Why Do We Boycott 'Ender's Game' But Give Roman Polanski An Oscar?

policy mic ^ | 7/1/2013 | Angie Hartley

[Ripliancum]

Orson Scott Card, whose science-fiction book Ender's Game is being released as a film, is a conservative Mormon with a long history of attacking gay people and their rights. He's also one of the most respected sci-fi writers of all time. This has really got sci-fi fans and gay rights activists in a moral dilemma as the momentum for the film builds up to its November 1 release.

Orson Scott Card has gone far beyond opposing gay marriage. In 1990, he wrote in Mormon publication Sunstone Magazine, “Laws against homosexual behavior should remain on the books, not to be indiscriminately enforced against anyone who happens to be caught violating them, but to be used when necessary to send a clear message that those who flagrantly violate society's regulation of sexual behavior cannot be permitted to remain as acceptable, equal citizens within that society.”

[Elsie]

If they are successful at convincing people that deviant sexual behavior is immoral, they allow those people to have a better chance at finding God.

The Mormon GOD?

Sorry, but those THREE cannot save anyone!

[Elsie]

Though, the LDS actually isn’t as hard on homosexual acts as people would like to believe.

It's the 'little factory' that gets MOST of them in trouble!

---

What is your church doing to help the male to stay true?

 

---

---

---

"All of this should be conveyed without having priesthood leaders focus upon intimate matters which are a part of husband and wife relationships. Skillful interviewing and counseling can occur without discussion of clinical details by placing firm responsibility on individual members of the Church to put their lives in order before exercising the privilege of entering a house of the Lord. The First Presidency has interpreted oral sex as constituting an unnatural, impure, or unholy practice. If a person is engaged in a practice which troubles him enough to ask about it, he should discontinue it."
- Official Declaration of the First Presidency of the Church, January 5th, 1982

---

"Prophets anciently and today condemn masturbation. It induces feelings of guilt and shame. It is detrimental to spirituality. It indicates slavery to the flesh, not that mastery of it and the growth toward godhood which is the object of our mortal life. Our modern prophet has indicated that no young man should be called on a mission who is not free from this practice. What is more, it too often leads to grievous sin, even to that sin against nature, homosexuality. For, done in private, it evolves often into mutual masturbation-practiced with another person of the same sex and thence into total homosexuality...."
- Prophet Spencer W. Kimball, The Miracle of Forgiveness, Pages 77-79, 81-82

---

"Among the most common sexual sins our young people commit are necking and petting. Not only do these improper relations often lead to fornication, [unwed] pregnancy, and abortions - all ugly sins - but in and of themselves they are pernicious evils, and it is often difficult for youth to distinguish where one ends and another begins. They awaken lust and stir evil thoughts and sex desires. They are but parts of the whole family of related sins and indiscretions. Almost like twins, 'petting' and fornication are alike."
- Prophet Spencer W. Kimball, The Miracle of Forgiveness, page 65

---

"Also far-reaching is the effect of the loss of chastity. Once given or taken or stolen it can never be regained. Even in a forced contact such as rape or incest, the injured one is greatly outraged. If she has not cooperated and contributed to the foul deed, she is of course in a more favorable position. There is no condemnation where there is no voluntary participation. It is better to die in defending one's virtue than to live having lost it without a struggle."
- Prophet Spencer W. Kimball, The Miracle of Forgiveness, page 196

---

"And Cain said unto the Lord, My punishment is greater than I can bear. Behold, thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth." (Genesis 4:9-14.) That was true of murder. It is also true of illicit sex, which, of course, includes all petting, fornication, adultery, homosexual acts, and all other perversions. The Lord may say to offenders, as He did to Cain, "What hast thou done?" The children thus conceived make damning charges against you; the companions who have been frustrated and violated condemn you; the body that has been defiled cries out against you; the spirit which has been dwarfed convicts you. You will have difficulty throughout the ages in totally forgiving yourself."
-Prophet Spencer W. Kimball, "Love Versus Lust", BYU Speech January 5, 1965. Often-used quote still used today in LDS seminary classes.

---

"I do not find in the Bible the modern terms "petting" nor "homosexuality," yet I found numerous scriptures which forbade such acts under by whatever names they might be called. I could not find the term "homosexuality," but I did find numerous places where the Lord condemned such a practice with such vigor that even the death penalty was assessed."
- Apostle Spencer W. Kimball, "Love Versus Lust", BYU Speech January 5, 1965

---

"If adultery or fornication justified the death penalty in the old days, and still in Christ's day, is the sin any less today because the laws of the land do not assess the death penalty for it? Is the act less grievous? There must be a washing, a purging, a changing of attitudes, a correcting of appraisals, a strengthening toward self-mastery. There must be many prayers, and volumes of tears. There must be an inner conviction giving to the sin its full diabolical weight. There must be increased devotion and much thought and study. And this takes energy and time and often is accompanied with sore embarrassment, heavy deprivations and deep trials, even if indeed one is not excommunicated from the Church, losing all spiritual blessings."
-Prophet Spencer W. Kimball, The Miracle of Forgiveness, Page 155

---

"How like the mistletoe is immorality. The killer plant starts with a sticky sweet berry. Little indiscretions are the berries -- indiscretions like sex thoughts sex discussions, passionate kissing, pornography. The leaves and little twigs are masturbation and necking and such, growing with every exercise. The full-grown plant is petting and sex looseness. It confounds, frustrates, and destroys like the parasite if it is not cut out and destroyed, for, in time it robs the tree, bleeds its life, and leaves it barren and dry; and, strangely enough, the parasite dies with its host."
- Apostle Spencer W. Kimball, General Conference Address, April 1, 1967.

