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Billionaire Makes Public Break From Mormon Church

In a stinging rebuke that could equally apply to the Roman Catholic Church, the Southern Baptist Convention and numerous "conservative" denominations, Jeff T; Green, a billionnaire raised in the Mormon Church has publicly left that church, faulting it for its harmful position on social issues and love of money.  To add to the public renuke, Green donated $600,000 to Equality Utah, which advocates LGBT rights in Uthah, gays being particular paraihs in the Mormon Church.   Gay, of course are not the only ones harmed by the Mormon Church's - ditto for the Catholic Church - clinging to a 12th century understanding of human sexuality and rejection of modern scientific and medical knowledge.  Green also noted harm done to women’s rights, civil rights and racial equality by the Church's positions.  Would that more people would open their eyes to the active harm being done by "conservative" denominations and their clinging to ignorance and bigotry.   A piece in the New York Times looks at Green's denunciation of the Mormon Church (Green is not the first wealthy Mormon to challenge the Church).  Here are highlights:

A billionaire from Utah, Jeff T. Green, said he was resigning this week from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in an unusually high-profile rebuke of the church’s wealth and position on social issues.

Mr. Green, who runs an advertising technology firm and is believed to be one of the wealthiest people from Utah, did not say what caused him to make such a public exit this week. But he said in a letter to Russell M. Nelson, the church’s president, that he was concerned about the church’s history, finances and advocacy.

“While most members are good people trying to do right, I believe the church is actively and currently doing harm in the world,” he wrote in the letter, which was reported Monday by The Salt Lake Tribune.

In the letter, a copy of which was dated Dec. 23, he said he had stopped believing in the church’s teachings more than a decade ago and had spent several years reflecting on his issues with it. “I believe the Mormon Church has hindered global progress in women’s rights, civil rights and racial equality, and L.G.B.T.Q.+ rights,” he wrote.

In the letter, Mr. Green, 44, asked for his records to be removed from the church and for his only other contact from the organization to be a letter confirming that he was no longer a member. One of his friends and 11 of his family members were also resigning, he said.

Kathleen Flake, a professor of Mormon studies at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, said this sort of formal exit from the church was similar to a renunciation of citizenship. To return to the church, a person would have to be rebaptized.

“Renouncing it is a political act; it’s a way of making a political statement, not just a religious statement,” she said.

She said it was unlikely that the church, which has more than 16 million members, would respond. “I think they care, but I don’t think they are surprised by such public statements,” Professor Flake, a church member, said.

Mr. Green, who now lives in Southern California, was also critical of the church’s wealth, which includes an investment fund paid for with contributions by members. The fund had $48 billion worth of stocks as of Sep. 30, according to SEC filings.

“This money comes from people, often poor, who wholeheartedly believe you represent the will of Jesus,” Mr. Green wrote. “They give, expecting the blessings of heaven.”

The management of the fund has come under scrutiny in recent years after a former manager accused the church of misleading members about the use of the funds. Church officials told The Wall Street Journal last year that the money was to be used during possible economic downturns.

In September, a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit brought by a prominent former member, James Huntsman, that accused the church of using the money for commercial purposes.

Mr. Green, the chief executive of the firm The Trade Desk, is worth $5.2 billion, according to Forbes. In November, he pledged to give away more than 90 percent of his wealth before or at his death.

This week Mr. Green also announced he was donating $600,000 to Equality Utah, a group that advocates L.G.B.T.Q. rights in the state.

He told The Tribune that almost half the money would go to a scholarship fund for students in Utah, including those who “may need or want” to leave Brigham Young University, which is sponsored by the church and has an honor code that prohibits same-sex “romantic behavior.”

Sadly, the Mormon Church leadership will likely ignore Green's action - they know there remain millions of members who they can continue to fleece while peddling a dogma based on Medieval knowledge.

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Republicans Have Become a Cult of Ignorance and Death

Sarah Palin likely lost the 2008 presidential campaign for John McCain as many former Republicans found that the could not hold their noses and vote for McCain if the mental midget of Wasilla was part of the package (my late mother referred to her as "that woman" and cast her last presidential vote for Obama).  Like gum stuck on one's shoe, Palin simply refuses to go away and remains a blight on America.  Now, however, she is promoting death by railing against Covid vaccines and vaccination requirements.  Over the weekend put her ignorance and stupidity on open display as she argued against Covid19 vaccinations and urged similarly ignorant/unhinged Republicans to risk their lives in a deadly game of Russian roulette with Covid. How one can claim to be a "common sense conservative" while rejecting vaccines that data shows is causing a death rate five times higher among the unvaccinated is dumbfounding.  Of course, Palin is hardly alone in arguing for actions causing avoidable deaths.  She is fanked by a plethora of far right talking heads and GOP extremists who happily are killing their supporters.  A column in the Washington Post looks at how the GOP has become a death cult that worships ignorance.  Here are excerpts:

Sarah Palin, rocket scientist, offered her thoughts on the coronavirus vaccine at a far-right conference in Arizona over the weekend. “It will be over my dead body that I’ll have to get a shot,” she proclaimed.

