New works in the public domain since 1987.
The LDS Church has joined with several California religious groups to file a friend-of-the-court brief in defense of Proposition 22, a law passed in 1999 that defined marriage as between a man and a woman.
LDS Church wades into California traditional marriage case – Salt Lake Tribune
The Salt Lake Tribune reports: “ The LDS Church has joined with several California religious groups to file a friend-of-the-court brief in defense of Proposition 22, a law passed in 1999 that defined marriage as between a man and a woman.”
The Church of Jesus Christ, Later-Day Saints (The Mormons) has tried for decades to play down the most obviously strange or cruel or foolish aspects of their superstition and build up a new reputation of being just like any other cult in town. The above is another example of this public image campaign. While the Mormons will forever be associated with polygamy, they are now also advocating traditional limit-one-per-customer marriage.
I do not think the increased number of men and women who want same-sex marriages has ever or will ever constitute a threat to marriage. What has caused harm to this institution (disclosure: I have presided over several marriages and will do so again next month) are easy access to divorce, easy access to safe and effective birth control and less social opprobrium for having children out of wedlock. Easier access to divorce and birth control were good changes, and if the institution of marriage suffered for them then individual human beings prospered for them. Having children out of wedlock seems to generally co-occur with poverty and crime, but of course any generalized claim breaks down for individual human beings.
The cause of changes to the institution of marriage are clear. Bt many would prefer to keep what has caused harm to marriage, shifting the blame for that harm to homosexuals and simultaneously keeping homosexuals from the rights and responsibilities found in marriage. Superstition is, of course, to be found in nearly every example of this hypocrisy.
Several times I have asked religionists what legal rights they specifically do not want same-sex couples to have. They have never been able to answer that question. Every legal right of marriage (inheritance, making medical decisions, etc.) that I mention to them, they think same-sex couples should have. Over time I realized that what they are imagining about same-sex marriage is that the sheriff will show up at their church and force their pastor to conduct a homo wedding at gunpoint. I think if we disabuse them of that fantasy then progress can be made. Disabusing the superstitious of fantasies (or, at least, mean spirited and stupid fantasies) is part of what OVO is all about.
A Lake Point man was arrested on suspicion of luring a developmentally disabled man from his mother at a Deseret store and putting LDS temple clothing on him earlier this month in Centerville.
Challenging the claims of Mormonism since 1979
Wish I knew what this was from
The meetings explored how teachings from the Book of Mormon and the church’s Doctrine and Covenants could apply to modern government.
Religion Clause: Utah Governor Held 1996 Meetings On LDS Doctrine and Modern Government
On this site you will find resources on different topics about Utah, Mormonism and the West including the full text of the following out-of-print books
A Web Site Dedicated to Black Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
A retriever is in training to become the first dog in Britain to be permitted to enter a mosque, acting as a guide for its blind Muslim owner. The animal has been chosen because it salivates less than usual, thus reducing the risk of flicking spittle onto other worshippers at the Al Falah
Keeping pet dogs is considered “haram” (the Arabic word for “forbidden”) in Islamic teaching, because they are regarded as unclean, particularly their saliva. The mosque took its decision after advice from imams and scholars at the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), who carried out a full review of Islamic teaching on dogs. [...] Ibrahim Mogra, a senior imam at the MCB, who has overseen the review of teaching on guide dogs, said they could be justified as they served an “urgent practical purpose”. He said: “We found the Koran allows Muslims to use dogs for hunting. So if Muslims can eat a prey bitten by dogs, then there should not be a problem using them to guide you if you are blind.”
[Article continues at link. This is an example of how religion tries to have it both ways. On the one hand, keeping dogs is haram - an eternal, unchanging, infallible, supreme, all-knowing Allah told us so! On the other hand, we can talk about it and change the rules if it suits our urgent practical purpose. It might have helped the 'revelation' along that in June a UK Muslim cab driver was fined for refusing a blind couple with a guide dog access to his cab. Just as the 'revelation' to allow Black men to lead Mormon Boy Scout troops miraculously came at around the time lawsuits against the Mormons were being filed. Or the 'revelation' that Mormon polygamy was for heaven and not Earth miraculously came at around the time Utah wanted to join the United States. It is good that theists try to have it both ways. Debating religion and making changes are both steps toward secularization, in which human reason and compassion trumps tradition. Secular humanists, like atheists, just get on with things. Religious humanists, as these Muslims are whether they want to be or not, may cloak their reason and compassion in superstitious garb. But at the end of the day they recognize themselves and not an invisible monster that lives in the sky as the true active moral agent. - Trevor Blake]
The take-home message of Mitt Romney’s recent speech on religion and politics was pretty clear: I may be a Mormon, but at least I’m not an atheist.
