buckeye
2008-10-24 08:57:24 UTC
Prop. 8: Whose Traditional Marriage Does It Protect?
http://www.californiaprogressreport.com/2008/10/prop_8_whose_tr.html
[excerpt]
Schrag.gifBy Peter Schrag
According to the best estimates, the big money campaign for Proposition 8,
the initiative banning gay marriage, has collected over $9.4 million from
members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), roughly
46 percent of the $20 million-plus raised in large contributions so far.
That, needless to say, is the largest amount from any single category of
contributors.
The sponsors of the November ballot measure call themselves defenders of
traditional marriage. But what version of traditional marriage do the
Mormon contributors have in mind?
Is it the traditional marriage of Mormon Church founder Joseph Smith who,
according to one Mormon site was sealed to 28 women before his death,
though it is not clear how many he cohabited with.
Sealed, according to the same site, means married in the Church not only
for the duration of this life, but forever. Smith apparently first resisted
the idea of polygamy but was then persuaded that God ordained it.
Or was the exemplar of traditional marriage Mormon leader Brigham Young,
the second prophet of the church, who, in the 1860s and 1870s, had 57
children by 16 women? So is traditional marriage one between one man and
one woman, or a man and 16 women, or maybe 28? Joseph Smith called it
celestial marriage.
Utah, the Zion, where the church settled after its members were harassed
and persecuted in the Midwest, was admitted to the Union in 1896 on
condition that it prohibit polygamy. But the church, under continuous
pressure from Congress and from U.S. marshals seizing church property,
didnt officially end it until 1904, when the then-prophet got word from
God that He wanted plural marriage to stop.
The church says it now excommunicates polygamists, and presumably few have
kicked in to the Proposition 8 campaign. But as the news of the past year
made clear, there are still polygamists running around in the hills of the
southwest, including a few, it appears, with underage wives, who claim to
be the real Mormons.
The point of all this is not to wander into the twists and turns of church
history and doctrine, much less to cast doubts on it, only to question the
right of any organization thats twice changed its mind about marriage to
try to impose its current beliefs about traditional marriage on others.
Is this a campaign organized by the LDS Church? The contributions of
Mormons appear to be all from individuals. But as with the campaign to pass
California Proposition 22 in 2000, which banned gay marriage until it was
overturned earlier this year by the state Supreme Court, it takes only a
formal letter or two from Salt Lake City to energize the faithful.
And theres more. According to the Salt-Lake City Tribune, quoting a
campaign spokesman, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is
making arrangements for Californians living in Utah to call friends,
family and fellow-citizens in California to urge support of the effort to
defend traditional marriage."
It wasnt until 1978, just thirty years ago, that yet another revelation
to Mormon leaders told them that blacks were now eligible for the Mormon
priesthood, a title that had been open to all white males since the
churchs founding in 1830.
[end excerpt]
***************************************************************
You are invited to check out the following:
The Rise of the Theocratic States of America
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/theocracy.htm
American Theocrats - Past and Present
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/theocrats.htm
The Constitutional Principle: Separation of Church and State
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/index.html
[and to join the discussion group for the above site and/or Separation of
Church and State in general, listed below]
HRSepCnS · Historical Reality SepChurch&State
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HRSepCnS/
***************************************************************
. . . You can't understand a phrase such as "Congress shall make no law
respecting an establishment of religion" by syllogistic reasoning. Words
take their meaning from social as well as textual contexts, which is why "a
page of history is worth a volume of logic." New York Trust Co. v. Eisner,
256 U.S. 345, 349, 41 S.Ct. 506, 507, 65 L.Ed. 963 (1921) (Holmes, J.).
Sherman v. Community Consol. Dist. 21, 980 F.2d 437, 445 (7th Cir. 1992)
. . .
****************************************************************
USAF LT. COL (Ret) Buffman (Glen P. Goffin) wrote
"You pilot always into an unknown future;
facts are your only clue. Get the facts!"
That philosophy 'snipit' helped to get me, and my crew, through a good
many combat missions and far too many scary, inflight, emergencies.
It has also played a significant role in helping me to expose the
plethora of radical Christian propaganda and lies that we find at
almost every media turn.
