Rick Perlstein doesn’t think Mitt Romney’s Mormonism will ultimately matter to Evangelical voters, and I tend to agree. You should read the whole thing, but here’s how his piece starts:
I’ve never been impressed with the argument that Mitt Romney makes for a weak Republican nominee because conservatives don’t like him. That’s not how that party works. Like they say, “Democrats fall in love, Republicans fall in line.” Don’t believe me? Think back four years. When the race was still up in the air, the venom aimed at McCain was ten times worse than anything being suffered by Mitt. I collected the stuff back then: Rush Limbaugh said McCain threatened “the American way of life as we’ve always known it”; Ann Coulter said he was actually “a Democrat” (oof!); an article in the conservative magazine Human Events called him “the new Axis of Evil”; and Michael Reagan, talk radio host and the 40th president’s son, said “he has contempt for conservatives, who he thinks can be duped into thinking he’s one of them.”
Then McCain wrapped up the nomination, and Mike Reagan suddenly said, “You can bet my father would be itching to get out on the campaign trail working to elect him.” One thing Republicans understand: In American elections you have to choose from among only two people – not between the perfect and the good.
He adds a bit later:
I think they’ll get over it. In American religious history, theological qualms tend to get pushed aside when politics intervenes.
Consider that little more than a generation ago, Catholics had it even worse than Mormons do now. “Theological qualms”? Try this one on for size: Once upon a time many, if not most, Protestant fundamentalists identified the Roman Catholic Church as nothing less than the Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth – the dreaded “Whore of Babylon” described in Revelation 17 and 18. More prosaically, they identified Catholics as an alien force. Billy Graham reassured his followers in 1960 that it was legitimate to vote against Catholic John F. Kennedy out of religious prejudice, because the Roman Catholic Church “is not only a religious but also a secular institution, with its own ministers and ambassadors.”
Fast forward to now: extremist Catholic voters and activists are in lockstep with extremist Evangelical voters and activists, because conservative religious people in this country, at least of the “Judeo-Christian” variety, have united about that which they hate.
It’s actually a little bit astonishing to look at how much American theology has changed in the past century. Rick’s piece looks back on that time not so long ago when Evangelicals really, honestly, didn’t care about abortion. For some of us who weren’t around in the 1970′s, it’s hard to imagine, but they used to consider that a Catholic issue and they kinda sorta totally hated Catholics. Now the enemies are gays, women, Muslims, etc. We’ll keep hearing the prognostication about whether Evangelicals will vote for a Mormon up to the day that Romney ties up the nomination. At that point, wingnuts, like they do, will fall in line.
This is a tale featuring so much heterosexuality I just don’t even know how to describe it:
Steven Wilson is a member of the Church living in the San Francisco Bay area. Twenty years ago, he was introduced to the Church by a recently returned missionary he met in a gay bar. The two eventually moved in together and during the next seven years, Steven developed addictions, contracted AIDS and became severely depressed. As Steven’s condition worsened and he began to feel that he was going to die, he turned to an in-depth investigation of the Church.
This is his story about how he joined the Church, and eventually became an ordinance worker at the Oakland Temple. He is now happy and no longer experiences temptations with same gender attraction. He was baptized by the same returned missionary that first introduced him to the Church and with whom he has lived for the past 20 years. During the past 13 years of active Church membership, the two men have maintained a close bond of love, friendship and brotherhood within the gospel.
AWWWW, they met a gay bar, then seven years later, Steven joined his “roommate’s” church! How sweet, it is like 1965 all over again!
I would make further fun of this supposed “conversion story,” or point out that for two Mor-men, it’s exceptionally WEIRD to move in with another guy for TWENTY YEARS, but The General already re-told the story for us:
“Hi there, Brother Hairybear,” the missionary presumably said, “have you heard the story about how an angel gave Joesph Smith a second testament of Christ and how Joseph translated it by staring at a stone in a hat? Would you like to be baptized, move in with me, and spend the rest of our lives living the heterosexual lifestyle together?”
Touched by the Spirit of the Lord in a very heterosexual kind of way, Steven immediately responded, “Take me, Elder InDenial, take me to your home, baptize me, and let us live the heterosexual lifestyle, together, as brothers.”
Twenty years later, they’re still living together in that house, living the life of chaste and fervently heterosexual bachelors.
Alan Osmond, the eldest of the singing group the Osmonds, says being gay is not genetic and that “reparative” therapy is successful, and reveals Chuck Norris was enlisted to butch up the group’s dancing.
I am not equipped to respond to this with any level of journalistic decorum.
