aftermath

[hermetic]

In a situation like this one, it's very natural to look for someone to blame. If you can blame someone, you can assuage some of the guilt you feel for not doing enough. If you blame someone, you can take some kind of action. If you blame someone, you can regain some small sense of your own agency

Comments

[folk]

Thank you for this. Have you seen http://www.mormonsstoleourrights.com ?

[hermetic]

You're welcome. Yes, I have seen that. I'll reply more to that below.

[hermetic]

Yes, I can do all those things, and likely will.

However, what I was referring to is the response that needs to happen within the church. Mormons who feel that the LDS leadership has overstepped the bounds of what is moral for the church to do as a body of Christ are the only ones who can address the church internally. If change comes to the church, it must come from within. It may or may not be possible, given the inherently top-down structure of the church. The Prophet is the living conduit of God's word, and that's that. But if it can be shifted, it must be by the Mormons themselves.

Those of us external to the church can apply pressure in the way you suggest. Their actions require response, and so we will respond.

This kind of pressure does work, historically. I mean, they changed their position on polygamy, after all.

[hermetic]

That wasn't annoyance. That was un-American hatred, and is black spot on our history. Moreover, it definitely fed into the Mormon Church's Christian persecution complex, which now feeds into the zealotry with which the LDS leadership pursues their theocracy.

The lesson the LDS should have learned from their unjust persecution is that all injustice is evil, and therefore that they should strive for justice for all. They express this beneficently via some of their charity work.

However, it is apparent that the LDS leadership is often ignoring the commandment to love one's neighbor as oneself when it interferes with their goal of theocracy.

There is much to criticize in the actions of the LDS Church, especially on these issues, but bringing up the Extermination Order on Mormons in the way you did is disingenuous at best and kind of slimy at worst.

[easwaran]

I agree with all of this - very eloquently put.

[hermetic]

Thank you.

[nena_nieve]

Really well put. Really, really well put.

I have a lot of hope that Prop 8 will be overturned, legally or democratically, and soon. The actions you describe here are among the tools that will make that happen.

*hugs you tight*

[hermetic]

Thank you. I have hope, too.

*hugs*