More LDS Crocodile Tears

As an institution, the Church of Latter Day Saints invested huge amounts of money and rallied lemming like church members to get out the vote to pass Proposition 8 and thereby deprive LGBT citizens equal civil rights. Now, the the LDS Church continues to whine and bellyache that it is being unfairly depicted as a bunch of bigots and theocrats. The cry babies even are whining that the Catholic Church shared responsibility for passage of Prop. 8 yet has escaped similar treatment. The crocodile tears are disingenuous for several reasons, no the least of which is that the LDS leadership opted to back discrimination and ought to be prepared to live with the consequences of their handiwork. Moreover, in terms of relative church membership and overall resources, the LDS put far more of a concentrated effort into passage of Prop. 8. Again. that's not to say that the Catholic Church shouldn't pilloried for advocating for the violation of the civil rights of an often maligned minority. It's purely a case of the LDS has reaped what it has sown and the sole blame ultimately rests with the LDS leadership. A piece in the San Jose Mercury looks at the cry baby theatrics of the LDS. Here are some highlights:
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Four months before California voters headed to the polls to decide the fate of Proposition 8, the Church of Latter-day Saints put out a call for help. A letter from church President Thomas Monson was read at every ward in California. It told members to "do all you can to support the proposed constitutional amendment by donating of your means and time."
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Organization meetings broke out across the state, but the leaders wanted more. Additional letters were sent to every church, with titles such as "Thirty People in Each Ward" and "More than Four Hours per Week." Donations from individual Mormons poured in and Mormons hit the streets, going door to door, hanging up signs, campaigning against the measure through phone banks. Funding was used for everything from newspaper ads to television commercials.
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That push from the Mormon church is widely credited as helping propel Proposition 8, which defined marriage only as a union between a man and a woman, to victory in November 2008.
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Mormons dispute charges they were the main impetus behind Proposition 8's passage -- arguing that they were only part of a large coalition of churches and residents that favored the ban on same-sex marriage. Many Mormons say they have been disproportionately targeted for their activism. In some cases, the backlash was violent, and, church members say, smacks of discrimination.
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Supporters raised $39 million, with the largest sum, $27 million, coming from California. The second-highest contributions to the Yes on 8 campaign -- $2.8 million -- came from the state of Utah, according to a Los Angeles Times analysis. Mormons for Proposition 8, a website organized by opponents that claims to track contributions from individual Mormons, says LDS members donated more than $20 million in support of the measure.
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Former Mormon Kerry Rutz, 51, a landscape architect who moved to San Francisco in 1998 and recently relocated temporarily, says anger has not died down regarding Proposition 8. "On a scale of one to 10, with 10 being angry, the gay population in the Bay Area is running an anger level of about 100 against the Mormon church," says Rutz, who is gay. "I don't think that anger is likely to change, and I certainly hope it doesn't."
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I am certainly no apologist for the Catholic Church. However, I will take note that rank and file Catholics seem to do afar better job of (a) following their conscience rather mindlessly following the dictates of a bunch of cranky old men, and (b) grasping the difference between CIVIL LAW marriage and church marriage. A case in point: polls increasingly show that a majority of Catholics support same sex marriage regardless of the diatribes issuing from the child rapist protectors in bishoprics and higher office.