In major move, Mormon apostles call for statewide LGBT protections [UT]

Salt Lake Tribune ^ | 01/27/2015 | PEGGY FLETCHER STACK

[AppyPappy]

If anyone denies me anything, I’m going to become gay as a May Pole and scream for my rights.

Prove I’m not.

[wally_bert]

Sounds like the lyrics to Sweating Bullets by Fred Mollin. My favorite B detective show.

[elcid1970]

Or maybe it’s “we don’t care what you do with your plumbing as long as we get your tithing”.

Follow the money.....

[Colofornian]

[To Ripliancum]: From your source: “At the same time, the Church said it would support legislation where it is being sought to provide protections in housing, employment and some other areas where LGBT people do not have protections, while ensuring that religious freedom was not compromised.” So there is no essential difference to the stories that I can see.

Well, of course there's no essential difference!

This is all fresh out of block -- and Ripliancum, being the devoted Mormon apologist he is, (perhaps) instsead of giving feedback to the Lds general authorities "powers that be" -- he rushes out to attempt "damage control" PR-wise.

Folks, on where people's "identity" unveils itself, it shows:
1. Mormon -- and Mormon apologist -- first.
2. "Conservative" ... somewhere way down the line.

Mormon leaders rushing to make "sexual orientation" a civil protection in housing and employment has been going on for over five years:

Examples:

* Homosexual rights: Mormon church supports Salt Lake City's protections for gay rights
and Mormons Back Salt Lake City Gay Rights Laws

[Colofornian]

Does no one here read the source material for themselves? The SLTRIB is a pro gay anti Mormon rag. (Mormon apologist Ripliancum)

OKAY, compare the Trib's excerpt that GIdget2004 posted above -- versus the following almost 100-word excerpt on this same focus -- published in today's KSL.com:

SALT LAKE CITY — Senior LDS leaders reiterated Tuesday the church’s longstanding support for laws that ensure fair access to housing and employment for LGBT people while safeguarding religious freedom. Three apostles and one of the faith's women's leaders clearly outlined the position at a landmark news conference. Elder Dallin H. Oaks of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles called for governments to seek balance when considering nondiscrimination laws. "Today, state legislatures across the nation are being asked to strengthen laws related to LGBT issues in the interest of ensuring fair access to housing and employment," he said...
Source: LDS leaders reemphasize protection of religious freedoms, support for LGBT nondiscrimination laws

Not really much difference. Even comparing the headlines side by side. Right? Right! And KSL -- owned by the Mormon Church itself -- is hardly per Mormons' described as some "pro gay anti Mormon rag."

Just goes to show you if you say one thing -- and aren't owned by the Mormon Church -- you're billed as a 'pro gay anti Mormon rag'

BUT if you say essentially the same thing -- but ARE owned by the Mormon Church...that same 'rag' label isn't so conveniently applied now...Is it?

[greyfoxx39]

The fact that these blasphemers call themselves Christian is an insult to every real Christian out there.

Mormons worship the almighty dollar, and homos have lots of dollars their cult has been missing out on...this is no surprise.

[Tennessee Nana]

Willard’s after his Log Cabin Republican vote again...

Mitt Romney’s 1994 Letter To The Log Cabin Republicans

Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney doesn’t spent much time during the Republican primary talking about his past support for gay rights. But in a 1994 letter to the pro-gay Republican group The Log Cabin Republican seeking their endorsement Romney said he would cosponsor Federal Employment Non-Discrimination Act, eventually support gays serving openly in the military, and said he would help achieve equality for gay and lesbians that his opponent Ted Kennedy could not.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/andrewkaczynski/mitt-romneys-1994-letter-to-the-log-cabin-republi#.noVJbObW4

Log Cabin Republicans Endorse Mitt Romney

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/23/log-cabin-republicans-mitt-romney_n_2006348.html

Log Cabin Republicans Endorses Mitt Romney

http://www.advocate.com/politics/election/2012/10/23/log-cabin-republicans-endorses-mitt-romney

Romney’s Private Promises to the Log Cabin Republicans

http://www.thenation.com/blog/170777/romneys-private-promises-log-cabin-republicans

[greyfoxx39]

I now take back every single admonishment I have ever sent to you.

HEH!

[greyfoxx39]

Or maybe it’s “we don’t care what you do with your plumbing as long as we get your tithing”.<<

Follow the money.....

[exit82]

The check must have cleared.

What does this have to do with Mormon teachings?