Apparently this all started last year when Alan Osmond wrote an article for a website, thefamily.com, in multi-colored text of varying sizes, which purports to show the “science” of the gay issue, and also the “Mormon” of the gay issue. I am reproducing it as it is, so you can see this childish nonsense for yourself:
Much confusion can be avoided if we heed the words of the Lord’s prophet. President Gordon B. Hinckley has provided a solid foundation in addressing this difficult issue. He has stated:
“Prophets of God have repeatedly taught through the ages that practices of homosexual relations, fornication, and adultery are grievous sins. Sexual relations outside the bonds of marriage are forbidden by the Lord. We affirm those teachings.”
[...]
In addition to having counsel from the Lord’s prophet to provide guidance, it is helpful to have accurate information about homosexualityand its development. First, it is important to understand thathomosexuality is not innate and unchangeable. Research has NOT proved that homosexuality is genetic. Even more important, many researchers whose studies have been used to support a biological model forhomosexuality have determined that their work has been MISINTERPRETED. What is clear is that homosexuality results from an interaction of social, biological, and psychological factors. These factors may include temperament, personality traits, sexual abuse, familial factors, and treatment by one’s peers.3
Developmental factors aside, can individuals diminish homosexual attraction and make changes in their lives?Yes.There is substantial evidence, both historical and current, to indicate this is the case. Jeffrey Satinover, M.D., a former Fellow at Yale University and a graduate of MIT and Harvard, concludes:
“The fact that not all methods of treating those who struggle with homosexual attraction are successful, and that no method is successful for everyone, has been distorted by activists into the claim that no method is helpful for anyone. … The simple truth is that, like most methods in psychiatry and psychotherapy, the treatment ofhomosexuality has evolved out of eighty years of clinical experience, demonstrating approximately the same degree of success as, for example, the psychotherapy of depression.”4
Other researchers note treatment success rates that exceed 50 percent, which is similar to the success rates for treating other difficulties.
I am not kidding. That is how it looks on The Forgotten Osmond’s website. Of course, Truth Wins Out readers know that the mere suggestion of “50 percent” success rates in changing sexual orientation are complete nonsense. In a day and age when the luminaries of the “ex-gay” industry are admitting at an alarming rate just how hot they still think guys are, I feel no need to address childish silliness such as this. Moreover, I am not arguing genetics with a man who said this:
Last October, Osmond posted a video on YouTube in which he grimaces while discussing dancing with his brothers and says “they had us doing effeminate moves.” Osmond says the brothers enlisted their friend Chuck Norris, then a karate instructor, to “toughen up” their dancing. He says Norris made them very “boyish, which is what we wanted.”
It would simply be a futile exercise to try to explain the complexities of what science has shown about sexuality to a man who ran into the arms of Walker, Texas Ranger as a child in order to de-gay his boy band.
Here is video of whatever his name is talking about that time Chuck Norris taught the Osmond boys what it means to be men. You really, really, really need to watch it:
As “newsworthy” events go, this registers as minor, but it bugs me, so I’m posting about it. I’ve always been a big fan of The Killers, and lead singer Brandon Flowers. It has always been known that Flowers is a Mormon. That is fine. It’s also well-known, to him, that he has many, many, many gay fans. He’s posted this video where he talks about his life, his career, his family and the fact that he is a Mormon. It’s part of the series of videos from the Mormon church that have been spamming us on YouTube for a while now:
Okay, great, you’re cool, you’re talented, you love your family, you’re hot and guess what? You’re a Mormon. But he really never has said whether that Mormonism means that he agrees with his church on issues like homosexuality and Prop 8. I just think he should answer the question. So does Andy, from whom I shamelessly pulled the screen shot above. So come on, Flowers.
Answer the question, and then how about an It Gets Better video? Thanks in advance.
Flying monkeys at large, let’s take wing to keep an important gay newspaper from folding.
Q Salt Lake is the LGBTQ news source for citizens of Salt Lake City, Utah. Editor Michael Aaron warns that owing to slumping ad sales and a bad economy, the paper is in imminent danger of going under. It had to take out a loan to get the last issue published.
It sucks when a city loses a newspaper. It sucks, too, when a city loses a gay newspaper. But Salt Lake City losing its one and only gay newspaper? That would more than suck. Think about it–this is Utah, land of hate crimes and institutionalized homophobia. There’s no Provincetown or other oasis within hundreds of miles. Q Salt Lake is a crucial voice for queer Utahns. Help it out! Join the Facebook page! And if you know anyone who owns a business in the Salt Lake area, give Q Salt Lake a plug.
Good news. We’re not there yet, and as these new poll results show, we’re still dealing with the fact that those who oppose us do so more vehemently than those who support us, but still, things are looking good:
Fifty-three percent of the 1,000 adults surveyed believe the government should give legal recognition to marriages between couples of the same sex, about the same as last year, according to the nationwide telephone poll by The Associated Press and the National Constitution Center. Forty-four percent were opposed.
