Prop 8 and Tolerance: Followup

I have two main followups for my original post Proposition 8 and Tolerance.

The first one concerns the gay friend who had messaged me on Facebook to tell me he was taking me off his friends list, apparently because I'm Mormon. At the time of the original post he had not responded to my response, but since then he has. His message read (in part):

Actually, I defriended you because I couldn't figure out how to block your discussions from my feed. After reading a few that really made me angry and hurt, I decided I didn't want them showing up on my page.

I wasn't actually accusing you of intolerance, or arguing my knowledge or lack thereof of what's going on across the country.

So - though he continues to remain anonymous - I need to point out that he's at least one example of a gay man who is not demonstrating any religious bigotry and willing to discuss the matter openly. For what it's worth, I respect the reasoning behind his decision to take me off his friends list, and as far as I know we're on good terms. Just not as far as Facebook knows.

The second concerns religious intolerance. As you might be able to tell just from the comments to my original post, the main line of attack from the gay rights community has been that Mormon opposition to Proposition 8 can not be attributed to anything else other than hatred and intolerance of and for homosexuals. Furthermore, homosexuals are "social outcasts" who are uniquely vulnerable to persecution from Mormons. It's David vs. Goliath.

This line of attack rings true with people because it fits a familiar narrative, not because it has any basis in fact. We're all used to the template of the rich, white, patriarchal Christians oppressing the naive, idealistic, vulnerable minority. In part because this has happened far too many times throughout history. I don't want to rehash all the crimes of Europeans throughout history. Instead I just want to point out that Mormons hardly qualify for that description.

For starters, there aren't enough of them. There are something like 12 - 14 million Mormons in the world, and less than 1/2 are in this country. So we're talking about less than 7 million Mormons in a population of 300 million. Hardly a majority. In addition, Mormons are not - for social or political purposes - part of the mainstream Christian community. They kick us out of their clubs and reject our baptisms even while they acknowledge each others. I'm not complaining. We don't accept theirs either. It just illustrates that you can't write off Mormons as part of a unified block of oppressive Christian hegemony. And finally, Mormons have a unique history of persecution themselves in this country. There have historically been laws against homosexual behavior. In the 19th century, Illinois declared that all Mormons had to leave the state or be exterminated. Leading homosexual advocates who pioneered the transition of gays as a culture out of the closet have been shot and killed (like Harvey Milk). The first Mormon prophet - Joseph Smith - was also shot and killed. Gay rights activists are currently fighting to change the definition of marriage to suit them. Mormons fought that battle in the 19th century and lost. The Church had to abandon polygamy or face destruction.

I'm not going to try and quantify the exact degree to which gays and Mormons qualify as social outcasts to see who gets the annual aware for "Most Persecuted". I am simply showing that the notion that gays are unequivocally more outcast than Mormons is, at best, questionable. So much for that part of the David vs. Goliath myth going on.

The second major contention is that Mormons hate gays. I've yet to see any evidence of this whatsoever. All of the Church's official pronouncements deny this, and in addition Mormons individually have (as far as I've been able to find in the press) expressed themselves carefully and thoughtfully. There may be no nice way to say "I don't think you qualify for marriage", but the Mormons are sure trying.

On the other hand, the response on the part of protesters without doubt qualifies as hatred. My wife sent me an email last night with the subject line "and the witch hunt begins". In it, she linked me to an article about Mormon Scott Eckern who has been chased out of his job at the artistic director of the California Musical Theatre after a threatened boycott due to his support (as a private citizen, without any connection to his job) for Proposition 8. How many homosexuals has the Mormon church tried to kick out of their jobs for opposing Proposition 8? Vandals are attacking Mormon meeting houses in California, Utah. (6 in Utah, another in California, and that's just one google search and the first 2 results). What buildings have Mormons defaced?

The protests outside Mormon temples are often being described as "peaceful", but that's not the impression of one of the LAPD officers assigned to assist in crowd control. Meridian Magazine (which, incidentally, has hacked and redirected to a gay porn video) has a story from Paul Bishop (a Mormon) where he describes some of what he has seen before Prop 8 was passed, and in the protests that resulted.

Before:

During the Proposition 8 rally, as I stood with my wife and friends waving Yes On 8 signs and waving to the passing rush hour traffic, I learned several things. I learned supporters of both Yes On 8 and No On 8 liked to honk their horns. I learned the way to tell the difference is the No On 8 supporters usually accompanied their horn honking with an obscene gesture or a string of obscenities. They also liked to swerve their cars toward the children on the curb.

