The Mormon Church went to great lengths to hide their invo[lv]ement in the Prop 8 campaign…. Fred Karger, of Californians Against Hate, alleges that they deliberately obfuscated their activities, in violation of California's Political Reform Act. Karger previously filed a complaint alleging unreported contributions, which the Mormon church later admitted….
Karger [also] argues that the Mormon Church set up an organization, the National Organization for Marriage, with the express purpose of passing Prop 8, and then funded that without properly reporting…. [I]t is believed that over $2 Million passed through NOM, with little reporting on where that money came from. The pattern follows, almost eerily, the pattern that the Mormons used to pass a marriage amendment in Hawaii in the late 90s.
Using Technology to Deepen Democracy, Using Democracy to Ensure Technology Benefits Us All
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Exposing Mormon Hate Campaign
[via Calitics]
Mormons, Mormons everywhere.
ReplyDeletehttp://atheism.about.com/b/2003/11/21/mormons-taking-over-scouting.htm
Mormons Taking Over Scouting?
Friday November 21, 2003
Many readers are surely aware of the fact that there continue to
be legal and social problems due to the Boy Scouts' discrimination
and bigotry against atheists and gays. What readers may not realize
is just how much of this may be ultimately due to the efforts of the
Mormon church. Mormons control a significant percentage of all
Boy Scout troops; if policies change to treat gays and atheists
equally, the Mormons will walk - taking all of their money with them.
As MSNBC reports, Mormon involvement in Scouting has even reached
the point where Brigham Young University is offering a new major
in Scouting:
> The Boy Scouts are the official boys’ youth group of the LDS, and
> more than one in nine Scouts are Mormons. Critics say the church
> exerts disproportionate influence through membership on the national
> advisory council and vigorous fund-raising. (In New York, LDS leaders
> recently launched a fund-raising campaign with pamphlets carrying an
> endorsement from the church’s current prophet.)
Next to the Mormons, the Roman Catholic Church is also a major supporter
of the Boy Scouts and their endorsement of anti-gay and anti-atheist
policies has been crucial for the continued bigotry and discrimination. . .
-------------------------------------------
"Mormonism: Legitimate Religion Or Cult?" discusses that church's unsettling
resemblance to the Cult Awareness Network's definition of a cult...
by Scott Bidstrup
http://www.bidstrup.com/mormon.htm
[T]he public image of the church during the course of my life has gone
from that of a secretive, cult-like, somehow vaguely dangerous group,
as I experienced the image in my youth in the 1950's, to that of a
wholesome, family oriented, neighborly and deeply nurturing church that
is mighty nice to have in the neighborhood.
The difference has been made by an extremely well organized and financed
public relations campaign that has been carefully cultivated for many decades.
Aside from simply owning large numbers of radio and television stations
and newspapers across the nation, the church headquarters has a large public
relations department that makes sure that any press mention is quickly
and effectively responded to. In addition, the church has maintained
for many years a policy of strongly encouraging its more loyal members
to run for public office, seek positions of authority and influence,
and "network" with those who can influence opinion on how the church
is percieved or portrayed in the media. To make this possible, its
best and brightest are carefully cultivated to that end with excellent,
well financed business administration, mass media, political science
and public relations schools at its university, Brigham Young University,
in Provo, Utah. A measure of the success of this program is the fact
that the Clinton administration is the first since that of Harry Truman
to not have at least one Mormon in its cabinet. Many had two or
even three. I know how effective that education can be; I'm a graduate
of the mass media school at BYU, and consider the education I recieved,
at least in mass media, to have been first-rate.
The purpose of all this effort and expense is to satisfy the deep, almost
paranoid determination of the church's aging leadership to shed what it sees
as its cult-like image. The reason the leadership still holds this view of
its image is that when they were young, idealistic men forming their opinions
during the age of McCarthyism, the Red Menace and what was at the time
seen as an encroaching humanism, the church was viewed as I explained above,
as vaguely sinister and cult-like. These opinions, formed in those days,
not only drive the church's determined public relations effort to this
day, but they also drive the church's internal government as well.
So in this essay, I'm not going to speak for the church of which I was a
part for so many years. For their perspective you can go to their web site.
Rather, I'm going tell my experience from my own perspective, as a man
who has studied the church as well as having participated in it for
many years.
What I am going to try to explain in this essay is why the public image
of the church does not neccessarily represent the church as it is experienced
by those who are actually a part of it, and why, in my opinion, the church,
stripped of its carefully cultivated image, actually does more closely
resemble a cult than it would like to have you believe. . .
Have you seen the website for that National Organization for Marriage? I just went to it, haven't really had the chance to look around much yet, but what struck me first was this really repugnant picture they had on the front page of a (presumably sufficiently "ethnic" looking) family with a (fake) mother, a (fake) father, and a (fake) heterosexual infant sandwiched between them; they're hugging each other far too tightly and they've got these huge grins -- their familial bliss looks like it comes scrawled on a prescription pad. Is that what these people seriously think? Seriously? That marriage is made up of a set of acceptably but not especially diverse carbon copies of the same basic plan? There's probably also some interesting stinks to be smelled on the fact that apparently only "ethnic" people marry other "ethnic" people of their own "ethnicity" according to their imagery. What a strange and sad lot these sods are, I really do wonder how people get this way sometimes.
ReplyDelete> What a strange and sad lot these sods are, I really do wonder how
ReplyDelete> people get this way sometimes.
