LDS Leaders on Liquor Laws

[Liquor Law Zaniness] Republican legislative leaders met yesterday with Mormon Church officials to discuss possible liquor law changes in the upcoming 2009 session. It's a customary meeting, according to church spokesman Scott Trotter. And it's a meeting of equal opportunity, apparently--church leaders lunched last week with Democratic legislators. The church is registering a bit of an open mind on liberalizing some laws, including support for doing away with the silly private club membership, as Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. recommends.

By far, my favorite line from mainstream media coverage of the private church/state vetting session comes from Deseret News political writer Lisa Riley Roche, who added this last paragraph to her story:

The Senate president (Mike Waddoups) said the legislative leaders were told "not to expect them to give us an opinion on every issue that we're dealing with." (Holly Mullen)

FUBAR vs. LDS

[TV] In last night's Christmas-party episode of The Office, Michael makes Meredith a series a brain-erasing drinks, then stages an intervention because she's a flaming (literally) drunk. One of the test questions Michael reads to Meredith from a downloaded pamphlet is, "Have you ever, under the influence of alcohol, questioned the teachings of the Mormon church?" Ah, memories ...

Intervention at about 8:30 mins into the episode:



(Bill Frost)

Prop 8 Blowback and the Gay Voltron

[Proposition 8] Ah shit I can't believe I didn't see this coming! The LDS church gets the high five from their long time deep-fried southern baptist foes (and others) for helping defeat gay marriage in California, according to a trib story pointing out an online thank you petition signed by over 3000 Prop 8 supporters to LDS Prez' Monson.

All this time I figured the elders of the Zion command center were making a ginormous mistake extending so much uncharacteristic political squeeze into the politics of another state. I figured their getting up to their elbows into the politics of the Prop 8 debate with tens of millions in donations, phone banks and ward house warnings would blow up in their collective faces and ignite a gay revolution.

A revolution uniting disparate equality groups into a unified, well organized machine--with GLBT groups from across the country coming together like an enormous gay Voltron firing a wrathful rainbow upon the dark iniquities of social injustice with laser-like intensity.

Let there be light I say!

And what was there? Instead of unity we've seen the likes of Dan Savage asking to boycott Utah. We have Kroger brand anthrax sugar showing up at LDS temples and church building vandalism across the state and country.

But there is light too. The equality movement still has momentum of course and shouldn't be counted out yet. Especially with advocacy groups at home and elsewhere putting the pressure on for more sex orientation and identity equity on a number of fronts from housing to employment non-discrimination. The problem is that while this revolution is still coming together, the LDS position is not only as strong as before but is now starting to win over their long time evangelical foes. The Baptists, who would never invite the Mormons into their cool Christians club before, have now signed onto an online petition thanking the LDS church for its support on the issue.

It's beginning to look like this last election was a revolution. But with the Obama-phenomena magically blue-ifying states across the conservative south and west, perhaps a counter revolution by the religious right maybe in the works. What's that choking sensation I feel? Why it might just be the bible belt, slung over the Rockies and slowly being cinched up. (Eric S. Peterson)

The Prop 8 Protest Beat

[Civil Disobedience] Like my co-worker, Ted McDonough, I got well-mashed between throngs of Proposition 8 protesters who demonstrated in front of the LDS Church headquarters at 50 North Temple in downtown Salt Lake City last night.Organizers of the rally put the number of protesters at more than 3,000. Around 7:15 p.m., a police officer I talked to estimated crowd size at 2,000. Conventional wisdom among reporters who cover such things is you land somewhere in the middle of those two sources. So I'll go with 2,500.

No matter. It was a mess 'o humanity.

The official church statement in reaction to the event showed the sect's typical shock and dismay that people might actually take to the streets to fight the church's deep involvement with political issues like this one . Church spokesman Scott Trotter, in the statement, said in part:

...it is wrong to target the church and its sacred places of worship for being part of the democratic process.

Since I was there for the entire evening, I can tell you with certainty that the church's main symbol of sacredness and worship-- the temple--was not targeted in any way. I walked the parameter outside Temple Square twice while interviewing people. The temple was not targeted. At all. The event was peaceful. Many of the marchers I stood around took great pains NOT to trample the church property gardens, for instance. The area surrounding Temple Square is open to the public and maintained through tax dollars. Everyone had a right to be there. And there were 50 or so counter-protesters, as well.

Anti-8 protesters did, in fact, stop outside the Church Office Building for several minutes each time they circled the area. They chanted, shouted and waved signs outside the building--which is where the church officials do their work, including crafting strategies to advance an anti-gay agenda--and the HQ building is a legitimate symbol of protest. The marchers I witnessed and the dozens I spoke with had no intention of singling out the temple, and for the church p.r. staff to paint the protest that way is simply a lie. (Holly Mullen)

Mormons and Marriage Polemics

[Mormon Sophistry] We called our friends David and Jimmy last night in San Francisco. They were married on Oct. 25 on a lovely day in that city, after 27 years together in a committed relationship. David is nearly 70. His reaction to Prop 8 passing in California was about what I expected. "We'll keep fighting," he said. "It's not going to go away, people aren't going to give up. We know that."

