Anti-Gay LDS Activities     

I am deeply distressed that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is being marched up to the edge of public embarrassment and scandal. Deaf ears are tuning out the voices of those who warn of the danger, and the vacuous rationalizations of Philip de Rochambeau (Salt Lake Tribune, October 17, 1999, "Favoring Traditional Marriage Does Not Mean an Anti-Gay Philosophy") are an uncertain trumpet diverting attention from real dangers to the church.

Mormon forces were once mobilized to defeat ERA, but the movement toward full equality between sexes continues to march invincibly forward. The tactical ERA battle was won, but it has long been clear that the strategic war against gender equality will eventually be lost.

The same tale will one day be told of current battles over same-sex marriage and the legitimization of same-sex relationships. They will one day be accepted as both moral and spiritual, and gays and lesbians will -- like Mormons of African descent -- be offered a place in the Mormon community.

But what is the cost to the church and its members of fighting wars that will be lost?

Same-sex marriage is already not lawful in California. Same-sex marriage is unlike to be approved by the state legislature. The Knight initiative would merely add the word "only" to the law, and even then there is little assurance that that single word will allow the state to not recognize the same-sex marriages that will one day be permitted in other states and nations.

Few dispute the right and duty of the church to speak forth on moral issues; Catholic bishops have just affirmed the obligation of Catholics to comment on what they see as moral issues. But many believing Mormons have privately questioned the moral propriety of covert General Authority efforts to orchestrate "personal and voluntary" contributions to California’s "Defense of Marriage Initiative." Instead of issuing a public statement supporting the Knight initiative, the California Area Presidency sent a letter to be furtively read only to adult members of local church congregations. Instead of urging members to contribute directly to the Committee to Protect Traditional Marriage, elaborate arrangements were made to have local church authorities receive and bundle contributions off of church property so as to preserve the fiction that the contributions were not coming from the church. This arrangement also allowed church authorities to record who had contributed how much to the efforts.

Those who have followed the many internet reports coming from stakes and wards across the state have concluded that the Mormon Church had set a goal of raising $4 million dollars from California church members for the Committee by August 31. There have also been reports of contributions being made from out-of-state Mormons.

A number of mid-October reports indicate, however, that many wards and stakes have been having difficulty meeting their "personal and voluntary" assessments, even with the extra month and a half time. These grass-roots reports indicate short-falls are averaging 25-30% of asked-for contributions.

Mormon contributions, however, are still estimated to be many times larger than either official Catholic donations ($311,000) to the anti-same-sex marriage cause ($3.9 million), or total donations to the committee opposing the Knight initiative ($867,000). As in the Hawaii and Alaska same-sex marriage battles, Mormon money alone is expected to be many times more than the funds available to support same-sex marriage.

A video featuring personal appeals for support and contributions from three of the church’s senior Apostles was originally scheduled to be shown in California to combined priesthood and Relief Society meetings on Sunday, October 10th. The plan was canceled a few days before the 10th, and the video presentations were rescheduled out of chapels and into private homes, all in an apparent effort to create an appearance of church noninvolvement.

Wards have also been instructed to field 50 volunteers each to spend 20 hours canvassing neighborhoods to identify voters likely to support the Knight initiative. Initial reports from the field indicate some are responding with enthusiasm, but many others are finding themselves too busy or lacking in interest. One stake coordinator is now desperately appealing for help from anyone willing to devote even four or five hours to the cause.

Several General Authorities have publicly and privately declared that Mormon support for the Knight initiative should not been seen as a gay-hostile move. "We do not wish...to be their adversary," Elder Douglas Callister is quoted as saying. President Gordon B. Hinckley has declared that gay and lesbian individuals "are welcome in the Church," but his former associates are being excommunicated and their appeals being coldly rejected.

"Bishop" de Rochambeau sees the "floodgates open for an increasingly gay friendly LDS Church." Many local members and leaders are indeed increasingly gay friendly, but the message coming from 47 East South Temple is heard by many as a declaration of war against the same-sex attracted and not as a defense of the heterosexual family.

There is tremendous irony in that advocates of same-sex marriage wish to embed their relationships in the traditional values of Judaic-Christian marriage, while their opponents focus instead, not on traditional family values, but on the nuclear family forms of 1950’s TV sit-coms.

The rise of internet communications ensures that nothing of general interest will long be kept secret or confidential. In spite of court injunctions against the Tanners, the Church Handbook of Instructions is in fact widely and inevitably available. In spite of church efforts to hide the extent of its involvement in the DOMI issue, its machinations will continue to be revealed, and the church will face repeated and unfortunate public relations embarrassments and scandals.

I pray the church’s leadership style will be informed less by the Inquistion's need to control and more by the exemplary warm and inclusive openness of Jesus.