Sunday, June 20, 2010

Traditional Marriage Amendment A Religious Conspiracy

Many of us in California have wondered who really exercised the gumption to pass Proposition 8, the traditional marriage amendment. And we needed to know who all those homophobes who voted for it were. And at last, the New York Times has provided the answers. It was those horrible Mormons. Without them, gays and lesbians would be living in marital bliss.

It wasn't even a hardworking Times news reporter who finally dug up the truth. It was the movie critic, Stephen Holden. He did so in his review of the new documentary by gay marriage zealots called 8: The Mormon Proposition. Like anti-American leftist movies and phony documentaries such as Michael Moore's, Holden found nothing to criticize in this pure gay marriage screed. His most serious jab was to call it "highly emotional."

Although Holden's review doesn't stand up well against such great works as The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, nevertheless it shares the depiction of a religious belief as the source of all evil. This time, instead of the Jews, it's the Mormons. Although Holden in the past has criticized movies which depicted Muslims as anything more dangerous and doctrinaire than hummus merchants, he seems to have no problem at all in applauding the distortions in the documentary surrounding the Mormons and their support of Prop 8.

Produced by gay activist Reed Cowan and narrated by the screenwriter for Milk, the documentary is almost pure agitprop. Cowan has a particular agenda, since he is both gay and the child of a Mormon family which disapproved of his sexual proclivities. Like all good propaganda, the film contains certain important elements of truth. The Mormon Church did provide considerable funds to the Prop 8 campaign, and individual Mormons were active in promoting the measure. The film also argues that in the final weeks of the campaign, Mormons in Utah contributed $3 million to the campaign. That figure is in dispute, but it's probably not very far from right.

But then Holden goes into full attack mode. "The reason Utah's suicide rate is the highest of any state, the movie suggests, is the Mormon church's absolute rejection of homosexuality, which one church elder calls 'contrary to God's plan.' Chris Buttars, a proudly homophobic Utah state senator, compared male coupling to bestiality. The movie shows the depth of religion-based loathing of homosexuality, like that of abortion, to be primal."

Note the buzzword that has crept into common usage--"homophobic." That suggests a fear of homosexuals (although technically it means a fear of man). But the opponents of gay marriage aren't expressing fear of homosexuals, just disapproval of homosexual acts. That debate is the major theme, with gay marriage as a sidebar.

For emphasis, I'll place the opinion words in the remainder of the review in italics, since they are either outright lies or half-truths. "The film dives angrily into the fray. It uncovers the classified church documents and the largely concealed money trail of Mormon contributions that paid for a high-powered campaign to pass Proposition 8. The Mormon involvement, the film persuasively argues, tilted the vote toward passage by 52 percent to 48 percent in its final weeks."

"That involvement was concealed under the facade of a coalition with Roman Catholics and evangelical Christians [finally, he got to them] called the National Organization for Marriage. The money financed a sophisticated media barrage that involved blogs, Twitter and YouTube videos, as well as scary television ads, and an aggressive door-to-door campaign whose foot soldiers were instructed on how not to appear Mormon."

First of all, not trumpeting your involvement in a campaign is not tantamount to "concealing" it. The coalition was not a facade, it was a well-organized group of people whose religious views oppose gay marriage. Some of what I have described about homosexual activity in San Francisco in my Diary would be "scary" to many average people. And I'm waiting to find out how one "appears not to be Mormon."

As a good liberal, Holden had to leave out a major fact because it would tar a victim group with the same label as the white bigots he so despises. The African-American voters supported the measure at the voting booth by 70 percent to 30 percent, the highest anti-gay marriage vote of any group. Now that, Al Gore, is an inconvenient truth. Though many other liberal film critics had some favorable things to say, most were honest enough to admit that the "documentary" was entirely one-sided. Not Holden.

The same critic who can find nothing to criticize in movies depicting Muslims as innocents who never practice female circumcision, oppression of women, mass murder in support of their religious evangelism, and dishonesty toward everyone who does not subscribe to Islam, finds a great deal to hate in Mormons. It's been over a hundred years since any Mormon sect acted violently toward anyone with differing views, but to listen to Holden, you'd think a gay pogrom was about to occur any day now. In fact, all the Mormons did in this matter was to spend time, money and effort to oppose an institution that is opposed throughout most of the world, and is treated as a capital offense in his much-beloved Muslim lands.

14 comments:

AndrewPrice said...

This doesn't surprise me at all. Illogic, hate and groupthink are almost trademarks of the left these days. And the left has been at war with religion ever since Marx said that "Religion is the opiate of the masses." (Coincidentally, flatulence is the opiate of the socialist elite.)

I just never knew that all those black voters who pushed Proposition 8 over the top were Mormons? Who knew?

LL said...

So over 50% of people in California are Mormons? Or maybe they're saying that Mormons are 40% of the California population and the other 15% who voted for the defense of marriage were simply duped?

I'd be SHOCKED if the Mormon population in California is much over a couple percent.

Most Californians are tolerant of other races, of all religions and of people's practices in their faith and in their lives.

Gay marriage opened a pandora's box.

