On 30th October 2013, the Hawaii Senate voted overwhelmingly in favour of a bill that would extend freedom to marry to same-sex couples in Hawaii. The Senate voted 20-4 in favour. The bill now goes to the House where a vote on the marriage bill is expected next week. If passed (as is expected), Hawaii will join the many countries and other states of America that have already made marriage an equal right in recent months.
During the Hawaii legal process, the Mormon Church appears to have been up to its old tricks. Not for a moment did they learn their lesson when previously fined $5,000 for illegal financial activity in relation to the ‘Prop 8’ saga in California; surreptitious illegal activity by the Mormon Church is now being claimed in Hawaii.
The Mormon Church and NOM Accused of Violating Hawaii Election Laws.
(Scroll down for article and comments).
The Church never seems to learn that: a) inflicting (legally or otherwise) your own outdated and unpopular views on the rest of society when it does not affect you, is not only reprehensible but entirely unchristian; or, b) if the Mormon god existed and actually communicated with Mormon leaders, he would surely have advised them by now that what people do outside his ‘one true religion’ is their own business and to leave them alone. Only he should be the judge of ‘other’ people. By all means believe that you and your followers should behave a certain way, but don’t try to inflict your beliefs on the rest of society. Even inside the Church, the intolerant attitude toward LGBT Mormons has destroyed countless families and resulted in numerous suicides. Being gay is not ‘wrong’; it is doctrine which can drive people to suicide that is positively evil. Being gay is just something that needs to be properly understood in order for it to be accepted. Science has discovered the truth about it; the Mormon god has yet to catch up with the evidence.
Why not also campaign to get alcohol, tea, coffee and tobacco banned from society? The Word of Wisdom is equally the Lord’s command – but wait, that is just for Mormons, and the rest of society, who have no idea that the Mormon god doesn’t like those things, does not have to comply. Well, the same is true of equal rights, such as the equality of women, and equal marriage rights, and as a corporation (which the Mormon Church is legally registered as), not interfering with proposed legislative change should strictly apply. One aspect of the separation of Church and State should be that churches must stay out of state business if they want to retain their charity status and related tax benefits. Beliefs should remain internal to the organisation.
It seems that Mormon Articles of Faith 12 and 13 – (12. We believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers, and magistrates, in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law. 13. We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men…) are clearly not seen by Mormon leaders as applicable to them. They don’t want to obey or sustain (which means help to protect and maintain) the law, or do any good at all to some men (or women) who are not even of the Mormon faith. They think they can live above the law and do just as they please to supposedly further what they consider to be their Lord’s work.
They had to eventually cave on polygamy and then blacks and the priesthood (in spite of previous revelations thus being reversed in both cases), due to the tide of popular public opinion; and that same tide is now at work again. They have the audacity to now claim they don’t even know how or where the ‘blacks and the priesthood’ idea originated in the first place. Ask any long time member or exmember and they know exactly where it came from. It is still perfectly clear in Mormon scripture and supposedly unchangeable doctrine.
One day, the Mormon god will change his unchangeable mind yet again and ‘reveal’ that indeed being gay is hardwired into the brains of some six to eight percent of the population – and so god ‘made’ them (and dozens of other species) that way. It is neither a sin nor a curable ailment – it is just the way some people are. Love, empathy and compassion suggest that the ‘Christian’ thing to do is allow all people to be who they are, regardless; and god – if there is such a being, should (and surely would) love everyone just the same. Mere mortals have no right to decry other mortals just because they aren’t the same as they are. The ‘abomination’ is not homosexuality (a term applicable to both sexes), it is underhanded and illegal manipulation intended to prevent new legislation that will benefit many and harm none. I am not American, but it seems to me that such Mormon Church action offends The Bill of Rights.
Jim Whitefield 