They don't know what's going to happen to the legal status of their marriage. Like the rest of us married stiffs, they go to bed together each night and wake up each morning, do their lives and are grateful to have someone on their side, helping them through. The outcome of the vote won't change that. Still, to live in a society that would recognize their marriage, that would be something all right.

The LDS Church issued this official statement regarding its well-publicized and the multi-million-dollar-funded fight it encouraged for Prop 8. It's posted on the church's "newsroom" link. According to LDS leaders, they have always supported joint property rights, the right of gay partners to visit each other in the hospital and many of the benefits that heterosexual married partners enjoy. It's just that marriage thing that they can't stomach.

The subtext of the official message is fascinating. The message was posted following Barack Obama's rout in his presidential victory. Obama drew millions of supporters who have never felt remotely a part of American politics or its power structure--blacks, Latinos (check out final election result maps and the border regions of every state from Texas westward to California. All of them, blue, blue, blue), gays, young voters. These people are the future of U.S. power and culture and the LDS hierarchy knows it. They had to issue a statement that seems inclusive and welcoming. The numbers in the U.S. are against them. The future is about same-sex marriage, an expansion of civil rights and a world with fewer borders, boundaries and restrictions on "people who aren't like us."

My friends David and Jimmy may not live long enough to see the change. But then I look around at the number of twenty- and thirty-somethings who are proudly gay and lesbian, who are politically engaged and who vote. It's just a matter of time. (Holly Mullen)

Dissed! By Mormon G.A.s

[Un-Affirmed, Again] The international support group Affirmation: Gay and Lesbian Mormons was supposed to meet with LDS Church President Thomas Monson on Aug. 11--the culmination of years of work by the group to get a sympathetic ear from church hierarchy.

On July 24, church leaders abruptly canceled the scheduled conversation and requested the meeting take place "next year." Affirmation's executive committee, however, doesn't plan on taking no for an answer. In an e-mailed press release, the group says it will meet at Salt Lake City's Pride Center at 10 a.m. Monday, and make itself available to any LDS poobah (my word, not theirs) who cares to show up to the breakfast meeting. The media is also invited.

The Mormon Church's official stand on gay members is the old "hate the sin, love the sinner" idea. That is, gay and lesbians are welcome in the church so long as they remain celibate.

As to the Monday breakfast meeting, well, I wouldn't yet order up the cinnamon buns and decaf, Affirmation.

Nevertheless, Affirmation Executive Director Olin Thomas plans to fly in from his home in Alexandria, Va., for the non-meeting. The group was to have focused on what it says is a shockingly high rate of homelessness and suicides among young gay and lesbian Mormons. Affirmation says it has 30 documented cases of suicide that can be directly linked to the isolation and depression gay church members experience.

"In recent years, the Church’s view towards gay and lesbian people has changed, and church leaders now recognize that being gay is a biological characteristic,” says David Melson, Affirmation’s senior assistant executive director, in the press release. “The items that we had planned to discuss all focus on education and on toning down some of the rhetoric. Nothing that we will be proposing requires any change in doctrine.”

“We are concerned at the church’s decision to not attend the meeting on August 11. The deaths, the homelessness, and the grief that occur because of well-intentioned but misguided practices are real, and they must all stop, now.”

Good luck, I say. I've always found it deeply mysterious people would want to remain in a club that wouldn't welcome them--unequivocally--as members. But that's just me.

Above: Affirmation members in 1979, during a march in Washington D.C. (Holly Mullen)

Where There's *Not* Smoke

[Local Culture] To the surprise of absolutely no one, Thomas Monson was named prophet and president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on Monday. And the church has missed a great opportunity.

Whenever a Pope dies, national news is filled with speculation about the prospective next pontiff. Lists of cardinals and bishops circulate, filled with details on their tendencies and pecadillos like a cross between a baseball card and a Match.com profile. Will he lean reform or conservative? A uniter or a divider? It's all anyone can talk about until that telltale puff of white smoke emerges from the Vatican.

But the LDS church, with its rigid promotion from within of the candidate with the most seniority, blows an opportunity to get people talking. It is Monson, it always was Monson, and no one really paid attention. What would be a better way for the church hierarchy to cash in on a "world is watching" moment? What ceremonial signal should herald the selection? We know you have ideas a-plenty. (Scott Renshaw)

Flag Bashing

[Church/State] Gordon B. Hinckley appears to have been a decent, God-fearing man. And that has nothing to do with the fact that the American flag in Utah should not be flying at half-staff in his honor.

It may seem otherwise, considering the way Old Glory is used as a barometer for any sort of local tragedy, but there are actually Federal guidelines for this sort of thing. The governor of a state may, in fact, order American flags to fly at half-staff, but only under very specific circumstances. And the death of a religious leader -- I feel the need to re-emphasize this, even in Utah: a RELIGIOUS leader -- does not qualify.

