Mormons renew calls for Calif. gay marriage ban

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5i7Ee9lkE23iWetMMU1Vy5nxReXCgD93MT0601 ^ | 09-Oct-2008 | By JENNIFER DOBNER

[Grig]

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Mormons are being asked by their church leaders to step up their already considerable efforts to pass a ballot initiative to ban same-sex marriage in California.

Senior elders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints made a televised appeal to members Wednesday night and laid out a week-by-week strategy for boosting Mormon involvement before the Nov. 4 election.

They urged Mormons to...

[nickcarraway]

Great.

[GovernmentShrinker]

I’m generally pro-Mormon, but this is mind-boggling hypocrisy. When the whole nation was horrified at Mormon polygamy in the 19th century, the Church said “Butt, out! We have a right to live according to our beliefs!”, and didn’t stop until federal troops were sent to take control of Utah. Now the Church thinks the government should be defining marriage according to the preference of the majority (or the minority who makes the most noise). It’s way past time we got the government completely OUT of the marriage business.

[The Unknown Republican]

I fail to see how protecting the traditional definition of marriage is hypocrisy. The Mormon Church has not advocated polygamy for more than 100 years. Using that as an argument against the concept that God made marriage for a man and a woman is grasping at straws and avoiding the real issue.

[Lily4Jesus]

I agreed. Mormons make evangelical Christian look bad. Shame on us.

They are looking for 65,000 volunteers, 26,000 have signed in and 24,000 are Mormons.

God Bless them.

[broncobilly]

You have it backwards. The government only has the authority the sovereign people give them. The people of California voted for the government to leave the definition of marriage alone. The California Supreme Court (the government) took it upon themselves to nullify that expression of the will of the people. Proposition 8 in the coming election in California is the chance once again to tell the government to “butt out” and leave the institution of marriage alone. The Mormon Church is just trying to help the people express their will that they don't want the government to restructure society and overturn the centuries old institution of marriage.

[freeplancer]

Look at my thumb, gee your dumb.

[Tennessee Nana]

The Mormon Church has not advocated polygamy for more than 100 years.
______________________________________

D&C 132 has never been recinded...

[blue state conservative]

In my middle class Orange County Ca town of 50,000 there are 43 people who gave $1000 or more to Proposition 8, some as much as $10,000. Every single one of them was Mormon, according to a website tracking donations.

[GovernmentShrinker]

The Mormon Church was dead right in the 19th century when it said the majority had no right to outlaw a form of marriage that Mormons believed God wanted them to practice. It’s plenty hypocritical to switch to the “majority rules” position, now that it happens to coincide with the Church’s current teachings. The real issue is that government shouldn’t be running people’s personal lives, or selectively handing out favors to people who organize their lives the way the government wants them to.

[fproy2222]

(snip) this is mind-boggling hypocrisy. When the whole nation was horrified at Mormon polygamy in the 19th century, the Church said “Butt, out! We have a right to live according to our beliefs(snip)Now the Church thinks the government should be defining marriage according to the preference of the majority

++++++++++++++++++++++

The difference is that the teachings about same-sex marrage has never changed. The Church has been constant in that point.

[GovernmentShrinker]

What has changed is the Church’s teaching on government interference with people trying to live their according to their OWN beliefs, when those beliefs are unpopular.

[manc]

you know what I hope some polygimists go to CT and MA and use the very same arguments the homo’s did

they should as the same arguments the homo’s used can be used for anyone wanting to marry whatever

It is not because I want crisis in marriage but because this would wake the people up out there at just how stupid homo marriage is

The argument the homo’s used can be used for anyone
a man wanting to have 9 women
a woman marrying her son
a man marrying his dog(yes it has happened)
a father marrying his son

it could go on
fact is Govt should have drawn a line in the sand about this pother wise those mentioned above will happen one day.

IO don’t want Govt in everything but laws have to be applied to certain areas of live or we have a fiasco

I ask myself would the founding fathers wanted two men to marry
and bet NO WAY

Marriage is between a man and a woman

[manc]

sorry for the spelling mistakes above but I was typing very fast, I’ll slow down next time.

[GovernmentShrinker]

If one-man-one-woman marriage is so wonderful, it sure as heck ought to be able to survive just fine without government propping it up and hobbling competing arrangements. Legally recognized marriage now means very little apart from state and federal laws controlling what citizens can do with their money, and especially with that large portion of their money which has been confiscated from them by the government through its various schemes. Gays (and straights) who want to register their relationships with the government are nuts, but quite a few only want to do so because the government financial meddling schemes happen to line up with what they think they want at the moment, and the government won’t let them do what they want without getting legally married. Want your Social Security survivor benefits to go to your life partner? The government will let you do that. Want your benefits to go to your sister who spent a decade caring for your elderly parents with Alzheimer’s, while your wife was squandering every cent you earned on shopping sprees? Tough, the gubmint says it’s going to your wife and that’s that, and if you don’t have a wife because you skipped the legal marriage scheme, then the government just keeps the money.

[Grig]

Actually, the USSC rejected the Mormon arguments for polygamy which were based on freedom of religion in favour of following majority opinion so at worst you can say they’ve accepted the ruling. I don’t see the problem here, except with the conduct of the government.

The inability to give credit where it is due says something very dark.

[JulienBenda]

I pray these righteous Mormons, as well as Evangelicals, Catholics, Jews, etc., join in the effort and win.

(Hey, wasn’t there any polygamy in the Old Testament? Polygamy’s still for the express purpose of marriage/procreation, and under extreme conditions, I wonder if the Old Testament fathers condoned it at all, at any time.)

[Notoriously Conservative]

You don’t recind church doctorine. They have, however, stopped the practice of polygamy over 150 years ago, and they have also said the follwing on the topic: “The family is ordained of God. Marriage between man and woman is essential to His eternal plan. At certain times and for His specific purposes, God, through His prophets, has directed the practice of plural marriage (sometimes called polygamy), which means one man having more than one living wife at the same time. In obedience to direction from God, Latter-day Saints followed this practice for about 50 years during the 1800s but officially ceased the practice of such marriages after the Manifesto was issued by President Woodruff in 1890. Since that time, plural marriage has not been approved by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and any member adopting this practice is subject to losing his or her membership in the Church.”