Friday, October 31, 2008

LDS Church Refuses to Accept Petition Letter In California

I just received the following in an email from the "Courage Campaign", who recently collected nearly 17,000 signatures, including mine, on a petition letter to the LDS church to ask them to stop their discrimination against gay people:

"That's right. We brought your letter, signed by 16,935 people, to the Los Angeles Mormon Temple, accompanied by several reporters, our own videographer, and Rev. Eric Lee, President of the Southern Christian Leadership Council (SCLC) of California.

"And the Mormon Church refused to accept your letter to President-Prophet Thomas Monson, asking him to stop the lies, stop the blackmail, and stop dictating public policy to Californians.

"We filmed it all. Like a ping-pong ball, we were bounced back and forth by security guards, a "Yes on 8" coalition member, and a Mormon Church leader who refused to accept your signatures.

"It's clear that the Church and its leaders fear the light of day, the truth, and accountability. Instead, they hide behind security guards and the "Yes on 8" campaign, while intimidating their members into donating as much as $20 milllion to take away fundamental rights from the people of California.

"But we will not stand down.

"You gave us a mandate to hold the Mormon Church accountable. And we will. This weekend, our friends in Salt Lake City will deliver your signatures to the Mormon Church headquarters in Utah.

"We will deliver your signatures to the Mormon Church. You have our word. Now we need to focus on the most important thing we can all do to hold the Mormon Church accountable for their campaign to strip fundamental human rights from millions of Californians:

"Beat them at the ballot box on November 4...

"Thank you for helping us hold the Mormon Church accountable as we work to make 2008 a new era for progressive politics in California."

Rick Jacobs
Chair

Watch this video of Rick Jacobs & Rev. Eric Lee attempting to deliver the letter to the church.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

The Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake City is expressing solidarity with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in response to recent events relating to the passage of Proposition 8 in California.

The Most Reverend John C. Wester, Bishop of the Diocese of Salt Lake City, released a statement today saying:

"In light of recent events, I wish to express the support and solidarity of the Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake City with our brothers and sisters in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

"Recently, both of our churches took a strong stand in California to support Proposition 8 which sought to maintain the traditional definition of marriage as between one man and one woman. Like our friends in the Mormon faith, the Catholic Church has long championed and promoted the sacredness of traditional marriage and the importance of the family in our society.

"While acknowledging that this position is not universally held in our society today, our churches are committed to proclaiming the truth and we cherish our ability to participate in the democratic process.

"It is worth noting that our two churches joined with a wide alliance of people from different faiths and ethnicities including Orthodox, Jews, Evangelicals, Hispanics, African Americans, Asians and Anglos. Our defense of traditional marriage should in no way be interpreted as an attack on any person. To the contrary, we honor the dignity and sacredness of each individual.

"I acknowledge that this is a very controversial topic in society today and that many people have strong feelings regarding the definition of marriage. It is my hope that in the ongoing conversation, both sides would engage the democratic process in mutual respect and acknowledge the right of the other to speak in the public square. One of the hallmarks of our country is that people of different opinions can debate neuralgic issues and at the same time demonstrate respect, civility and courtesy for the other. I pray that this will be the case going forward."

Today's response comes on the heels of a statement last night from Bishop William Weigand, head of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Sacramento and former Bishop of Salt Lake City. It reads in part: "Bigoted attacks on Mormons for the part they played in our coalition are shameful and ignore the reality that Mormon voters were only a small part of the groundswell that supported Proposition 8."

Last night a crowd of 2,000 to 5,000 people marched in downtown Salt Lake to protest the LDS Church's support of California's Proposition 8, which bans gay marriage. That rally and march followed a similar protest a day earlier at the LDS Temple in Los Angeles.

LDS Church leaders responded to the backlash, saying in a statement that it's wrong to target the Church and its sacred places of worship for being part of the democratic process.

See it's not just the LDS church!

Mormon411 said...

Any church that becomes politically involved is wrong. Sure the church should have its view and should stand up for that view. But the LDS church, based in Utah, is running radio and TV ads in California? It's not only them, but that doesn't make it okay. Any church should teach its values to its members and leave it at that. The part that really urks me is that the church will boldly claim that it is not political. Liars!

Oh well, maybe it's a good thing since it has done nothing but put the LDS church in a bad spot light... a place where they hate to be. This issue has turned many of their own against them.

Anonymous said...

The LDS church's involvement in promoting Prop 8 was the last straw for me and many of my family members. We wrote out letters of resignation in October, stating that it was their involvement that gave us a final reason to leave. It took 4 months and several calls from my "bishop" whom I had never met to get the frigging thing processed. We called the member services and they said they were so backlogged with resignation requests and that it was taking longer than the standard week to process our requests. I can't lie, that made me pretty happy. Many families of gay people finally chose their son/daughter/mom/dad over religion! Hooray!

I don't know if you recall the small group of about 40 members who first delivered petitions to the church office building in October (2008). Well my family and I were a part of that. We have since participated in the vigils and protests on temple square. I have family and friends who are gay and I see what Prop 8 has put them through. All the church (LDS and otherwise)involvement has been anything but Christlike. Equality has become a huge passion of mine. I can't wait until the history books report all of this and my grandchildren will one day learn what an asshole Tommy Monson really is.

Mormon411 said...

I know that the proposition 8 issue was the breaking point for many people. It's great to hear that the resignation office is/was swamped with requests. I have not yet officially resigned for reasons of a personal nature which I can't disclose right now.

After years of discrimination against blacks, they finally "came around" even though it was for political reasons. It had nothing to do with revelation.

Now they are doing it again with gays. When will they ever get it right? When will the Mormon god quit being a discriminating asshole?

To be honest though, I'm surprised that the church was as public about the issue as they were. LDS, Inc. hates any form of bad publicity and this one was nation wide!

After all that, I'm surprised that they have any new converts at all!