I learned at the rally several of our ward members had received hate mail after their names, religious affiliation, contribution amounts, and addresses were published on a website inciting No On 8 supporters to target the listed individuals. Their houses and cars had been vandalized, their campaign support signs stolen, and opposition signs planted in their place.

Election day in California saw numerous No On 8 activists distributing literature and vocalizing at polling sites in clear violation of election laws. Police were called, 100 yard distances from the polling places were paced off, yet the agitation continued.

After:

The late local news showed scenes of several Hispanic females in tears outside the temple trying to remove the signs desecrating the walls and fences surrounding the temple. As these individuals – who according to a temple spokesperson were not church members – removed the hate-filled signs, the mob exploded and began beating the individuals to the ground. Police intervened and arrests were made, but the fact this was allowed to happen at all was appalling.

As if a hate-filled mobs (and the Mormons know a few things about hate-filled mobs) beating down anyone who stood up for the Mormons wasn't enough, here's how some LAPD officers feel about the protests:

In the Bureau command post there was a large screen television displaying scenes from the protest outside the Los Angeles temple. Imagine my surprise, when angry protesters began rushing the closed temple gates, and I heard an officer in the command post say, “I hope they burn that place to the ground.”

Imagine my even stronger surprise when another officer replied, “They better hope they don't get through the gates, because the Mormons have an army in a bunker under the temple that will come out and kill them all.”

Read the article for yourself. Scroll through and look at all the pictures of the peaceful protesters and their demonstrations in the name of love.

How does Mr. Bishop react to this outpouring of hatred directed at his own faith? He quotes one of our Apostles:

Challenges to our faith are not new. Nor are they likely to go away anytime soon. But, as Elder Hales reminds us, “True disciples of Christ see opportunity in the midst of opposition. We can take advantage of such opportunities in many ways: a kind letter to the editor, a conversation with a friend, a comment on a blog, or a reassuring word to one who has made a disparaging comment. We can answer with love those who have been influenced by misinformation and prejudice – who are ‘kept from the truth because they know not where to find it' (D&C 123:12). I assure you that to answer our accusers in this way is never weakness. It is Christian courage in action.”

So much for a secret, subterranean Mormon army.

All of this was enough, when I read about it last night, to convince me my next post needed to be on this issue. But when I got to work this morning, I found out that the vitriol and hatred continues unabated. The AP News is reporting that fake anthrax has been sent to Mormon temples in California and Utah. As my coworker (not Mormon) said: "At least it wasn't real anthrax." In Littleton, Colorado some kind soul left a Book of Mormon on a church doorstep. In flames. (Dakota Voice) Are there Mormons out there burning rainbow flags? Are there gays out there burning the Koran? I don't really have the heart to go around digging up all the various ways my faith has been insulted and denigrated over the last few weeks so I'm going to leave the anti-Mormon incidents there.

Despite all this, we still get articles that read like this:

That they hate us and they want us (L.G.B.T people) wiped of the face of the earth by any means necessary. Oddly enough I have a little respect for the god hates fags church. Because they’re honest on where they stand when it comes to us. They would like us to kindly drop dead...Once upon a time these monsters had no problem openly pointing to the parts of the bible that say kill gay people and saying it over and over as loudly as possible. Why not as much now? Why did Mormons stop preaching that being dark skinned meant that you had the mark of cain and where hell bound unless you are a slave to a white person. Did African Americans win them over with their sunny disposition. Nope! Being racist looked bad and Mormon colleges needed more atheletes. Luckily you can still make a buck from hating queers.

So the objective is not to actually substantiate allegation of Mormon hatred for gays, but just express outrage at the hatred we assume exists and use that as justification for burning the holy books, lying about their religion (the alleged preaching in the paragraph above is totally false), and beating up bystanders who try to prevent the desecration of their holy buildings.

Overall I'm not seeing a huge rush to defend Mormons from all this vitriol. At least one Catholic bishop has stood up against the hatred, and I found an editorial in Human Events that pointed out the hypocrisy of expressing hatred for people because (you claim) they hate you. The title is to-the-point: Same-Sex Movement Demands Tolerance But Won't Show Any, and in it Gary Bauer describes some additional examples of how the gay movement responds to perceived hatred (not all of it directed at Mormons this time):

At Mount Hope Church in Michigan, a radical homosexual group disrupted an evangelical church service last Sunday. The activists rushed the pulpit, throwing condoms and buckets of glitter, using noisemakers and megaphones to scream at churchgoers and frighten children. Women ran to the pulpit and began to kiss; others shouted, “Jesus was gay!” Protests erupted outside Mormon temples in Utah and Seattle to protest the church’s support for the California marriage amendment.