At the time, I spoke with Gay people and asked them why they simply didn't ask for changes in the law that covers inheritance, who can and can't visit somebody in the hospital, and for insurance that would cover you + 1 irrespective of gender, etc. (of course rates would go up) An initiative such as that without the use of the word "marriage" would have passed in California and the homosexual community would have obtained what it is that they say they wanted.

The bottom line is the gay folks can't even pass their marriage amendment in uber liberal California. Who to blame -- oh, yeah, it's the Mormons! And as Andrew said, they can blame black people too - and the Catholics - and the illegal aliens (who do vote in California) who are all anti-gay.

Maybe the Gay Community needs to oppose illegal immigration! ...and see if they can get black people to move to another state so they won't be present to vote down their next run at a gay marriage law.

Anonymous said...

Andrew: The popular expression today is "the demonized other." We used to call it "the common enemy." But the trick is always to pick a powerful, but not too powerful group who has opposed your views, then attack, attack, attack. Get the attention off your agenda and get people paying attention to those masters of evil who oppose you.

Anonymous said...

LL: You caught one of the major flaws in their argument. There are many Mormons in California, and they have two major centers (Temples). One in L.A. and the other in Oakland. But no way do they comprise a sufficient portion of the electorate to have turned "good thinking people" into "mindless homophobes." But the last thing liberals want to do is offend special victim groups, so they simply lie or distort the facts about the black community's solid opposition to gay marriage.

Anonymous said...

NOTE: For those of you who might have trouble reading the words on the cartoon, you should be able to simply click on the picture to have it enlarged to readable proportions. Most (not all) of our illustrations work that way.

AndrewPrice said...

Lawhawk, That seems to be all the left has these days -- hate. That's what happens when your theories turn out to be total garbage. It's just easier to assume you failed because enemies undid you than it is to admit that you were wrong in the first place.


LL, You're trying to use logic where there ain't no logic! Mormons are the bad guys, so who cares if they aren't 51% of the population.

That said, you're absolutely right that they could have gotten everything except the word "marriage," but that was never what this was about.

Anonymous said...

Andrew: And for a bunch of people who pretend to love everybody and everything, liberals are mighty haters. They call us "mean-spirited," but we're positively pleasant compared to their venom.

You're absolutely right about the gay marriage amendment in California--it wasn't about gay marriage at all. That was just the facade the left put on it to disguise the real agenda--the destruction of traditional marriage and a new way to eliminate religion from society by controlling it from Sacramento.

Unknown said...

LawHawk. I noticed a couple of news reports recently saying that the pro gay marriage organizers have abandoned the idea of putting an anti-Prop 8 measure on the November ballot. For those of us who have no problem with domestic partnerships, but want the government to keep its hands off marriage and religion, that's a good sign.

Anonymous said...

CalFed: We've discussed that issue more than once on this site. And as Andrew pointed out, they could have everything they want by simply taking the word "marriage" out of the legislation.

The organizers did their polling and found out that if they proceeded now, the anti-incumbent, anti-liberal, anti-big government attitude of the electorate would cause them to lose by an even bigger margin than Prop 8 got. They decided to wait to see what happens in court, and whether they'll be able to thwart the people's will without having to bother with voting and all that democratic nonsense.

Tennessee Jed said...

I have always liked Mormons although admit exposure has mostly limited to Donnie and Marie and Julianne Hough. Johnny Miller is kind of an ass as well, I suppose. The real issue to me has always been the legal implications of marriage, whether that be tax breaks or many others. I do want people to not be legally penalized for their orientationBut the point of your post is the unfair blasting of Mormons by a gay, lib, fakumentary fim maker. Holden will probably be given a special Nobel swish award for this astoundingly bull crap film.

StanH said...

“Marriage” is a religious ceremony, and for the liberals, it’s the ultimate stick in the eye to traditionalist America. I believe gay people should have every right short of marriage.

Anonymous said...

Tennessee: The tax breaks that encourage traditional marriage are obviously part of the deal, and I have no opinion either way of how that should be dealt with. The underlying purpose of gay marriage zealotry is not "marriage" at all. It's a way of turning a religious function into a state function which can then control the religions. I've said may times that I have no problem with gays entering into a state-sanctioned version of traditional marriage, nor would I object to them finding some church that would "sanctify" the union. But by insisting on the use of the word "marriage," the people behind the movement are already smacking their lips at the future lawsuits requiring a traditional church to perform a marriage that violates church doctrine.

They would use either general principles of constitutional equality, or specific "civil rights" or "human rights" law to cripple and ultimately kill off religion as we (and the Founders) knew it. This is not mere surmise on my part, since it is already happening in Canada. Fortunately, for the time being, we still have the First Amendment right to the free exercise of religion. The left is working hard to eliminate that, and gay marriage is merely one of the major fronts.

Anonymous said...

Stan: They already have every right except the word "marriage" in California. A large number of gays (perhaps even a majority) are perfectly happy with that. It is the anti-religion zealots who are pushing this agenda, and many of them are neither gay nor care much about whether gays can have a marital relationship or not. This is all about destroying religion and replacing it with the state. The Mormons were merely a convenient target in this battle, largely because even liberal Catholics are getting a bit tired of their church being accused of being the source of all bigotry and evil. So now it's the Mormons' turn in the barrel.

btw said...

Maybe these groups should go to the Peerless Potentate in the White House and get him to sue California.

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