Today the Mormons; Tomorrow…You.
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The outbreak of attacks on the Mormon church since the passage of Proposition 8 has been chilling: envelopes full of suspicious white powder were sent to church headquarters in Salt Lake City; protesters showed up en masse to intimidate Mormon small-business owners who supported the measure; a website was created to identify and shame members of the church who backed it; activists are targeting the relatives of prominent Mormons who gave money to pass it, as well as other Mormons who are only tangentially associated with the cause; some have even called for a boycott of the entire state of Utah.
The wisdom of hate-crimes legislation aside, there is no doubt that a lot of hate is being directed at Mormons as a group. But why single out Mormons? And why now?
The editorial drives to the point that what the Prop 8 thugs are doing is attacking our freedoms of belief and conscience, through the Mormon church. That should bother anyone who cherishes the right to believe as you please and to vote your conscience. But the editorial doesn’t quite answer the question it asks: Why the Mormons?
The activists are attacking Mormons, specifically, because the Mormon Church is particularly vulnerable. As the editorial notes, anti-Mormon bigotry is not often denounced, as it would be were it directed at Catholics or Muslims. We saw that sort of bigotry in proud display during the Republican primaries, when MSM outlets and even conservative commentators asked questions of Mitt Romney that they never posed to another candidate. It’s okay to laugh at a Mormon’s “magic underwear” but not at a Catholic’s “magic rosary” or a Muslim’s “magic book”. There’s no way in hell that the supposedly courageous mobs would march through South Central, even though blacks in California voted for Prop 8 in huge numbers.
So the Prop 8 activists are attacking a soft target – one that does not have an Anti Defamation League, a CAIR, or a Catholic League to take to the airwaves with thunderous indignation. And if they manage to force the Mormon church into submission, and there are already reports that their intimidation is doing just that, they’ll have a weapon they or anyone else will be able to use in the future against any other group with closely held beliefs.
That should concern all of us, whether we are particularly religious or not. At some point, someone will decide to use the same tactics against a belief that you have. It is much better to stop it now before the precedent is set.
(via ‘Okie’ on the Lam)
Other Posts of Interest:
- Gay Marriage Questions
- Kathleen Parker, Live from the Crazy Train
- But What is Their Position on Chickens Coming Home to Roost? Also, Fundamentalist Mob Leader Bush Didn’t Go to Church?
Category: Featured, Gimme that Old Time Religion, The Rise of the Nanny State, The Social Issues
Nope. Folks are targeting the CoLDS because they contributed the largest sums to get gay marriage removed from the books.
In fact, 77% of all contributions came from the Mormon church.
Those donations didn't come from the Mormon Church. They came from individual Americans who still have the right to donate their money to political causes free from thuggish intimidation.