Three hundred gay activists picketed outside Pastor Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church in Orange County, California, in protest of the pastor’s support for Prop. 8. Other large protests were held in Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego. Several arrests were made at rallies across California.

In perhaps the most hideous response, an elderly woman holding a cross to show her support for the California marriage amendment was attacked by an angry mob of protestors at a same-sex marriage protest. The 69-year-old woman’s cross was torn from her hands, trampled on and destroyed by the crazed protestors. Police are considering pressing assault charges.

Can anyone really read these facts and come to the conclusion that it is the Yes on Prop 8 crowd that behaves hatefully? Or that the gays are "social outcasts"? A powerless minority of victims?

I would be remiss if I didn't conclude this article by bringing up my first point again. After my friend's initially caustic email to me, he expressed himself in a civil and even friendly way. Most gay-rights groups are calling for an end to the violent and hate-filled portions of the protests (although whether that is out of concern for Mormons or concern for publicity I am unsure of at this point). But the fact remains that the movement behind Yes on Prop 8 has acted peacefully, legally, and civilly. The movement behind No on Prop 8 has acted violently, illegally, and in total disregard for civil debate.

The David vs. Goliath image may suit gay-rights PR, but it does not suit the facts.

This post is a followup to the original post Propostion 8 and Tolerance from 11/5/2008.

Follow Up: Meridian Magazine has a new article on this topic: The Hypocrisy of the Tolerance Movement:

Though opponents of Prop. 8 who seek for same-sex marriage tout that they are the movement of tolerance, their actions mark them as hypocrites, as they send the message through protests, property vandalism and singling out donors for vilification that anybody getting in their way had better watch out. Payback and punishment will follow for those who have exercised their right of political expression to support traditional marriage.

This, of course, is designed to inhibit and terrorize anyone who opposes redefining marriage, chilling not only discussion of the issues, but political opposition altogether. At the very least, those who support that marriage is between a man and a woman are labelled hateful and bigoted.

A particularly easy target for abuse, perhaps because they are a minority, has been The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints...

In the past few days, thousands of people have besieged LDS temples in Los Angeles , Manhattan , San Diego , and Salt Lake . Freeway ramps were closed leading to the Oakland temple because of angry protesters. Two days after the election, fearing for the safety of members, LDS officials had to temporarily suspend services at the Los Angeles temple because of the threatening crowds. More protests at LDS temples are planned and at least one website is calling for the LDS temple in Los Angeles to be a permanent protest site.

The protesters bear signs like: “Mormon scum”; “Mormon money, Mormon lies”; “Go back to Utah ”; “Latter-day H8”: “Religious bigots”. They scrawled graffiti on the walls surrounding the temple lot, calling Latter-day Saints “liars” and chanted, “Stop Mormon hate.”

This was a mirror of the sort of threats that appeared on homosexual blogs toward religious people who supported Prop 8. A blogger wrote, "Trust me. I've got a big list of names of mormons and catholics that were big supporters of Prop 8. ... As far as mormons and catholics ... I warn them to watch their backs." Another blogger wrote, “Burn their [expletive deleted] churches to the ground and then tax the charred embers.”

The AP has reported that there's a growing call amongst opponents of Prop 8, gay rights activists and others to boycott the entire state of Utah to punish the Mormon Church and Utah 's vibrant tourism industry.

Under the mantra “Tax LDS now, hate on your own dime,” a petition is also afoot to gather support to challenge the tax-exempt status of the LDS church...

What is more pointed is Prop 8 opponents have created a website called antigayblacklist.com that lists donors to Prop 8 and where they work. The call is to boycott their businesses...

This should all serve as a wakeup call to religious people across this nation:

Harvard Law professor Mary Ann Glendon wrote in 2004, during the same-sex marriage debate in Massachusetts, ''the experience in other countries reveals that once these arrangements become law, there will be no live-and-let-live policy for those who differ. Gay-marriage proponents use the language of openness, tolerance, and diversity, yet one foreseeable effect of their success will be to usher in an era of intolerance and discrimination...The ax will fall most heavily on religious persons and groups that don't go along."