Palin’s talk of dead bodies is on point. By discouraging vaccination, she and Tucker Carlson and the rest of the anti-science right are quite literally getting people killed. Studies show that those living in the most pro-Trump counties in the United States are dying from covid-19 at a rate more than five times higher than in the most anti-Trump counties.

Palin’s pronouncements should come with a surgeon-general-style caution: “WARNING: SIGNIFICANTLY INCREASES YOUR RISK OF DYING FROM COVID.”

The Fox News crowd bristles at the notion that the Trumpified Republican Party has taken on aspects of a cult. But it’s looking more and more like a death cult, as my friend Sidney Blumenthal puts it. Nine hundred members of the Peoples Temple died at Jonestown. Thirty-nine died in the Heaven’s Gate mass suicide. But tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of Republicans are dying unnecessarily from covid-19 because they refuse to get vaccinated.

Blogger Charles Gaba, who has been tracking coronavirus death rates by county, reported Monday that since June 30, there have been about 117 deaths per 100,000 people in the reddest 10 percent of the United States (as measured by counties’ vote share for Donald Trump in 2020) — nearly six times the death rate of about 21 per 100,000 in the bluest decile. Likewise, the 100 million people who live in the most pro-Trump 30 percent of the United States had a death rate of about 98 per 100,000 since June 30 — more than triple the 30 per 100,000 among the people who live in the least pro-Trump 30 percent.

In the early days of the pandemic, those in urban areas — Democratic strongholds — were disproportionately likely to die from covid-19. That leveled out in January of this year. Then, the vaccines became available, and the delta variant struck. In August, there were more than 7 deaths per 100,000 in the reddest counties for every 1 death per 100,000 in the bluest. This month, Gaba projects there will be 5.62 deaths per 100,000 in the Trumpiest 10 percent for every 1 death per 100,000 in the least-Trumpy decile of America. (Gaba’s data is consistent with other recent studies.)

The cause of the disparity, which persists when accounting for age and health-care access of the different populations, is obvious: As of Dec. 20, among the bluest 10 percent of the population, 68.8 percent are fully vaccinated. In the reddest 10 percent, only 41.9 percent are fully vaccinated. The pattern is consistent through all deciles of the population: the more pro-Trump, the less vaccinated the population — and the higher the death rate.

Little wonder. In Washington, Republicans threatened to shut down the federal government to block a vaccine mandate, and they are still trying to force President Biden to veto their attempt to overturn the requirement. Republican-led states are fighting mandates and even incentivizing people not to take the vaccine. And Fox News and similar outlets have filled the airwaves with vaccine paranoia.

Turning Point USA’s Americafest, where Palin spoke this past weekend, was a revival meeting of the death sect. The group fights coronavirus vaccine mandates, and its leader, Charlie Kirk, told the gathering that the federal government’s top infectious disease expert, Anthony Fauci, “should be in prison.”

The speakers included the usual suspects of the Trump-Fox nexus: Carlson and Palin; Reps. Matt Gaetz, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert and Jim Jordan; Sen. Ted Cruz; Jesse Watters, Greg Gutfeld and Jeanine Pirro; Donald Trump Jr.; Seb Gorka. Kyle Rittenhouse, recently acquitted after killing two people at a racial-justice demonstration, appeared on Monday.

Palin told the crowd to “stiffen your spine” in the battle against vaccine requirements. She claimed she had “natural immunity” because she had covid-19 early this year, and therefore, “I won’t do it and, um, they better not touch my kids either.”

Back in September, Palin had boasted on Fox News: “I am one of those White, common-sense conservatives, I believe in science, and I have not taken the shot.” And now she says she won’t take it — unless and until she’s a dead body.

Thanks to Palin and other death-cult leaders, countless Republicans have become exactly that.

One can only hope that the Republican suicide pact will reduce the number of Republican voters enough so that Democrats can win in close elections.

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Theocrats Are Coming for School Boards

Over the almost 30 years that I have been actively involved in politics and following the so-called "Christian Right" - which is neither Christian not right on issues - one of the constant agenda items of these white nationalis "Christians" has been to attack public education and to fan parental fears and bigotries to elect far right candidates whose goal is to suppress anything that runs counter to the religious beliefs/fantasy world of these religious extremists.  Now these same groups and new upstart organizations - some funded by hate groups - have added the manufactured threat of "critical race theory" to thei list of bogeymen in a resurgent effort to place religious extremists on local school boards.   We saw this in Gleen Youngkin's slick but dishonest gubernatorial campaign here in Virginia and at school board meetings in various parts of Virginia, including Virginia Beach where extremists are seeking to have books banned.  Sadly, too many parents are oblivious to the agenda of these groups and candidates who want to censor what is taught in schools and push a white Christian nationalist agenda.  A piece in Salon looks at the danger posed by these groups and their candidates.  Here are highlights:

"Masks are not healthy for most people. Just the bacteria that grows in them is causing more issues than any issues masks would prevent," Nicole Konz claimed in a Facebook post last February. On Nov. 2, she was elected to the school board of Academy District 20, near Colorado Springs, a district serving more than 23,000 students. It wasn't an accident. There was a lot of money and power behind her. And Konz wasn't alone. 

