The LDS Church & Proposition 8

I wish dooce would write about this because she has personal experience with this church and also she could do it 1000 times better than I’m about to.

I’m referring to the fact that the LDS church is almost solely responsible for the fact that Proposition 8 was passed in California this week.

The LDS church has sent out statements and press releases.

Here’s one from the Deseret News, an LDS owned newspaper. The headline reads “LDS Church Backs Marriage Measure on California Ballot.” It’s right there in literal black and white, from their own mouths.

It must be nice to be the richest religious organization per member on Earth, but not to have to pay taxes or release financial records. Yet somehow this tax exempt, “non-profit” organization continues to lobby on political issues. Why are they so effective at lobbying while hiding behind their “non-profit” status? (Sorry for all the quotes, but this church is absolutely not non-profit, its merely a facade that they hide behind.) Because when this church says jump, it’s members ask “how high?”

This doesn’t have to be about gay marriage. It does have to do with a very powerful religious organization using its power to determine public policy. You don’t have to agree with gay marriage, but you and I both have to pay taxes and so should this church if they want to continue to influence law. Sign this petition.

I wouldn’t believe the stuff I’ve seen in the past four years if I hadn’t seen it, but right here in America religion is routinely mentioned in public schools…in fact, the LDS church has their “seminaries” built directly on the property of the public schools. At certain times of the school day, LDS youth are allowed to leave and return to their public school to attend these seminaries. A friend’s son was asked to stand up in school when the non-LDS students were invited to stand so that the rest of the students could see the descendants of those who “killed Joseph Smith.”

Every political post I write, I think to myself that it’s the last one.

I’ve had hundreds of political conversations with my parents over the course of the years, and I’m pretty much finished talking about it. But one thing that they’ve always said that they’ve disliked about left leaning groups is that they push agendas. I’ve never seen an agenda pushed like this one, and the LDS church can pretty much take the blame/credit for having passed Proposition 8 in California due to the forces that they mobilized and money that they raised. Sickening.

And guess where I got quite a bit of this information?

That’s right. KSL, the Church of Latter-Day Saints owned ABC affiliate in Salt Lake City, which is quite possibly the bottom of the barrel by any kind of journalistic standards. Did they cover Obama winning the election? A surface glance at the story AFTER they lamented the losses of the Republicans as well as possible strategies to get the party going again. How did the cover the passage of Proposition 8 this week…by showing a commercial that portrayed Mormon missionaries being shown in an unfavorable light run by adversaries of Proposition 8. I should hate that the church should be so offended after they’ve offended so many.

The LDS church cannot have it both ways. Either they need to stop pushing their agenda or they need to pay taxes on the estimated hundreds of million dollars or even billions they have in their coffers. I am a straight, Catholic resident of Utah, and this church infiltrates the lives of every Utahn regardless of religion. If this church is so interested in changing state law to reflect their beliefs, existing federal law should be enforced to strip them of their tax status.

I am seriously going to try to stop with the politics. I promise. It’s hard though.

 

Jitters & Goosebumps

I’m nervous and I’m also very, very cold.

My TV seems to want to be set to CNN in anticipation of the first exit poll data to be shown at 5pm Eastern time.

I’m freezing because of a freak autumn snowstorm that makes Utahns simultaneously happy and irritated.  Happy because the ski resorts are getting a good base thereby ensuring an on time opening later this month.  Irritation, well, because its freakin’ cold.

My jitters…they’re not as easy to explain.  I voted for who I believe to be the best candidate for the job.  If the other guy wins, it won’t be the end of the world.  For most of America, life will continue on in the same way.  America’s current obsession with politics will fade, no matter who wins.  That’s the unfortunate truth.

How different would things be if all of us who are eating up every morsel of this election turned that fervor into holding our politicians accountable for the next four years?

No, I’m nervous because I’m not sure what these first polls and the numbers that’ll come later on this evening mean.  What will the numbers of votes say about the Americans who’ve withstood long lines and inclement weather say about us? I’m interested to see the numbers from places like West Virginia, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania.  Places with a traditional Democratic record and strong blue collar workforce.

All indications in the past few weeks point to Obama winning, some by a landslide.   What happens if the opposite happens?  Is it racism?  Despite our past, have we come far enough to elect a black man to be our president?