When the Provo School District Board of Education votes tonight on changing elementary school boundaries throughout town, the decision will be made with consideration of “ecclesiastical boundaries.”
Only when it comes to Mormonism vs. other religions does he recognize the value of neutrality as a principle. Isn’t that convenient?
[The following is from Daily Rotten for December 10, 2007. Sometimes I imagine creating a calendar of 'this day in the history of religion.' Days like December 10 show that it would almost write itself. - Trevor Blake]
December 10, 1520: The heretic Martin Luther burnt the papal bull issued by Leo X, titled “Exsurge Domine”, demanding an end to his heresies. Luther had published 95 points against the practice of granting indulgences, and the Catholic Church only had 94 points in favor of them. Although technically he was the winner, Luther was subsequently excommunicated.
December 10, 1792: “That if any do commit the detestable and abominable vice of Buggery, with man or beast, he or she so offending, shall be adjudged a felon, and shall suffer death, in the case of felony, without the benefit of Clergy.” (Act of General Assembly of Virginia)
December 10, 1958: Ralph Muller and Peter Kamenoff, two ex-members of the Fountain of the World religious cult, accost guru Krishna Venta at the cult’s hillside compound in Box Canyon, Ventura County, California. The men accuse Venta of having fucked their wives. For whatever reason Venta, the reincarnation of Jesus Christ and formerly known as Francis Pencovic, is unable to placate the men. So they detonate 20 sticks of dynamite they brought, 19 of which are strictly overkill. The three men are instantly blown to pieces along with 7 other cultees. Venta’s remains are only ever identified through dental records.
December 10, 1993: Adolf Hitler is baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in a ceremony performed inside their London temple. Mormons use this strange retroactive baptismal ritual to ensure ancestors or other relatives may join them in heaven.
[Also in the news on December 10, 2007..."Vigilantes kill 40 women in Iraq's south: Religious vigilantes have killed at least 40 women this year in the southern Iraqi city of Basra because of how they dressed, their mutilated bodies found with notes warning against 'violating Islamic teachings,' the police chief said Sunday." ... "Iran Executes 21-Year-Old Accused of Gay Sex as a Teen: Mouloodzadeh was a 21-year-old Iranian citizen who was accused of committing anal rape (ighab) with other young boys when he was 13. However, at Mouloodzadeh's trial, all the witnesses retracted their pre-trial testimonies, claiming to have lied to the authorities under duress. Mouloodzadeh also told the court that his confession was made under coercion and pleaded not guilty." ... and happy 60th birthday to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The advance of the secular is the advance of peace and prosperity. - Trevor Blake]
A spokesman for the Mitt Romney campaign is thus far refusing to say whether Romney sees any positive role in America for atheists and other non-believers
Janssen, D. F., Growing Up Sexually. Volume I. World Reference Atlas. 0.2 ed. 2004. Berlin: Magnus Hirschfeld Archive for Sexology Last revised: Feb 2006
Largest Repository Of Ex-Mormon Material In The World
Time magazine wrote in 2000 that Church of Jesus Christ, Latter-day Saints (the Mormons) comprise less than 2% of the U.S. population but make up 21% of the boys in the Boy Scouts of America. This suggests that while most BSA Scouts are not Mormon, most Mormon boys are BSA Scouts. Mormon sponsorship of the BSA goes back nearly eighty years. The Mormons like Scouting so much that it is an official Church program. Brigham Young University offers a major in Scouting [article] [description]. In some areas the only BSA Troop available for boys to join are Mormon BSA Troops. Mormon BSA Troops, with BSA approval, have their own requirements for membership, advancement, and activities. Until 1974, one of those requirements was that no leadership position could be held by anyone who was Black. No Black man could hold a leadership position in the Mormon Church, therefore they reasoned no Black man or boy could hold a leadership position in the BSA. Because of this discrimination a secular lawsuit against the LDS arose in that year. By magical coincidence the invisible monster that lives in the sky and talks to the LDS Elders chose exactly that time to tell them their policy had changed and Blacks could now lead Mormon BSA Troops. Currently the Mormons are developing their own Scouting program in case the BSA joins every other Scouting program in the world and allows openly homosexual people to be Scouts.
Maybe it wouldn’t be such a terrible thing if the Mormons got out of the Scouting business.
charging the organizations with ignoring sex abuses committed decades ago by a man who served as a church teacher and a scout leader.
Mormon Church, Boy Scouts sex abuse lawsuit grows | U.S. | Reuters
Your Source of Information on Institutional Child Abuse