[Lazamataz]

Gloating is so unprofessional. :/

[Colofornian]

Willard’s after his Log Cabin Republican vote again...

Yup.

GOV. Romney	Mormon 'scripture' & History	Sources	Quotes
Gov. Romney pro-civil unions for same-sex couples 2002-2005 (before he turned against it) and he is still in favor of taxpayer-funded domestic partnership benefits for sexual minorities. He says he supports 'Partnership agreements'. Also, Gov. Romney sucked up to the Bay State Gay Log Cabin...saying he would give the GLBT youth funding a greater spotlight at the fed level to emulate…he was endorsed twice by the Log Cabin Club of MA; he said in 1994 and reiterated in 2007 that he was in favor of forcing businesses to hire alternative sexual minorities (in ’94 he wanted feds to do it; now he wants the states to do it...his third position on that issue).	Recent Lds history: Homosexual rights: Mormon church supports Salt Lake City's protections for gay rights and Mormons Back Salt Lake City Gay Rights Laws	10 reasons Christians should reject Romney and “Mitt Romney’s deception, His Stealth Promotion of ”Gay Rights” and “Gay Marriage” in Massachusetts,” book by Amy Contrada	Per Amy Contrada’s book, “Mitt Romney’s deception, His Stealth Promotion of ”Gay Rights” and “Gay Marriage” in Massachusetts,” Gov. Romney, from 2003-2006: worked closely with homosexual activists and pro-gay rights advisers; implemented “gay marriage” through his executive departments without legislative authorization, violating the Massachusetts Constitution; pushed a constitutional amendment strategy doomed to failure, and ignored the call to remove the activist judges who ruled for “gay marriage”; funded and promoted GLBT indoctrination in the public schools through his “Governor’s Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth,” and his Department of Education “Safe Schools” programs; undermined religious freedom, failing to defend Catholic Charities in the “homosexual adoptions” fiasco; continued or implemented radical homosexual and transgender programs in his executive departments.

[JonathanCV]

The positions stated in the LDS news conference today, 27 Jan 2015, are consistent in every way that I know with the Mormon scriptures and their prophets’ charitable teachings and practices over the past 200 years.

As a practicing Mormon for the past 55 years (I plan to keep practicing until I get it right), I can say without equivocation that we have been taught consistently by the prophets to respect the agency of all of God’s children - never to harm or intimidate or force. We members do some strange, misguided things, often out of harmony with what the scriptures and the prophets have taught us. Mormons are just people - but we know that Heaven has called prophets in these days, and we are mostly trying to model our lives after the Savior who said, “If ye are not one, ye are not mine.”

Apostle Jeffrey R. Holland said today that nothing is achieved if we resort to bullying, political point scoring, accusations of bigotry or other forms of compulsion. I suggest that each of us look around and judge that statement against what we see in the world around us. He was, I believe, speaking to the great polity of good people on this earth, whose hearts yearn for thoughtful, courteous discourse and the good of all.

However, we all know that there are a few powerful people in this world, many of whom are at the highest levels of government, business and organized crime, who achieve their own selfish ends through bullying, accusations, and manipulation of the press and illicit political coercion.

Let’s all do what we can where we are to be active partners with the former group. Let’s each beware and resist the latter group. By their fruits ye shall know them.

[greyfoxx39]

Well, JonathanCV, I see you have just signed up.

From your only post, "I can say without equivocation that we have been taught consistently by the prophets to respect the agency of all of God’s children" your education is lacking in the history of your leaders' attacks on "God's children".

Here is a sample of the "respect" given to Christians by those leaders:

"Christians— those poor, miserable priests brother Brigham was speaking about—some of them are the biggest whoremasters there are on the earth, and at the same time preaching righteousness to the children of men. The poor devils, they could not get up here and preach an oral discourse, to save themselves from hell; they are preaching their fathers' sermons —preaching sermons that were written a hundred years before they were born. ...You may get a Methodist priest to pour water on you, or sprinkle it on you, and baptize you face foremost, or lay you down the other way, and whatever mode you please, and you will be damned with your priest.

- Apostle Heber C. Kimball, Journal of Discourses, v. 5, p. 89


Prophet John Taylor (1808 - 1887):


"Christianity...is a perfect pack of nonsense...the devil could not invent a better engine to spread his work than the Christianity of the nineteenth century."

- Prophet John Taylor, Journal of Discourses, v. 6, p. 167

"Where shall we look for the true order or authority of God? It cannot be found in any nation of Christendom."