[Elsie]

First, I never said anything about Mormons being equal to Christians. In fact, my whole point was that they DON'T HAVE TO BE EQUAL to Christians to be our natural allies IN THIS FIGHT.

I understand this.

But there is a GREATER 'fight' going on than being a homo...

[Elsie]

Well, if you want to get specific, Catholics and protestants have slightly different definitions of God as well.

Oh??

Color us BOTH surprised to find THIS out!

[Elsie]

I am glad you are not among them throwing stones.

Ha ha!

Virtual stones coming at you MORMONs should be the LEAST of your worries!!

---

"Now if any of you will deny the plurality of wives, and continue to do so, I promise that you will be damned;

and I will go still further and say, take this revelation, or any other revelation that the Lord has given,

and deny it in your feelings, and I promise that you will be damned.

Brigham Young - JoD 3:266 (July 14, 1855)

[JohnBovenmyer]

Yea, L. Ron Hubbard invented Scientology. And he’d written science fiction in the past. But can you point to ANY of his SF that anyone, who isn’t a Scientologist, claims is worth reading today. Card has written quite a bit of SF worth reading. I consider Card a sci-fi writer. I consider Hubbard a failed sci-fi wannabe, NOT a member of the writer club. The only successful club to which Hubbard belonged is Gore’s, the personal cult inventor one. It’s a great gig if you can pull it off; many have extended the inevitable reckoning past their earthly end. I still hope Gore won’t.

[Ripliancum]

Card is a fantastic author. Besides his SciFi, his historical fiction is worth reading.

Stone Tables, his book on the life and ministry of Moses, is superb.

http://www.amazon.com/Stone-Tables-Orson-Scott-Card/dp/1573456632

[fr_freak]

But there is a GREATER 'fight' going on than being a homo...

No argument here, but I view the fight over acceptance of homosexuality as the beachhead in the modern fight for men's souls. D-day at Normandy was not the whole war, but that beachhead had to be taken before the Nazis could be defeated. Sex, of all kinds, both deviant and hetero, appears to be the method the Devil is using to sway the weak to the dark side. We win this battle, and we'll have the staging area to win the rest. We lose this battle, and we can forget the whole thing. So, if Mormons are helping us with the D-Day invasion of Normandy, why would we turn them aside for being Mormon. Are they not doing the Lord's work, even if they aren't doing it with the purity we'd like to see?

[fr_freak]

"Catholics and protestants have slightly different definitions of God as well."

Oh??

Color us BOTH surprised to find THIS out!

Don't blame me for this one. I think it is idiotic for Protestants to bash Catholics, but they do. I have read many religion threads where various Protestant sects have declared that the Catholic Church is heretical, idolatrous, and non-scriptural. If Protestants believed that Catholics believed in the same God, with the same nature, this sort of accusation would not occur. Now, I realize that not all Protestant denominations are the same, and not all of them have the same hostility toward Catholicism, but the very nature of Protestant belief is that Catholicism is wrong, otherwise there would be no Protestants.

[Elsie]

You’ve pretty much defined todays world.

I’ll have to agree with you.

[Elsie]

I think it is idiotic for Protestants to bash Catholics, but they do.

Didja read reply #43?

That pretty much sums up just WHY PROTESTants 'bash' Catholicism as well.

---

History has SHOWN the RCC was pretty screwed up.

If it had NOT been so; then the whole P thing would have NEVER have gotten started.

[Elsie]

I have read many religion threads where various Protestant sects have declared that the Catholic Church is heretical, idolatrous, and non-scriptural.

Don't be one sided; as this pendulum swings BOTH ways!

[Elsie]

...but the very nature of Protestant belief is that Catholicism is wrong,...

Hey!

WE did not create the conditions that led to the 95 things being nailed to the church door!

[Elsie]

...but the very nature of Protestant belief is that Catholicism is wrong,...

but the very nature of Catholicism is that they OWN the football; and by GOD! there won't be ANYONE playing in THEIR league unless THEY get to set ALL the rules and supply the refs!

---

Mark 9:38-41 (NIV)

38 “Teacher,” said John, “we saw someone driving out demons in your name and we told him to stop, because he was not one of us.”

39 “Do not stop him,” Jesus said. “For no one who does a miracle in my name can in the next moment say anything bad about me, 40 for whoever is not against us is for us. 41 Truly I tell you, anyone who gives you a cup of water in my name because you belong to the Messiah will certainly not lose their reward.

[RegulatorCountry]

Orson Scott Card is a Democrat. He espouses many socially conservative views, but he's also too idealistic, still believing that government can lift people up and right past wrongs. That's how he remains Democrat I suppose. It's been something of a mystery to conservatives locally why he remains, since he lives here. He's long been ripped into by his fellow Democrats who are socially liberal, you should hear the vindictiveness and, yes, actual bigotry. They just hate Mormons as a group, very suspicious of them. Calling Card a “hater” is almost funny, since it's the left that is doing the hating here.

[Ransomed]

“He’s also one of the most respected sci-fi writers of all time.”

Right, sure. Wells, Verne, Heinlein, Clarke, Asimov, Vance, Sturgeon, Wolfe, Dick.....and Orson Scott Card. OK.

Freegards

[Hulka]

“I’ve known many Mormons, and they are mostly upstanding, moral, family-oriented, naturally conservative people.”

Me, too.

And they have never attempted to proselytize to me or my neighbors, and they have NEVER tried to force me or anyone I know to “celebrate” their religion.