Proposition 8 was the last straw.
I've had it with the Mormon church -- and all churches, really -- interfering in politics. If they honestly believe that's what God wants them to do, they can give up their tax-exempt status, file as PACs and get down in the dirt with the rest of us. Until then, I don't want to hear a damn thing about electoral politics out of any of them.
The recent backlash against the Mormon Church for their massive spending on Proposition 8 in California has provoked this comment:
"Church spokeswoman Kim Farah said in a statement Friday that it is 'disturbing' that the church is being singled out for exercising its right to speak out in a free election."
What Kim doesn't seem to understand is that church's don't have a right to speak out in elections. That's why they get the tax breaks. That's why they get sanctuary status. That's why they're churches and not private corporations with the constructive person status granted to corporations under the 14th Amendment and, consequently, the right to free speech. If they want to be private corporations, or free individuals or something other than churches, that's fine. They can say whatever they want and pay taxes like everyone else. Otherwise, they need to shut their pie holes and -- and this is the real crux of the argument -- NOT spend millions of dollars on an advertising campaign enforcing their agenda of hate on the decent tax-paying gay citizens of California.
The Mormon Church's actions in the California Proposition 8 campaign reduces this so-called church to the level of a bigoted hate group with delusions of divine inspiration.
Boycott Utah tourism. If you're a Mormon, it's time to reconsider your approach to tithing. If you have investments in Utah or in Mormon enterprises, it's time to divest. We need to send a message, not just to the Church of Latter Day Saints, but to all churches: this kind of direct interference in the electoral politics of the state they are supposedly separate from will not be tolerated.
I suppose it's the right of all churches to preach an ideology of hate, but it's just as much our right -- and our obligation, as moral beings -- to refuse to support them in that endeavor.
Posted by Joshua at November 9, 2008 12:59 AM