*****************************************************************
THE CONSTITUTIONAL PRINCIPLE:
SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/index.html
****************************************************************
http://www.californiaprogressreport.com/2008/10/prop_8_whose_tr.html
[excerpt]
Schrag.gifBy Peter Schrag
According to the best estimates, the big money campaign for Proposition 8,
the initiative banning gay marriage, has collected over $9.4 million from
members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), roughly
46 percent of the $20 million-plus raised in large contributions so far.
That, needless to say, is the largest amount from any single category of
contributors.
The sponsors of the November ballot measure call themselves defenders of
traditional marriage. But what version of traditional marriage do the
Mormon contributors have in mind?
Is it the traditional marriage of Mormon Church founder Joseph Smith who,
according to one Mormon site was sealed to 28 women before his death,
though it is not clear how many he cohabited with.
Sealed, according to the same site, means married in the Church not only
for the duration of this life, but forever. Smith apparently first resisted
the idea of polygamy but was then persuaded that God ordained it.
Or was the exemplar of traditional marriage Mormon leader Brigham Young,
the second prophet of the church, who, in the 1860s and 1870s, had 57
children by 16 women? So is traditional marriage one between one man and
one woman, or a man and 16 women, or maybe 28? Joseph Smith called it
celestial marriage.
Utah, the Zion, where the church settled after its members were harassed
and persecuted in the Midwest, was admitted to the Union in 1896 on
condition that it prohibit polygamy. But the church, under continuous
pressure from Congress and from U.S. marshals seizing church property,
didnt officially end it until 1904, when the then-prophet got word from
God that He wanted plural marriage to stop.
The church says it now excommunicates polygamists, and presumably few have
kicked in to the Proposition 8 campaign. But as the news of the past year
made clear, there are still polygamists running around in the hills of the
southwest, including a few, it appears, with underage wives, who claim to
be the real Mormons.
The point of all this is not to wander into the twists and turns of church
history and doctrine, much less to cast doubts on it, only to question the
right of any organization thats twice changed its mind about marriage to
try to impose its current beliefs about traditional marriage on others.
Is this a campaign organized by the LDS Church? The contributions of
Mormons appear to be all from individuals. But as with the campaign to pass
California Proposition 22 in 2000, which banned gay marriage until it was
overturned earlier this year by the state Supreme Court, it takes only a
formal letter or two from Salt Lake City to energize the faithful.
And theres more. According to the Salt-Lake City Tribune, quoting a
campaign spokesman, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is
making arrangements for Californians living in Utah to call friends,
family and fellow-citizens in California to urge support of the effort to
defend traditional marriage."
It wasnt until 1978, just thirty years ago, that yet another revelation
to Mormon leaders told them that blacks were now eligible for the Mormon
priesthood, a title that had been open to all white males since the
churchs founding in 1830.
[end excerpt]
***************************************************************
You are invited to check out the following:
The Rise of the Theocratic States of America
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/theocracy.htm
American Theocrats - Past and Present
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/theocrats.htm
The Constitutional Principle: Separation of Church and State
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/index.html
[and to join the discussion group for the above site and/or Separation of
Church and State in general, listed below]
HRSepCnS · Historical Reality SepChurch&State
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HRSepCnS/
***************************************************************
. . . You can't understand a phrase such as "Congress shall make no law
respecting an establishment of religion" by syllogistic reasoning. Words
take their meaning from social as well as textual contexts, which is why "a
page of history is worth a volume of logic." New York Trust Co. v. Eisner,
256 U.S. 345, 349, 41 S.Ct. 506, 507, 65 L.Ed. 963 (1921) (Holmes, J.).
Sherman v. Community Consol. Dist. 21, 980 F.2d 437, 445 (7th Cir. 1992)
. . .
****************************************************************
USAF LT. COL (Ret) Buffman (Glen P. Goffin) wrote
"You pilot always into an unknown future;
facts are your only clue. Get the facts!"
That philosophy 'snipit' helped to get me, and my crew, through a good
many combat missions and far too many scary, inflight, emergencies.
It has also played a significant role in helping me to expose the
plethora of radical Christian propaganda and lies that we find at
almost every media turn.
*****************************************************************
THE CONSTITUTIONAL PRINCIPLE:
SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/index.html
****************************************************************