Author: Jill (last name unknown)
Subject: you are perpetuating hate and discrimination
"I'm Mormon and I don't hate any group of people or any person for that matter. This link you put on your site: http://www.mormonsstoleourrights.com/ is so objectionable. You know as well as anyone that any person can put together lies on the web without validation. That site is full of lies. You are perpetuating prejudice and hate.
I've enjoyed your blog over the past 2-3 years and really thought that although you were sometimes a tad cruel that you did it all in fun and with a sense of humor and that you had a good heart (as demonstrated by your many attempts to get people to donate to different charities). Now, I have to say, that I don't want to have any part of your "success" and your 9 million pageviews/day (or whatever # it is up to). You have a lot of power to influence people and what they see and read and you are using that power to preach hatred.
Population of California Residents: 38,000,000
California Mormon population: 750,000
California Catholic population: 10,906,992
Democrats in California: 61.01% 6,308,015
Republicans in California: 37.21% 3,849,023
(Mormons are overwhelmingly Conservatives)
The statistics above show clearly that if every Mormon in the state of California voted Yes, and everyone else voted no, the no's would win. This of course suggests that simply the vast majority of all of Californians voted yes again to keep the concept of marriage, a union between a man and a woman with one of the major goals of procreating and solidifying their union with a child or children.
By being homosexual, as far as I understand it, and please tell me if I am wrong, you go into it with your eyes wide open: No marriage, no offspring, and no tax benefits. You are all basically trying to change the very definition of the word marriage to include something that it has never been. That is like going to an American school and being upset because they don't teach in German-- Ordering a steak and being upset that a chicken dish did not show up at your plate-- Flying on a plane and being upset that you are so high in the sky, and for you Californian's, it is like surfing and being mad that it is wet. The argument seems so absurd.
Webster perhaps said it best, MARRIAGE: the social institution under which a man and woman establish their decision to live as husband and wife by legal commitments, religious ceremonies, etc. (Did you know that a straight couple cannot obtain a License of Civil Union? Thus far, there has not been one complaint among them. Perhaps you should picket libraries or Webster's heir's houses.)
To pick one religion that happens to have a difference of opinion than your own flies in the face of everything that you all claim to believe in: the goal of a world where all are accepted for what they are, religion and gays included. You are gay, good for you. Catholics are Catholics and Mormons are Mormons, good for them. There is no benefit to the society of the Earth or the groups whom are gay to pronounce upon them the ability to marry another than that is just what you want. You sound like spoiled rotten kids who are not getting what they want.
You live in the most accepting of gays and lesbian society that has ever existed in all of history. You have every right that everyone else has and the level of persecution that you experience is less than ever before, yet you find ways of poking at the fire. You were granted civil unions and can see loved ones in their hospital rooms and bequeath all of your possessions to each other and adopt children and display yourselves in all your glory in clubs, parades, government, politics, newspapers, websites, etc. It just seems that you will never be happy until and unless you are successful in destroying the very culture that made all the above rights possible; this seems cannibalistic on some level. We have fought for and many have died for the rights that you now enjoy, but this agenda of unsatisfactorily depicting the Mormons for all of your woes is absurd and perpetuates hate on every level. Hypocrisy, at times, creeps silently; this is not one of those times.
You have every right to picket and speak your mind according to your desires, but to openly display the disgusting behavior that I witnessed on the news in front of what the Mormons believe to be one of the most holy places on earth, screams volumes of the level of class that you must possess. I liken it to a war protester shouting over the preacher at a military funeral while the family cries over their loss, or defecating on a Buddhist temple. I am not in the military and I am not Buddhist, but class is class and no class is not cool.
It just seems that your first battle would be more judiciously prudent to focus on obtaining better rights and expanded acceptance of civil unions before you attempt to do away with Santa and trick-or-treating.
To suggest that a religion should lose their tax exempt status is a very slippery slope, one that could backfire without impunity. Mormons do not preach politics from the pulpit and the only money they spent on this entire issue is the amount it cost to fly a few dignitaries to an interview. The quotes that I have heard that the church has spent tens of millions of dollars on this Prop 8 issue is absurd. Ironically you referenced one Mormon, Steve Young's wife, who spent 50k against it (your side) and although you attempted to reference every other fact with varying degrees of success (mostly irrelevant and capricious) you failed to reference any documentation on any facts pertaining to the Church spending a dime on this issue. To suggest that you, as a group, have determined that this is the issue of issues in a time when everything in the country is falling apart, again screams volumes. Every moral fiber that seems to be in the gay and lesbian population seems to simply be to buck the system and cause controversy, convey hatred, decry inequality and reverse all of our traditions. This is deplorable. At some point you are simply taking a Machiavellian approach that will ultimately do more harm than good to your cause.
To begin to suggest that the history of the Mormons in this country can be compared to the plight of the gay community is laughable. The Mormons are one of the first true American religions (meaning it was started here). They defined the original Bill of Rights in their actions and for it were murdered, hunted and had hundreds of millions of dollars of cash, land and property stolen by individuals, cities, counties, states and even the military of the U.S. and were forced to flea out of the country to Mexico (Utah now) just to survive. At the time the concept of polygamy was not new and not illegal. When it became illegal, instead of being grandfathered in like in every other situation before and since would have been, those who practiced it, (Not even close to being all Mormons) were again forced to abandon their children and wives, or leave the country to Old Mexico (where it was not illegal). The Mormons are a God fearing, law abiding group of people who have risen to the highest levels of every political affiliation and office and every industry on earth. They have become the 4th largest religion in America, and spend more on relief than any other religion on Earth and have been persecuted to the nth degree for it. They also have one more claim to fame for being one of the most persecuted people in American history, right up there with the American slaves, and yet they happen to be the only persecuted people that has never requested, hinted, or demanded reparations for what they went through. Talk about speaking volumes...
It is disturbing that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is being singled out for speaking up as part of its democratic right in a free election.
Members of the Church in California and millions of others from every faith, ethnicity and political affiliation who voted for Proposition 8 exercised the most sacrosanct and individual rights in the United States -- that of free expression and voting.While those who disagree with our position on Proposition 8 have the right to make their feelings known, it is wrong to target the Church and its sacred places of worship for being part of the democratic process.Once again,
we call on those involved in the debate over same-sex marriage to act in a spirit of mutual respect and civility towards each other. No one on either side of the question should be vilified, harassed or subject to erroneous information.Please see the Catholic Church's opinion on the subject:
http://www.sltrib.com/ci_10937437
I know you do not care that one Mormon will never view your website again, but I definitely felt like I had to say something.
Jill
I don't have much to say, but it makes me sick that this is just one of the many members of the church who have had to stand up for our right to believe as we do, and to vote as we did. There has been so much slander, hatred and erroneous remarks and calumny that has been thrown our way since the election's outcome. And it is so disappointing that the opposing sides can't disagree in a more modern, tolerant, accepting manner--the same manner in which the gay community wishes to be accepted--the same manner in which every other minority in America still wishes to be accepted. In the same moment of history when the United States of America shows the world that we can vote overwhelmingly for a black president, we find that the same problems that caused oppression and delayed Civil Rights are still alive and strong. Voting for President-elect Obama was just one small step forward. And then there was a small step backwards with the unfortunate, violent events following the passing of prop 8.
