The LDS church announced yesterday that they support a Salt Lake City law that would prohibit discrimination against gays in housing and employment. Prop 8 was painful on both sides, but I'd like to believe that no matter how a person feels about gay marriage, surely we can all agree that no one should be fired or not be able to get a job or housing simply because he or she has attractions that were not chosen. Read all about it:
LDS Newsroom
LA Times
NY Times
Wall Street Journal
Deseret News
SL Tribune
Huffington Post
Here's another article that I'm adding to the mix, sent to me by a friend. It's by Andrew Sullivan at The Atlantic
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
i saw that and it made me happy.
ReplyDeletenow if only all the other states that have unfair laws would catch on...
I'm glad that the church voiced its support of these anti-discrimination city ordinance in SLCs. The church deserves some credit for a good move. But I remain skeptical. This comes on the heels of talks by Elder Hafen and Elder Oaks that send far different messages. And it keeps the discussion of homosexuality in the political and legal realms rather than in the realm of ministering to people on a human level where it belongs for a significant religious institution.
ReplyDeleteAndrew Sullivan shouldn't get too giddy. He hasn't met some of the people in wards and stakes where I've lived. Granted, most Mormons are not nasty, but some are to be sure. We sometimes destroy our own. Maybe it's just that "outsiders" don't see it, or Sullivan knows some extremely nasty people that makes even the worst of us Mormons look tame by comparison, or I've just not been very lucky with some of the people I've known.
Perhaps this is a positive trend. And maybe it signals a willingness in the leadership of the church to have an honest dialogue with gay people, both in and out of the church, rather than the historic pattern of making pronouncements. It's worth hoping for.
I think we all can agree on this. A few points. I don't think the church was motivated to do this with any agenda other then this was the right thing to do.
ReplyDeleteI think that the reason that most gay activists have been so negative about the church coming out on their side is that a lot of these people are used to doing this with underlying motives and strings attached. They can't understand doing the right thing because its right and feel that there has to be a reason for it.
I maintain that if a person understands the true doctrine of the church, they would expect the church to come out in favor of things that protect temporal rights such as housing and employment. These things are basic. They aren't doctrinal or eternal in nature.
But of course there is the element of "it's either all or nothing" or "if you love me you will love everything I do and change what you believe in to do so" that many people within the gay community subscribe to. That's selfish and is as what Elder Bednar referred to as the "Tyranny of tolerance."
This wasn't motivated by politics or anything other then it was just the right thing to do.