Before the elections, a group called the Courage Campaign Issues Committee ran this ad against California’s Proposition 8.
It copped a bit of flack. Some god-soaked loon jumped up and down, said it was an example of ‘religious bigotry and intolerance’, and so on. I don’t know — I liked the ad, maybe a bit over the top.
But now, after the passage of Prop 8, can anyone tell me that that isn’t exactly what happened? A religion pumped money into an effort to strip rights from a group of people, and it worked. Why wouldn’t they try it? It was a win-win for the LDS Church. Prop 8 passes, they get what they want. Prop 8 loses, they get to pretend it’s the end of days, the world’s getting wickeder, and the fambly’s under attack, which brings in the easily frightened.
Now I think it’s fine for a religion to require or prohibit certain behaviours for its membership — that is, for adults who have chosen to belong to that religion, and I do not include children in this group. But when they try to force non-members to live by their rules, they’ve overstepped. And that’s what’s happened in California.
The argument from the religious right — not that they ever had a coherent argument against gay marriage — was that gay marriage would affect straight marriage. Make it worth less, devalue it somehow. That argument was a furphy, of course, but strange to say, the converse actually seems true. I heard a saying once: When one is not free, I am not free. I don’t know about that, but today it feels like: if someone’s relationship is devalued, mine is devalued. It’s strange, but it feels like my relationship with Ms Perfect is somehow the lesser for Prop 8’s passage. Maybe someday we’ll get married, but that’s only an option because we’re straight. Then again, maybe some religious group will intervene to stop us and enough voters will agree. That’s the world we live in now.
That’s why I think the last line of the ad is the most telling: “What shall we ban next?” Anything that conflicts with their delicate sensibilities, that’s what. Abortions? Why not go all the way and make it birth control? Or alcohol? Hey, what about Asian restaurants? You never did like Asian food, did you, Elder?
7 November 2008 at 4:01 pm
The cynic in me thinks that this was less about the Church defending its principles and more about convincing the rest of the religious right that we’re on their team.
Part of the problem is that the arguments against Prop. 8 were actually quite persuasive. By persuasive, I don’t mean legitimate, just effective on people who weren’t inclined to do a little digging on their own.
Most of the people I spoke to genuinely believed that same-sex marriage would inevitably lead to all the terrible things predicted by the scare-mongers. I reckon the LDS leadership bought into the same arguments too – remember that they rely on the likes of Lynn Wardle to inform them on the social and legal consequences of things like this, and when these pundits say “You’ll be subject to lawsuits, lose your taxt-exempt status, be forced to perform gay marriages in chapels etc.” then the GAs feel justified in getting involved.
I feel slightly uncomfortable with that particular ad though because there *are* plenty of Mormons who disagreed with the official position – quite a lot of them, in fact. It would be nice if more people knew that.
7 November 2008 at 6:22 pm
“We claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience, and allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how, where, or what they may.”
BULLSHIT and HYPOCRISY.
Not the church my parents raised me in.
7 November 2008 at 11:28 pm
Just shakes his head.
The church has enough problems to not be shooting itself in the foot. When things like this come up, they should just state their position and encourage members to vote according to the dictates of their own conscience. It is just stupid to get involved in stuff like this on a church level. Let the member in California decide for themselves and leave it be. Oh well, the people running the corporate church aren’t the smartest bunch of people I’ve ever met.
8 November 2008 at 12:18 am
What are the rational reasons for getting married, though?
1. legal treatment of the couple
2. appeasing the less rational (e.g. your fundamentalist family and co-workers)
3. personal religious significance
#1 is best dealt with by law reform concerning de facto relationships, or creating some new equivalent legal status that is called something other than marriage. This means you don’t encroach on a valuable brand that the various religious institutions have expropriated. Drama is avoided.
#2 is fairly moot with regards to Prop. 8: how large is the subset of fundamentalists that do support homosexual relationships but only when sanctified by marriage?
#3 is your own mess; you’ve entered into a belief system (that you need to turn your homosexual relationship into a marriage) that is incompatible with reality (legal status of homosexual-marriages and your homsexuality).
I can’t sympathise with such an artifical need. Liberal atheists don’t need marriage.
8 November 2008 at 12:35 am
That’s something else I’ve been hearing. Why get married at all?
You forgot #4: Weddings are fun.
I’d like to see the state get out of the marriage business entirely. Hand it over to religions, let them sort it out.
But is it that simple? That #1 there is the stickler. Let’s say we have have civil unions for all, with everyone getting relevant legal protection regarding wills, parenting, hospital visitation rights, benefits, and everything you’d need to cover. Guess what? Looks a lot like the same problem with a different name.
8 November 2008 at 12:40 am
Jeffrey: You know when this started? I still remember this Sunday in (I think) 1981 when our ward in Washington state had the first presentation on abortion, in Priesthood meeting. Two guys I’d never seen before were there, and they didn’t introduce themselves or speak at all — one of the local brethren conducted the meeting — but it seemed like they had brought the materials, some filmstrip at that stage. The line I remember was “How could anyone have an abortion?”
That must have been a test run. Evidently it was successful.
12 November 2008 at 1:13 am
It was a win-win for the LDS Church. Prop 8 passes, they get what they want. Prop 8 loses, they get to pretend it’s the end of days, the world’s getting wickeder, and the family’s under attack, which brings in the easily frightened.
As it turned out, it was even worse. They got what they wanted (it passed) AND they get to pretend it is the end of days AND play the persecution card because of backlash.