Sorry for all the questions, it’s just that I don’t have the answers.

 

It’s Monday, November 3, 2008

It’s almost the end of the road and, as endings are…its bittersweet. But, I’ll celebrate as I watch the returns tomorrow night with a good dinner and a better bottle of wine.

I like politics even though some people consider that to be odd- so I’ll miss the process.

What won’t I miss? Well, I guess most everything else: constant polling, dirty campaign tactics, and general bad manners. I think that our two candidates have mostly kept their vows to be civilized, but it’s their supporters who I’m most tired of.

The excitement that’s been generated over the course of this campaign has been palatable. Everyone seems to have an opinion. While that’s a good thing, it seems to have made us completely intolerant of each other. Having an actual exchange of ideas seems to have gone by the wayside in exchange for hitting each other over the head with our ideas with the expectation that we’ll change someone’s mind.

I can’t tell you how many conversations I’ve had with people in real life and via this blog where people question “how can you think that” or “are you really considering voting for him?” It’s come from both sides. I write this because I’m not some extreme thinker, but because I consider myself pretty middle of the road which continues to get me into trouble. It all started in graduate school where I was getting my master’s degree in social work. I wasn’t liberal enough for that program, but it seems that in my family I’m too liberal. I remind myself often that the “middle” is an artificially created space made by two massively flawed parties.

Perhaps this current phenomenon of the polarizing ideas running around in society can be traced back to our sitting president. After all, the current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue has been a main proponent of the its my way or the highway, your either with us or against us philosophy. It’s hard to say.

I’ve watched every moment of all the debates, read most anything I could, fact checked, and watched my #2 guy Anderson Cooper break it all down. I don’t think that John McCain is a bad guy nor do I think that he would be a bad president. I don’t happen to agree with him on lots of issues..big ones like our war. But, I refuse to use any one issue become the overall decision maker. Despite what many people say, I don’t think that his choice of running mate was a bad one- on the contrary, the most energy that McCain’s campaign ever had was due to Sarah Palin- for better or for worse. I was glad to see a woman on the ticket, but at the end of the day, voting based on gender or race is wrong so if they were trying to win my vote based on Sarah Palin’s gender…that tactic failed.

And, I’ve cast my ballot. It’s been a surprisingly long campaign, and I’m tired.

Whatever happens tomorrow, it’ll be over. So, here’s my vote as a married, 30 something, stay at home mom, advanced degreed, Catholic, hard bodied (anyone actually reading?), upper middle class…according to Wikipedia (don’t read too much into it), Independent voter. I think, for the first time in my voting life, that I’ve voted for the person that’ll win.

 

It's Monday, November 3, 2008

It’s almost the end of the road and, as endings are…its bittersweet. But, I’ll celebrate as I watch the returns tomorrow night with a good dinner and a better bottle of wine.

I like politics even though some people consider that to be odd- so I’ll miss the process.

What won’t I miss? Well, I guess most everything else: constant polling, dirty campaign tactics, and general bad manners. I think that our two candidates have mostly kept their vows to be civilized, but it’s their supporters who I’m most tired of.

The excitement that’s been generated over the course of this campaign has been palatable. Everyone seems to have an opinion. While that’s a good thing, it seems to have made us completely intolerant of each other. Having an actual exchange of ideas seems to have gone by the wayside in exchange for hitting each other over the head with our ideas with the expectation that we’ll change someone’s mind.

I can’t tell you how many conversations I’ve had with people in real life and via this blog where people question “how can you think that” or “are you really considering voting for him?” It’s come from both sides. I write this because I’m not some extreme thinker, but because I consider myself pretty middle of the road which continues to get me into trouble. It all started in graduate school where I was getting my master’s degree in social work. I wasn’t liberal enough for that program, but it seems that in my family I’m too liberal. I remind myself often that the “middle” is an artificially created space made by two massively flawed parties.

Perhaps this current phenomenon of the polarizing ideas running around in society can be traced back to our sitting president. After all, the current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue has been a main proponent of the its my way or the highway, your either with us or against us philosophy. It’s hard to say.

