’s going on, and it’s just so nice to have someone I can laugh with, share stories with, and get irritated with about all the No on 8 nonsense. I’m sure all of us in the LDS Church would appreciate not so much a thank you (well, maybe a mutal thank you, since we all worked together on this) but just someone else who we can talk to who feels the same way we do about the sanctity of marriage and/or everyone’s religious rights and right to freedom of speech.
I worry about my grandchildren who are still young and their faith is fragile. I hope there are other kids in school who will help them and remain friendly to them if they receive ridicule about being Mormon.
We have been counseled to be careful not to return hate for hate. Not all gays are like those who are doing these protest marches, but all gays are still children of God. They may be breaking His heart with what they’re doing, but their Father still loves them and someday they will know the truth.
Members of the LDS Church are not just worried about our own religious freedoms. I worry about the freedoms of all religious people and all people of good conscious, religious or not, who will be silenced if the No on 8 people get their way. If only evil is allowed to speak, our country is in serious, probably fatal peril.
Again, I thank all of you so much for all I’ve read here. I hope we can all be successful in getting our voices heard.
Kay
kayjunior on 14 Nov 2008 at 1:58 pm #
P.S. — If Mormons are fully responsible for Prop 8 passing in California, as the No on 8 people claim, what about the other 39 states who already had the same constitutional amendment *before* this election year? It’s time to face reality — people in America don’t agree with or want same-sex “marriage.”
Kay