Christopher Macneil believes the Mormon Church has strayed from a moral path.
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Elders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints:
Granted I am not a member of your church and do not want to be, a disqualifier that probably risks my observations here to be discarded as invalid, irrelevant or whatever other dismissive rationalization you concoct. I am a Catholic and, like your church, mine has its canons and “rules” that I do not and cannot fully embrace.
I am instead an observer of the effort by religion in general to litigate its moral and ethical code to my personal life, a qualifier that I hope lends some credibility and validity to my comments here. As to your church, it apparently is not enough that you exclude same-sex couples from certain church rituals and leadership roles. But that “punishment” now extends to their children whom the church will not bless at birth and subjugates them as “apostates” who cannot be baptized until they are 18 years old – and only after they denounce gay marriages and relationships, or essentially disown their own parents.
You apparently have decided the child who has no responsibility over who his parents love has to pay for the “sins of the father.” This, gentlemen, is neither moral nor ethical and beyond justification. I could go passive aggressive here and challenge your church’s moral and ethical credibility based on the credentials of your church’s founding father, Joseph Smith.
As you recall, Mr. Smith had one legally sanctioned marriage but, as best historians can document so far, he also had 27 other marriages not legally recognized and rationalized as “religious unions.” And there’s that lingering likelihood that Mr. Smith was a polygamist. He also died as an indirect result of polygamy, in a jail that a mob stormed where Smith landed after he and supporters destroyed a newspaper that had criticized his power and practice of polygamy. If he were alive today, Mr. Smith would probably be called a stud muffin or, among religious extremists, a male fornicator.
This, of course, is so-called religious freedom.
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But facts such as these serve only to encourage knee-jerk reactions and miss what I see as the broader implications of your church’s action not only to the Mormon faith but to religion as a whole. Those of us content to respect the belief systems of all people and religions have endured attempts by religious extremists to block what they apparently see as demands by LGBT and other minority communities for “extra” legal rights when, in fact, we ask only for the same rights that non-minority groups have under the law. Unable to stop minority groups from gaining rights in court victories, religious groups and their anti-gay law firms were crafty enough to concoct the theory that so-called Christians are victims of religious persecution by being forced to follow laws that give minorities equal representation and treatment under the law.
This, of course, is so-called religious freedom. And although your church’s action of punishing the children of same-sex parents is not religious freedom in practice, it is religious freedom in principal nonetheless in that you are denying children their right to actively practice their faith. As such, you may well be denying your church the future contributions of the children you seek to victimize today.
In a broader sense, the Mormon Church has inflicted yet another black eye on religion in general and and quite likely damaged the movement to exclude the people whom religious zealots work feverishly to banish. In your church’s case, extending that banishment to children calls your motives into question and begs the question if you act in accordance with the teachings of the God of your church or in your own self-interests of discrimination and bigotry.
The first fabrication was that Ms. Davis had international support in the form of some 10,000 worshipers in Peru praying for her.
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Religion in general and self-anointed apostles who say they are acting as “soldiers” of their God or church have probably already blackened their cause courtesy of Kim Davis, the elected Kentucky clerk who refuses to issue marriage licenses to gay couples. To the relief of many of us, Ms. Davis has kept a low public profile since the discovery that she and the law firm representing her apparently lied to the public on at least two occasions.
The first fabrication was that Ms. Davis had international support in the form of some 10,000 worshipers in Peru praying for her. The photograph lawyers held up as evidence of their claim was later proven to be of a Peruvian religious rally in 2014. Ms. Davis’ second lie was exposed by a more credible and formidable challenger – the Vatican. In Washington coincidentally at the same as Pope Francis during his U.S. visit, Ms. Davis claimed she had a 15-minute private audience with the pope who, she further claimed, told her to “stay strong” and “keep up the good fight.” It turns out Ms. Davis’ so-called private meeting with the pontiff was nothing more than being among dozens of people standing in a reception line waiting to shake his hand.
That your church also apparently attempted to enact your policy of child exclusion without public disclosure puts your credibility and motive in the same gutter that Davis and her attorneys occupy. Is it not true that your new policy was disclosed in a church publication that is circulated only to church leaders and was leaked to the media by a local church leader who had a problem with the policy?
And if and when you decide you need and want that brotherhood, rest assured you will be welcomed and embraced with open arms.
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Despite or maybe in spite of your new policy, though, it really doesn’t matter. You and other religions can certainly slam the door of church rituals and office positions to minorities you decide are unworthy, but there is one thing neither you nor other churches can take from us – our spiritual and personal relationship with the God of whom you have decided we are not worthy. That personal bond to the God of our faith is an active faith, one that we demonstrate visibly for the world to see in how we treat and embrace all people – including those you and other religions of your mentality deem to be the “lesser of our brothers.” Our faith, one of basic humanity and inclusion of all, cannot and will never be banished from or denied by the loss of religious rituals and church positions.
I think those of us whom you and other so-called faiths seek to punish or banish walk a higher ground. We do not declare war on our oppressors-to-be or smear the essence of their lives in court systems or in the media and, instead, bide our time patiently with a prayer that you will someday thirst for inclusion in our group – the brotherhood of man. And if and when you decide you need and want that brotherhood, rest assured you will be welcomed and embraced with open arms.
Above all, we hold the prayer for your church and others like it that you find the faith to put into active practice what Jesus Christ says in Scripture to be the highest of all his commandments: to love all others as he is loved.
It’s doubtful Jesus would approve of your policy of His children.
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Photo Credit: jon collier/flickr