People are similarly conflicted over what, if anything, the government should do about the issue.
Support for legal recognition of same-sex marriage has shifted in recent years, from narrow majority opposition in 2009 to narrow majority support now. Some of the shift stems from a generational divide, with the new poll showing a majority of Americans younger than 65 in favor of legal recognition for same-sex marriages and a majority of seniors opposed.
One problem, explored in the article, is that that there are a lot of people out there who know in their hearts that they should support full equality, but can’t get there because their religious beliefs prevent them from making the truly moral choice. A sixty-two year old woman explains that she loves her daughter, loves her daughter’s partner and believes that they should have all the rights and benefits of marriage — but yet she won’t be going to her daughter’s wedding because she’s a Mormon and can’t give them her full support. It’s so sad, the way that conservative religion still tears families apart.
1. Brian at Right Wing Watch points us to the new, garbled, illogical pamphlet from hate group leader Peter Sprigg on the Top Ten Harms of Same-Sex Marriage. You haven’t become accustomed to thoughtful consideration or intelligence from the Family Research Council and that certainly won’t change today, because they’re still morons.
2. How do anti-gay forces like the NOM leaders sleep at night? Towleroad has a heartbreaking story and testimony from a lesbian couple in Rhode Island, one of whom is terminally ill, and who, because of that, have become accidental activists in the fight for marriage equality in that state.
3. Since anti-gay wingnuts are also anti-choice/anti-woman wingnuts, PZ Myers has one for you. In Nebraska, a woman was forced to give birth to a baby that they knew would not develop lungs, because her water broke very early in the pregnancy. These are the kinds of situations that George Tiller specialized in. The worst, most painful kind. Because of the misogynistic bastards who pushed through a draconian anti-abortion law in Nebraska, that woman had to carry the pregnancy to term, watch her baby attempt to take one breath, and then die. Thanks, fundamentalist Christians! You really help out with things.
4. Want to go to Mormon Heaven? Ted Cox will show you how. Hint: there are secret handshakes involved!
My favorite thing about when churches change their minds, even slightly, on the subject of church teachings or sin or whatever else, they always move immediately into this “We have always been at war with Eastasia” stance, where the new definition of sin is, of course, timeless and eternal and revealed by the almighty Wizard God, and certainly not subject to the whims of the man behind the curtain, etc. It’s all so arbitrary.
So anyway, apparently the Mormon church now probably feels that their old guidelines on gayness were hurting their bottom line financially, so they’re tinkering a bit with the Revealed Eternal Truths to try to appear a little bit nicer. Don’t be shocked or anything, though — it’s not like they’re recognizing gay peoples’ dignity or anything:
Changes to LDS Church policy on homosexuality will be presented to LDS lay clerical leaders worldwide this Saturday, November 13.
The changes are being introduced through a global leadership training satellite broadcast for the release of the newly revised Church Handbook of Instructions (CHI), a 400-page lay priesthood manual reserved for use by LDS Church members in local and regional lay leadership positions.
Multiple advance copies of the CHI leaked on the internet reveal significant changes to Church policy on homosexuality.
Basically, here’s what’s changed: You’re no longer a hellbound sinner just for thinking gay thoughts, and they’ve decreed that if you are one of those homosexual thought-havers, but you promise to live under the authoritarian thumb of the church and never seek personal fulfillment, they will let you have all the perks of being a Mormon, which, from what I’ve heard, is quite a goodie bag!
Anyway, I don’t see that the fundamental message has changed. If you’re a gay person of integrity and love, you’re still unwelcome in the LDS church.
Enough is enough: from my Facebook page: No shame: HRC and other homosexual groups are exploiting the tragic suicides of sexually confused kids to attack religion.
Oh.
Peter LaBarbera is mad at the Human Rights Campaign for telling the truth and drawing the very short line between churches and politicians [and the blurry line between] who spend their lives engendering hatred against gay people among the most easily led, least educated members of our society, and the easily predictable result — that gay kids end up getting the message very early, and so do their bullies, that they’re worth less than the rest of the population, that God made them evil, etc., which leads to a much higher depression and suicide rate among gay teens.
So, I’m guessing Peter is saying he doesn’t like having this blood on his hands?
Well, there’s one simple solution for that: Millions have left the fundamentalist Christian lifestyle, and they’re happier, more well-rounded, more loving, and simply better people for it. Just pray this simple prayer:
“If I only had a brain…”
God I’m sorry, that’s a song from The Wizard of Oz, not a prayer.
My bad.
Here’s Kathy Griffin explaining how the bigotry and hatred that comes from places like the Mormon church turns into “trickle down homophobia,” which ends with dead children’s bodies. It’s very simple, and unlike “trickle-down economics,” it actually exists!