The district's other new board member was Aaron Salt, already the board chair of a nearby charter academy, who said after his election, "We know that mask usage increases mental health problems and issues. ... That's not something that I'm willing to sacrifice." They were just two of 28 school board candidates elected across Colorado with the backing of a Christian nationalist organization — the Truth and Liberty Coalition (TLC) — whose ambitions are "national, international . . .

Pandemic restrictions and the moral panic over "critical race theory" are the most recent hot-button recruiting tools integrated into a broader menu of carefully nurtured grievances reflected in TLC's five-issue "Christian Voter Guides," under the headings "Critical Race Theory," "Parental Rights," "Boys Playing Girl Sports" [sic], "Sex Education" and "Gender Identity Pronouns." What's missing is even the pretext of concern for academic content or achievement, budgeting or any other traditional responsibility of a school board.

Clarkson wrote that these school board races in Colorado "were the pilot project in a long-term campaign by the Truth and Liberty Coalition and its de facto training institute, nearby Charis Bible College, in Woodland Park, a suburb of Colorado Springs."

Andrew Wommak, who founded the unaccredited Bible college in 2014, co-founded TLC in 2017 along with Lance Wallnau, preeminent promoter of the "Seven Mountain Mandate," a manifesto for evangelical Christians to conquer and claim dominion over seven key facets of life: education, religion, family, business, government, entertainment and media.

"The 'biblical worldview' is code for a theocratic or theonomic vision of society, in tension or at odds with secular institutions," Clarkson told Salon. "It's not the siloed issues. It's the whole enchilada." 

Wallnau was also one of Donald Trump's earliest and most prominent evangelical endorsers. His book "God's Chaos Candidate" was published during the 2016 campaign, just a week before the "Access Hollywood" tape became public. One prominent TLC board member is the evangelical pseudo-historian David Barton

TLC and its allies' ability to turn out agitated and misinformed voters in low-turnout elections is yet another ominous sign about the electoral landscape Democrats face in the 2022 midterms. In El Paso County, home to Colorado Springs, Republican turnout was 47.3%, compared to 37.6% for Democrats and 28.9% for independent voters.

This was not an isolated phenomenon. Clarkson writes that as in "past waves of fresh political action, there are other organizations doing similar things for similar reasons, often in close collaboration. Their impact is undoubtedly greater than the sum of their parts in the movement." He specifically cites a group called Church Voter Guides, . . . . casting the election as "a referendum on parental rights."

On the national level, Business Insider noted the involvement of the 1776 Project PAC, which won all 11 of its targeted Colorado school board races, and a majority of the 55 races it targeted nationwide — in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Virginia, Ohio, Minnesota and Kansas — focusing on the bogeyman of critical race theory.

Clarkson also mentioned the "School Board Boot Camp" run by FRC Action, the political action arm of the Family Research Council [a certified hate group]. "Calling these trainings 'boot camps' and illustrating them with military boots," he said, "is consistent with the theme that they are in a war, and that it is more than metaphorical and is more than a little ominous, post-Jan. 6."

This is how these people think: Teaching science that was revolutionary 160 years ago, but that undergirds all of biology today, is evidence of an organized leftist takeover of America's institutions — all of which need to be "taken back for God" (as in the "Seven Mountains Mandate"). Of course this requires a specific version of God, since many millions of Americans — including many evangelicals — have no trouble reconciling religion and science. For those who refuse to do that, any scientific advance whatever can potentially be construed as sinister heresy, and the more firmly the science is established, the more vast and sinister the Satanic plot must be. That's the basic conspiracy-theory logic that drives Perkins, his organization and a wide range of like-minded allies.

"The FRC boot camps reveal how the school board campaigns fit in the evolving coalition that constitutes the religious and business right in the age of Trump," Clarkson told Salon via email. . . . . another group, FEC United ("Faith, Education, and Commerce") that drew significant local media attention, particularly from the Colorado Springs Independent, where Heidi Beedle reported that "FEC United has organized protests against masks, vaccines and critical race theory at school board meetings across the Front Range. [Founder Joe] Oltmann has stated on his podcast, Conservative Daily, that teachers are 'recruiting kids to be gay' and that LGBTQ teachers should be 'dragged behind a car until their limbs fall off.'" 

[I]t is of a piece with the movement's longstanding hostility to public education. The Rev. Jerry Falwell made the agenda clear in 1979 when he wrote, 'I hope to see the day when there are no more public schools. Churches will have taken them over and Christians will be running them.'" That aptly describes the Truth and Liberty Coalition's agenda today. 

But it's only one facet of that agenda. "The religious right's animosity toward public education is just one part of a general assault on the foundations of modern liberal democracy," Stewart said. "Undermining confidence in our public institutions, in science and critical thinking, and in the social compact that public schools represent is a way of delegitimizing the process of rational policymaking. The growth of irrationalism and anti-intellectualism in education and in society lets powerful religious and economic leaders, along with their political allies, pretend that they represent the will of the people even as they advance their own interests."

There's much more in the piece.  Be VERY afraid of these people.

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