gay marriage
Personally, I think that marriage should be a private ritual and not legally sanctioned, but whatever. If it is, then it's a civil right. I am so proud of Salt Lake City for fighting the Mormon church on this one, and I'm glad that the rest of the US is taking notice. I hope that Mormon-owned businesses are boycotted. There are good Mormon people who are not homophobic, and one of them reads this journal, but their leadership needs to know that this type of discrimination is unacceptable to most Americans--some of whom didn't vote, sadly--and won't be tolerated. The LDS church can have any bigoted agenda it likes, but when they delve into political and civic life, they deserve the consequences of their actions. I've watched the Mormon church exercise a stranglehold on an otherwise progressive, ethnically diverse, more than 10% gay/lesbian Salt Lake City. And yes, what I said applies to the Catholic church, too, but you can't be from Salt Lake City and not feel personally affected by this particular entrenched conservative force. It's time for Christianity to rid itself of judgment and to embrace the opportunity to actually bring hope, peace, and love to a very troubled world. For example, the Mormon church has a great humanitarian aid track record. When Salt Lake City was chosen as the location of a Hurricane Katrina resettlement camp, people waited in line for two hours to have the privilege of donating food and supplies to people who needed them. It's time for another spiritual sea change; this is such an incredible waste of time and so divisive, all of this judgment, so tiresome, and so fundamentally un-Christian.