- Prophet John Taylor, Journal of Discourses, v. 10, p. 127

"What! Are Christians ignorant? Yes, as ignorant of the things of God as the brute beast."

- Prophet John Taylor, Journal of Discourses, v. 13, p. 225

"What does the Christian world know about God? Nothing... Why so far as the things of God are concerned, they are the veriest fools; they know neither God nor the things of God."

- Prophet John Taylor, Journal of Discourses, v. 13, p. 225


Apostle Orson Pratt (1811 - 1881):


"Both Catholics and Protestants are nothing less than the ‘whore of Babylon' whom the Lord denounces by the mouth of John the Revelator as having corrupted all the earth by their fornications and wickedness. Any person who shall be so corrupt as to receive a holy ordinance of the Gospel from the ministers of any of these apostate churches will be sent down to hell with them, unless they repent."

- Apostle Orson Pratt, The Seer, p. 255

"But as there has been no Christian Church on the earth for a great many centuries past, until the present century, the people have lost sight of the pattern that God has given according to which the Christian Church should be established, and they have denominated a great variety of Christian Churches ... But there has been a long apostasy, during which the nations have been cursed with apostate churches in great abundance"

- Apostle Orson Pratt, Journal of Discourses, v. 18, p. 172

“This class of men, calling themselves Christian, uniting with the various forms of the pagan religion, adopting many of their ceremonies and institutions, became very popular, and finally some of the pagans embraced Christianity and were placed, as it were, upon the throne, and what they termed Christianity became very popular indeed. How long has this order of things existed, this dreadful apostacy, this class of people that pronounced themselves Zion, or Christians, without any of the characteristics of Zion? It has existed for some sixteen or seventeen centuries. It has spread itself and grown and gone into the four quarters of the earth. It is the great ecclesiastical power that is spoken of by the revelator John, and called by him the most corrupt and most wicked of all the powers of the earth, under the name of spiritual Babylon, or in other words Babel, which signifies confusion. This great and corrupt power is also represented by John as presenting a golden cup to the nations, full of all manner of filthiness and abominations.”

- Apostle Orson Pratt, Journal of Discourses, v. 14, p. 346

“But as there has been no Christian Church on the earth for a great many centuries past, until the present century, the people have lost sight of the pattern that God has given according to which the Christian Church should be established, and they have denominated a great variety of people Christian Churches, because they profess to be. They say, "We have built chapels unto the name of the Lord; we call our Churches Christian Churches, they are called the Church of Christ, St. John's Church, St. Paul's Church, St. Peter's Church, and after others of the ancient Apostles;" and one who had never studied the pattern which God has given of the Christian Church would almost really believe that they are Christian Churches. But there has been a long apostacy, during which the nations have been cursed with apostate churches in great abundance, and they are represented in the revelations of St. John as a woman sitting upon a scarlet colored beast, having a golden cup in her hand, full of filthiness and abominations, full of the wine of the wrath of her fornication; that in her forehead there was a name written—"Mystery, Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots." This kind of a church has existed in great abundance, for as John the Revelator says, she was to have her dominion upon many waters, and she was to make all nations drunken with the wine of the wrath of her fornication.”

- Apostle Orson Pratt, Journal of Discourses, v. 18, p. 172

“Q. After the Church of Christ fled from earth to heaven, what was left? A. A set of wicked Apostates, murderers, and idolaters, who, after having made war with the saints, and overcome them, and destroyed them out of the earth, were left to follow the wicked imaginations of their own corrupt hearts, and to build up churches by human authority, and to follow after the cunning craftiness of uninspired men; having no Apostle, Prophet, or Revelator to inquire of God for them: and thus, because of wickedness, the Church, and Priesthood, and gifts, and ordinances and blessings of the everlasting Gospel, were taken from the earth, and reserved in heaven until the fulness of times, when it was predicted that they should again be restored among men to continue until the end should come.”

- Apostle Orson Pratt, The Seer, Chapter 16, p. 205


Prophet Wilford Woodruff (1807 - 1898):


"The Gospel of modern Christendom shuts up the Lord, and stops all communication with Him. I want nothing to do with such a Gospel, I would rather prefer the Gospel of the dark ages, so called"

- Prophet Wilford Woodruff, Journal of Discourses, v. 2, p. 196


Apostle George Q. Cannon (1827 - 1901):


"After the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was organized, there were only two churches upon the earth. They were known respectively as the Church of the Lamb of God and Babylon. The various organizations which are called churches throughout Christendom, though differing in their creeds and organizations, have one common origin. They all belong to Babylon."