Title 4 of the U.S. code spells it all out, and section 7m authorizes a governor to make such an order "upon the death of a present or former official of the government of the state, or the death of a member of the Armed Forces from that state who dies while serving on active duty" (hat tip to USAHistory.org). The head of the LDS Church may be a de facto political figure in Utah, but we can all mourn without bringing the flag into it. (Scott Renshaw)

The GBH Conspiracy

[News] Last night, The Colbert Report exposed the grand conspiracy behind the "untimely death" of LDS Church president Gordon B. Hinckley. Remember, he did it, not us ...



(Bill Frost)

Hinckley: Is There a Complete Picture?

[Obit Wars] Over at The Salt Lake Tribune, Salt Lake Crawler Glen Warchol blogs nice today about LDS Church President Gordon B. Hinckley, who died last night at the age of 97. Warchol urges people to go easy on the Mormon-bashing some might be inclined to share, if for no other reason than to exemplify good manners.

What Warchol may not have expected was the back and forth between posters, who let loose with rants about what they suspect is the Trib's censorship of online comments related to Hinckley. Anonymous posters to the Crawler seem fairly certain the Trib online editors are killing criticisms of the late prophet, and they are none too happy about it.

(This isn't the first time posters to the Trib's blogs and comment boards have suspected editors fiddle with their free speech. Go here to be refreshed on a similar issue last week.)

I'm not endorsing a string of Hinckley and/or church criticism, by any means. This is a solemn moment, Hinckley was a giant among world religious leaders and a fine quipster to boot. But the questions raised about the "no warts" version of the Hinckley obituaries running in Utah newspapers and tributes running on all TV stations do give one pause. The best obituaries in newspaper lore are those that give a full picture of a person's life--good, bad, ugly. Since we are all human on this planet, it's always nice to see a realistic, if adequately respectful, obituary of the celebrities among us.

So, do this: Read the Utah versions and updates of the Hinckley tributes and then try these:

The New York Times Hinckley obit today offers a bit more reason.

And here is a rather interesting NYT piece, written in 1994 (one year before Hinckley took the reigns from church President Ezra Taft Benson). Here, Hinckley talks about why members who speak out against church policy, as several BYU scholars did 11 years ago and were abruptly fired, do so at their own peril. It's an intriguing look at the man's mettle before he became the worldwide leader of a church that cares very deeply about its public image. (Holly Mullen)

Where Were You When Gordon B. Hinckley Died?

[Local Culture] The phone rang last night just after dinner finished around 8 p.m. I was at a friend's house in Midvale. They're devout Mormon. The father, who'd just made his own pasta, is a longstanding member of his ward's Bishopric.

After he answered the phone, he said, "You're kidding." He hung up.

"President Hinckley's dead."

His wife's jaw dropped.

I was looking at Jessica, their 17-year-old daughter, who had her back to me.

She's about to attend BYU as an English major. I'd tutored her a few years ago in writing and was waiting for her to read some of her poems aloud. As a lapsed-Protestant, new to this country, Jessica was my introduction to Mormon folk. I've long admired her passion for a religion I confess I don't understand. What I have come to understand though is, as Harold Bloom said, the LDS faith is uniquely American.

As I watched her back and over her shoulder saw her mother's expression as she stared at her daughter's face, I could feel all of Jessica's pain radiating from her. Her sense of loss was palpable. Her back didn't move, nor her head. She was so rigid it made me ache to watch her. Finally, I turned away.

Where were you when you heard the news? How did you react? Or did it even register? (Stephen Dark)

News Flash from The Mormon Times!

[Media] Oh how I treasure knowing that the D-News has shed light on what's going on with that mysterious segment of Utah's population, known as "the Mormons." You may have thought the D-News' LDS news line column, Religion and Ethics column or...the rest of it's paper, was covering the latest coming off the Latter-day wire, well you were wrong.

The latest breaking news The Mormon Times tells us is a list the Church is presenting on LDS vocabulary they are officially retiring. Some of these quaint terms were quite apropos during the nifty fifties but apparently don't have a place any longer in the modern church vocab.

Just for fun I'll list some of the obsolete terms and you try and guess why the church is reluctant to be using them anymore (just for help I will provide some italicized hints).

Deseret Sunday School Union: the original name of the church's Sunday school program.

(The last man to organize a Sunday school union strike against the church disappeared Jimmy Hoffa-style... into outer darkness)

Rainbows: a name for primary age girls. (Damn hippie children ruined that one for the LDS kids)

Gaynotes: original name for girls in the Liahona or "little homemaker" program. (insert own joke here)

M-Men and Gleaners: young men and young women's departments in the church's 1921 MIA program. (I swear I saw an ad for M-Men and Gleaners somewhere in the back of one of the City Weekly classifieds around here somewhere...) (Eric S. Peterson)

Al's Well That Ends Well

The Rev. Al Sharpton came to SLC today to glad-hand with LDS Church suits and not apologize for the anti-Mormon comments he claims he never made--Mission Accomplished! And where was Mitt Romney, anyway?

Amazingly, no one called Sharpton on this comment: "Whatever difference I have with their denomination or their religion, as I might with any that is not my own, has nothing to do with my disregard or disrespect for their faith."

Go ahead, read it over a few times. (Bill Frost)