I’ve watched every moment of all the debates, read most anything I could, fact checked, and watched my #2 guy Anderson Cooper break it all down. I don’t think that John McCain is a bad guy nor do I think that he would be a bad president. I don’t happen to agree with him on lots of issues..big ones like our war. But, I refuse to use any one issue become the overall decision maker. Despite what many people say, I don’t think that his choice of running mate was a bad one- on the contrary, the most energy that McCain’s campaign ever had was due to Sarah Palin- for better or for worse. I was glad to see a woman on the ticket, but at the end of the day, voting based on gender or race is wrong so if they were trying to win my vote based on Sarah Palin’s gender…that tactic failed.

And, I’ve cast my ballot. It’s been a surprisingly long campaign, and I’m tired.

Whatever happens tomorrow, it’ll be over. So, here’s my vote as a married, 30 something, stay at home mom, advanced degreed, Catholic, hard bodied (anyone actually reading?), upper middle class…according to Wikipedia (don’t read too much into it), Independent voter. I think, for the first time in my voting life, that I’ve voted for the person that’ll win.

 

Okay, Fine, Coach: Full Disclosure

My brother, the Coach, left me the following comment on this post:

Your point about the “American Dream” and what we relay to our children is well founded but your arguement seems to make a potential loss by B.Obama a single cause/effect event (if he loses it is because he is black ((or bi-racial))). I think that line of thinking is misleading (there are lots of reasons not to vote for him), and it hints at at what has been called “white grief”…the idea that if I dont vote for him it somehow makes me a racist bigot (especially as a white male living in the Deep South ((Roll Tide)). See the following for an “over the top” example…

Well, good luck stumping for B.O. in Utah…I’m sure he needs it.

After I read it, I did something I’ve never done: I deleted the comment. I was pissed. I may be more liberal than my family members, but I don’t treat them like they’re ignorant because they disagree with me. Due to this, the following rapid exchange of emails ensued:

Me (in answer to his comment): I’m not talking about white guilt. When someone says,” I’m not voting for Barack Obama because he is black” or “what would happen if THEY (meaning blacks) got into the White House?” that’s straight up racism. If you read my post, I said I think its great when people vote their conscience on policy issues.

The Coach: “{You Said} as a white person and more importantly a human being, I am sad about this.” I DID read your blog and these type of comments tend to hint at White Guilt…not saying that this is the main topic of the blog, nor is it all I take away from the blog, but there is a HINT of it.

Me: I DO feel bad about blatant racism and that’s what that is/ Nothing to do with white guilt and everything to do with my feeling about societal values. Just like Bill Cosby goes around taking black people to task who choose to do drugs, abandon children, etc. Should we call that BLACK guilt? Or just straight up, good old fashioned common sense.

I deleted your comment because you chose to ignore the main point of my argument (vote for who you want on the real issues) and treated me like a dumb ass. And, its my blog and I’ll do what I want. FYI, its the first time I’ve deleted ANYONE’s comment. So there.

The Coach: I cannot BELIEVE you deleted the comment. You allow people to come on there and call John McCain a “douchebag.” You are blogging about the horror of close mindedness and you choose to delete the comment? I am truly sitting here saying WTF. I would say, “I’m telling Mom, but that would be funny and its not funny b/c I am truly pissed about it. (Editor’s note: By this time, I had already told Mom. Thats just how we roll in this family). Feel bad about whatever you want, but what you did sucks!

Me: Whatever. I’m really pissed about what you wrote too. I was shaking mad. People can say whatever they want to about politicians, but what you wrote implied stupidity on my part. You can disagree with me, but don’t act like I’m ignorant.

The Coach: Well, I would LOVE to be able to go back and read what I wrote (but its in the cyber garbage can, thanks) to see how in the world I could have made an implication that you are stupid. I will, however, not hesitate to do so now based on your actions over the past 30 minutes. For real, you will allow someone to call the person you are not voting for a douchebag, but will not allow my comments which were thought through and benign in comparison. That is straight up off the charts wacko.

Me: People can call politicians whatever, but your comments were not thought through (or maybe they were, they just didn’t have anything to do with my blog entry and the two references that I cited). Your comments are all over the front page, so forget your censorship issues. We’ll see what the blogosphere has to say on this one.

Don’t say that blogging doesn’t bring families closer together…