More about Mormonism. From _Losing My Religion: How I Lost My
Faith Reporting on Religion in America -- and Found Unexpected Peace_
by William Lobdell
http://www.amazon.com/Losing-Religion-Reporting-America-Unexpected/dp/0061626813/
Chapter 9, "The Golden Rule"
Most people of faith don't spend a lot of time considering beliefs
different from their own. . . What would you do if you met people. . .
who reminded you of the best examples of your fellow believers,
yet whose faith rested on what you saw as patent absurdities?
In my case, I met such folks when I covered Mormonism.
I found Mormons mesmerizing -- especially their generally high
moral conduct -- even though I didn't believe a word of their
doctrine. In a nutshell, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints teaches that an angel named Moroni led Joseph Smith in
1827 to discover a set of golden plates buried in a hillside
near his New York home. God provided the 22-year-old Smith with
a pair of glasses and "seer stones" that allowed him to
translate the "Reformed Egyptian" writings inscribed on the
plates into an additional revelation from Jesus called the
"Book of Mormon." Mormons believe this scripture restored the
church to God's original vision, leaving the rest of Christianity
in a state of apostasy.
The book's narrative focuses on a tribe of Jews who sailed from
Jerusalem to the New World in 600 BC and split into two main
warring factions. The God-fearing Nephites were "pure" (the
word was offically changed from "white" in 1981) and
"delightsome." The idol-worshipping Lamanites received the
"curse of blackness," turning their skin dark. . . [These
were] "the principal ancestors of the American Indians."
Independent scholars have dismissed this account as implausible.
[No!]
Mormons also believe the leader of their church, called their
president and prophet, has the ability to receive direct
revelations from God. For example, Joseph Smith learned from
the Lord that the Garden of Eden had been in Jackson County,
Missouri, and it was there that Jesus Christ would return
to Earth.
In a revelation that became better known, God instructed Smith
in 1831 to begin the practice of polygamy within the church. . .
But in 1890, long after Smith's death, the Lord instructed
another Mormon prophet to halt the practice. The timing was
fortuitous, as federal opposition to Utah's statehood was
gaining strength because of the Mormons' polygamous practices.
God also sent a message in 1978 to the Mormon prophet that
blacks should be treated equally in the church and should no
longer be barred from ministry. This particular revelation
came 116 years after the Emancipation Proclamation and
13 years after the passage of the Civil Rights Act.
Cosmologically, Mormons believe that human souls begin as a
pre-human spiritual -- but also physical -- presence on a crystal
orb in outer space. These spiritual children are made by God
the Father and His wife procreating and eventually make their
way to Earth. After humans die, they have a chance to become
gods themselves and live on their own planet. Mormons are also
taught that once our planet reaches its "sanctified and immortal
state," it too will turn into crystal.
I thought this was all quite nutty, yet from what I could see,
Mormons faithfully lived out their beliefs in far greater
numbers than other Christians. . .
They tended to be clean-cut, bright-eyed, conservatively
dressed and surrounded by young children. And they just gave
off a Mormon vibe, a Boy or Girl Scout goodness that made
you feel at ease in their presence. . .
These people lived mostly in the Mormon "Jell-O belt" -- Utah,
Idaho and Arizona -- so-named because of the plates of Jell-O
that inevitably appear at Mormon gatherings. . .
I [also] saw something familiar. . . [in] the tremendous pain
that had been inflicted on people's souls by men and women of
faith. This time, the victims hadn't been raped by priests
and kicked around by church leaders; they had simply
admitted that they didn't believe in their faith anymore.
Their punishment came from the laypeople: rejection by Mormon
spouses, children and relatives; the disappearance of Mormon
friends; the end of a social life; and sidetracked careers. . .
Most Mormons who fall out of faith don't admit it. Called
"Jack Mormons," these people are believed, by some estimates,
to represent about 25 percent of Mormon rolls, but they don't
dare come out of the closet because of the anticipated backlash. . .
The people at the Mormon conference were an eclectic bunch. . .
[b]ut they shared a common thread: They wanted to be honest
about their lack of faith and yet continue to be loved by
family and friends. In most pockets of Mormon culture,
that wasn't going to happen.
[One ex-Mormon] -- someone who was having problems in her
marriage -- told me that she quit going to bed with her
husband because he refused to stop wearing his sacred Mormon
undergarments, worn day and night by the devout. She
wanted a respite from symbolism.
"That church was right there in the bed with us," she complained.
Eventually, he quit wearing the underwear to bed, and she
stopped wearing her "Have You Hugged an Apostate Today?" T-shirt.
Though it was often covered by laughter and gallows humor, a
deep sadness filled the conference. . .
Mormon and gay, on YouTube.
ReplyDeleteStory of a gay Mormon
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMCkVntVCZ0
ABC Nightline 2006 : The Life of Gay Mormons
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nV8ouMvQh5k
My Gay Mormon Story
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBynvsnRoNU
a gay mormon perspective
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tP95wwtid_g
a gay mormon perspective (Part 2)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7W7596B2NZE
a gay mormon perspective (Part 3)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65wekEs9-2I
a gay mormon perspective (Part 4)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIc55HPZRHs
a gay mormon perspective (Part 5)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tvm4P1CBttA
a gay mormon perspective (Part 6)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2_Vo-zys6Y
a gay mormon perspective (final part)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDrgf1LsePQ
Gays in the LDS Church
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhzsgApBr_E
LDS Homosexuality Pt. 1: Go Forward
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54QR_5k6qA8
LDS Homosexuality Pt. 2: Marriage Hopes and Realities
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmMd6sOMams
LDS Homosexuality Pt. 3: Embracing our Homosexual Children
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PyRAueeJNIY
Jay's experience in the Mormon church (part 1)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VIe3XHhEsg
Jay's experience in the Mormon church (part 2)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Pnd1aIFVys