- Apostle George Q. Cannon, Gospel Truth, p. 324

Believers in the doctrines of modern Christendom will reap damnation to their souls.”

- Apostle Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, see pp. 45-46
--------------

"...the Book of Mormon remains secure, unchanged and unchangeable, ...But with the Bible it was not and is not so....it was once in the sole and exclusive care and custody of an abominable organization [Christianity], founded by the devil himself, likened prophetically unto a great whore, whose great aim and purpose was to destroy the souls of men in the name of religion. In these hands it ceased to be the book it once was."

- Apostle Bruce R. McConkie, The Joseph Smith Translation, pp. 12, 13
---------------


Brother Taylor has just said that the religions of the day were hatched in hell. The eggs were laid in hell, hatched on its borders, and then kicked on to the earth."

- Prophet Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, v. 6, p. 176
---------------

"With a regard to true theology, a more ignorant people never lived than the present so-called Christian world."

- Prophet Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, v. 8, p. 199
---------------

"The Christian world, so-called, are heathens as to the knowledge of the salvation of God"

- Prophet Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, v. 8, p. 171

[SZonian]

Welcome to FR...

"...if we resort to bullying, political point scoring, accusations of bigotry or other forms of compulsion."

And just who, might I ask, is doing such things?

Surely not the mormons and other faiths. They may be accused of such, but the opposite is truth. Strawman.

No, I suspect that once again, blind obedience to the "prophet" takes precedence over actually looking at the slide the mormons have been taking the past few years. Afterall, if the "prophet" is questioned, one's temple recommend is now forfeit, thus celestial "glory" is as well.

"By their fruits ye shall know them." Yes, one of the most abused scriptures in history...Churches that enjoin policies that place young people at risk of being abused by homosexuals should be scrutinized, harshly. I look at SLC's "fruits" these past couple of years and what I see on the vine is rotten...

Especially after SLC consented/approved the BSA's membership policy change to allow OPENLY homosexual kids in Scouting.

[Colofornian]

The positions stated in the LDS news conference today, 27 Jan 2015, are consistent in every way that I know with the Mormon scriptures and their prophets’ charitable teachings and practices over the past 200 years.

Tell us, JonathanCV the Mormon...how is one of those alleged "scriptures" ... doctrine & covenants 134:12 ... "charitable" toward either blacks who were slaves back in the day when Joseph Smith penned it? Or even toward woman & children in the sex trafficking enslavement today?

For those who aren't Mormon, allow me to review to "catch you up" on D&C134:12:

It’s mid-1835. Smith is churning out new “Scripture.” Smith is taking aim at new converts. But in that time, did he believe the Mormon “gospel” to be aimed at slaves? (No, not unless express “permission” was granted by their “owners”).

JonathanCV claims that Mormon "scriptures" are consistently "charitable" ... which by extension means he defends this verse...allow me to cite it:

”We believe it just to preach the gospel to the nations of the earth, and warn the righteous to save themselves from the corruption of the world; but we do not believe it right to interfere with bond-servants, neither preach the gospel to, nor baptize them contrary to the will and wish of their masters, nor to meddle with or influence them in the least to cause them to be dissatisfied with their situations in this life, thereby jeopardizing the lives of men; such interference we believe to be unlawful and unjust, and dangerous to the peace of every government allowing human beings to be held in servitude.”

Could you imagine a verse still applicable today—one similar to the Mormon scripture of Doctrine & Covenants 134:12—which would tell you in effect that yes, the gospel was for women who are sexually trafficked--but only if their Pimp-owner says "Yes?".

I mean, imagine if you will, for a moment, that you are the God of the universe; God of every planet; God of the earth; Creator of every person. Imagine for a moment you are speaking forth universal eternal truth. And then imagine that someone claims you (as God) made the above supposed “Scriptural” statement?

FACT: D&C 134:12 is LDS “Doctrine” that has never been removed or rescinded!!! This passages makes it quite clear – in contrast to the apostle Paul who vied for the religious freedom of Onesimus while treating him as a full Christian brother and encouraged Philemon to do the same--somehow, LDS think that "religious freedom" applies to everyone except slaves!

D&C 134:12, written in 1835 pro-slavery America, made it quite clear that instead of the Mormons having a universal god who issued eternal truth applicable to all cultures, he is instead an American-sounding god who speaks only in King James English & was beholden to the American slavery industry.

