For reasons I have not been able to really understand I have had a history of difficulty with the Mormon community up here in Alaska. I will not bother going into details as they were all unrelated incidents and I do not believe that there is any conspiracy afoot. At least not yet.
And having said that I would like to assure my visitors that I harbor no ill will toward the Mormons, or any other religious belief.
For instance I would never enter the temple in Salt Lake City and proclaim "You think that you each get your own planet? Really?" nor would I say "Now that DNA testing has proven that the Book of Mormon is completely wrong about the Native American people being descended from Jewish people, doesn't that make the rest of the book equally hard to believe?"
I would never do that. I would never enter anybody's house of worship and disrespect their beliefs. It is just not a civilized way to conduct yourself.
However when believers step out of their church, or temple, or synagogue, and start to tell other people that who hey are allowed to love, or what they are allowed to believe, or what they are allowed to learn, well then we have a problem.
And what they are doing in California is wrong, they have no right to inflict their beliefs on other people. Simply put it is just not a civilized way to conduct yourself.
This spring my 16 year old daughter and her friend were followed out of the Loussac Library in Anchorage by several Mormon youth ministers. These young men were offering to explain the Mormom religion and had the power to bless the girls.
ReplyDeleteMy daughter felt chased and so I contacted the Mormon Missionary office here in Anchorage. The Bishop in charge noted that following young girls was entirely ordinary and something these missionaries were supposed to do.
The librarian had other thoughts, since the library rules forbid solicitation in any part, in the building or the parking lot. Since the youth ministers hang out at the library on Mondays, please be aware and contact a security guard if you feel they are pressuring you to hear about the Mormon religion.
Oh, so polygamy and forced marriage is okay, but not gay marriage?
ReplyDeleteI just can't understand why this is someone else's business - I don't understand at all how these people think - I guess I should be happy about that, eh?
Thanks for the post.
And don't forget that the Mormon church gave $1m in the effort to the exact same thing in Alaska in 1998. And Alaskans bought the message.
ReplyDeleteIt's frsutrating that this can go on when America is preparing to elect its first black president... but even Obama won't affirmatively support marriage equality for gay and lesbian people--because of his religious beliefs.
This is a BIG problem in the USA. It is so very different over here. And I am so glad to know it's possible to live where religion's tyrany is historical.
ot: this is hilarious
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bh9BmNuqeiQ
Hockey Mama for Obama
Lynne
Lucky me :) A Mormon found your blog and realized that people really don't know what they are talking about when they talk about Mormons.
ReplyDeleteNow I need to get a couple of things straight before my comments. I am a convert to the church. I grew up in NYC/NJ area with a Catholic father and a Jewish mother. We are a very small family on my mom's side and my Uncle and Cousin are gay. I also have several gay friends. So I do not hate gay people.
Now let me, in way that I hope is not too confrontational. I happen to be a mixture of Italian, Russian and German so I admit to being a bit opinionated.
So lets start with polygamy... OK Jean? Do you know that history of it? No? Shocker!
The United States army attacked the Mormons and killed off so many of the men that they instituted the law of polygamy. Sure there were men who took multiple wives outside of this group, but most of the "extra" wives were those of men who had been killed and the man that married her was to take care of her.
Many of them never had sex. Sorry to disappoint. When it was made illegal the church and its members stopped.
So there is a bit of a difference.
Every 16-year-old girl I knew when I was a young man felt chased if she was lucky.
Lori, your daughter should be happy she is chaseable... because she could be very unchaseable!
Jay is smart... he/she moved to a place that fits his/her lack of morality.
Look, I have some very important people I am close to who are gay, but marriage is a religious ceremony and not a legal one. The civil union part of the marriage is the legal portion.
I believe gay people can get civil unions. If so, do that and then have a ceremony... that's what Mormons do.
We believe that the legal and spiritual are not the same and when the legal is dissolved the spiritual isn't always allowed to be severed.
Since marriage is a religious ceremony most of everyone else doesn't understand why gay people can't just create their own ceremony.
Now a quick thought about DNA. Ummm... DNA testing has not been perfected and another DNA has eliminated is the chance that there is a missing link... ooh ahhh.
Human have no DNA link to any monkeys or gorillas. You are also wrong about your comments since most DNA testing has linked everyone to Africa and the Middle East. Ooops.
I am not sure where you got your information from, but my wife's grandpa happens to have been one of the leading researchers in areas and several friends still chat with my mother-in-law. So we are in fact a little more caught up than the average folks.
Now I can't believe you brought up telling others what to do.
I do believe that there have been some marches for gay rights going on... for about twenty years. Is that not telling people what they should understand or what they need to know? I think so.
Gay activist groups and gay individuals spent over $35 million on ads for the whole Vote yes on 8!
OVER $35 MILLION... and that isn't telling people how they should believe? If a person is part of a religion that believes being gay is wrong why should gay people be able to enter their living rooms, but the church can't enter the living rooms of the gay people?
Getting arrested means you acted in a way that was deemed uncivilized and yet there were quite a few gay people detained after their marching the other day... so who isn't civilized?
So you are a bit hypocritical with your statements and your sarcasm is not the best, but what can we all ask for?
Where do mormon churches get moste of their money. Well same as any other "from the government" any statements made that depleat their handouts is like going against all working americans. Yeah people should be angry to see that their church is telling the followers what to say n do to others. The more people they get the more government grant will be. So when you natives out there feel the uncanny racisim that they bestow on you. Its actually just as a simple conversation." Bullies never go far" actions speak too:) whats written and pushed towards the public can be dealt with too. Racisim is dealt with with words said and on paper. Count how many books with the racisit words about native americans and black people in their bible. I am not a stain! Im american dammit! More american than any raceist religion. Oh im sorry, cult.
Deleteum, Call me Mid, as a non-heterosexual and active Mormon historian, there were been less than a hundred Mormon males martyred during the entire Polygamy period, and none of those were killed by the US Army.
ReplyDeleteTo head of this blog, I've been researching on the twenty million donations thing all day and have yet to find a source. Did you get it from No on 8 or somewhere else? It's proving remarkably difficult to track down!
Oh, and Jay, if memory serves, the donations to Alaska were either 600,000 or 60,000. I can't remember the zeroes.
Lori: I'll admit, that's creepy. Especially since mormon Missionaries (if that's what you mean by youth ministers) are told specifically in their handbook of rules not to talk to members of the opposite sex who are their age or younger.
Have a nice day!
CALL me mid....Wow, you are crazy arent you!
ReplyDelete