D&C 134:12 "settles" the issue for the Mormon: Are slaves & trafficking victims worthy of the "gospel?" LDS Answer? Nope! Smith diarrhea of the pen included the phrase "neither preach the gospel to, nor baptize them..." says LDS "Scripture.

And why not?

Well, says D&C 134:12: We don't want ya ta meddle with the 'Mastuhs' business “property,” or to say it as precisely as LDS "scripture" says it: "nor to meddle with or influence them in the least to cause them to be dissatisfied with their situations in this life..."

(Nah. We can't have unhappy slaves or trafficking victims now, can we? Too disturbing to their "stations" of life, eh?)

Now what are the ultimate reasons for this again? D&C 134:12 provides the answer:

Reason #1: ...such interference we believe to be unlawful and unjust... (There ya have it...wouldn't want to be "unjust" by giving slaves the gospel & baptizing them, would ya?)

Reason #2: ...and dangerous to the peace of every government allowing human beings to be held in servitude. (And, of course, the "closer": Wouldn't want to disturb the peace & quiet of slavery-sanctioning governments, now would ya?)

How dare you JonathanCV defend ALL Mormon "scriptures" as "charitable" in light of the above!!!

[Colofornian]

...we know that Heaven has called prophets in these days...

Did you all notice how JonathanCV just slips in this propagandic phrase...as repeatedly fed to him by the Mormon general authority...as if it was "so"???

Jonathan, the last time I opened up a copy of a Mormon KJV Bible or Quad ... the following two verses from Hebrews 1:1 and 2 were in there:

1 God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake

in time PAST unto the fathers by the prophets,

2 Hath in

THESE LAST DAYS SPOKEN UNTO US BY HIS SON,

whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;

Tell us, Jonathan, exactly how long have you had this basic problem of not knowing the basic definitions of "time PAST" versus "THESE LAST DAYS"???

And, since, in effect, Jesus is THE eternal "prophet," why do you keep putting mere men up on a pedestal replacing Him in that role???

[Colofornian]

As a practicing Mormon for the past 55 years (I plan to keep practicing until I get it right), I can say without equivocation that we have been taught consistently by the prophets to respect the agency of all of God’s children...

Alright, when the Mormon Church filed a lawsuit vs. Canadian Mormon polygamist Winston Blackmore and his Mormon offshoot church, I understood part of it.

The part I don't understand -- which Blackmore just agreed to this month -- is how he...

"...consented to a court order earlier this week that bans him from using any variation of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and forbids him from interfering with the church's use of the word Mormon."
Source: The Canadian Press:Mormon church wins fight with B.C. polygamous leader

How is it that your Mormon Church -- IF it "respects the agency of all of God's children" -- become an 800 pound gorilla and file lawsuits versus people using the word "Mormon?"

Sounds religiously hypocritical to me!

[Colofornian]

The Mormon Church is continuing to impose upon its people that if you rent a room or a backyard cottage, you must be open to renting it to...
...homosexuals...
...transgenders...
...polygamists...
...fill-in-the-blank re: anything to be regarded as an "sexual orientation"...

Why, you might as well be the local motel owner who knowingly rents out rooms during the day to the local prostitute who uses them for anything but sleep!

[Tennessee Nana]

OK Jonathon...

So you just signed up today and you said you are a mormon and treat everyone the same...

you mention things like “accusations of bigotry” among your comments...

If you want “accusations of bigotry” against your chosen religion, you may have some from me..

I have ancestors who very happily and contently died as Christians and were buried as such many years ago..

Now we both know that Mormons claim Christianity and the Christian Bibnle is different from Mormonism and the Mormon religious book, the book of Mormon...

My ancestors lived either before Joseph Smith wrote his book of Mormon or they probably never heard of him or his religion..and if they had they would have rejected his ignoble butt..and his false religion..

IOW they only wanted the LORD Jesus Christ and no other gods nor any man called “prophets” Joseph Smith and Mohammad included..

Some time after my illustrious ancestors expired Mormons decided to dead dunk errr “baptize” them out of Christianity and into your chosen religion Mormonism..

Not only that but they “sealed” them to all living descendants including me, a child at the time..

Although I was not asked, I became a Mormon too.. and gained the honors and anointings and exaltations bestowed upon my dearly departed ancestors..through that same so called “sealing”

(I’m probably more mormon than you yourself..and I cannot be excommunicated...)

Now I ask you, is that not bigoted of the Mormons to do that to my former Christian ancestors ???