You’ve got to feel bad for the Mormon Church: Sometimes homosexuals make out on their property, costing them tens of tens of dollars to erect new signage. So it’s not our fault LDS reminds us more and more of that devil baby Chucky: They’re so cute and adorable, always seeking attention and approval, but will gauge your eyes out just when you offer to share your popsicle. Or maybe LDS is more like Carrie: Always playing the victim, and capable of a helluva lot of damage. Yes, let’s stick with the Carrie analogy, because top Mormon official Elder Dallin Oaks, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve, just got done explaining how the Mormon Church is the real victim in all this gay stuff.
Yes, LDS has claimed victimhood before, and it was no less ridiculous then as it was last night when Oaks told an audience at Brigham Young University that, uh, Mormon is the new black. Yes, in the aftermath of Prop 8, the gays’ backlash against LDS has pitted the church into the role of African-Americans during the 1960s civil rights movement.
Stop rolling your eyes! Yes, Oaks did just compare his organization — which advocates discrimination — to the plight of second-class blacks during Jim Crow.
In an interview Monday before the speech, Oaks said he did not consider it provocative to compare the treatment of Mormons in the election’s aftermath to that of blacks in the civil rights era, and said he stands by the analogy.
“It may be offensive to some — maybe because it hadn’t occurred to them that they were putting themselves in the same category as people we deplore from that bygone era,” he said.
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Some of the most pointed comments in Oaks’ Tuesday address focus on Proposition 8. Oaks said the free exercise of religion is threatened by those who believe it conflicts with “the newly alleged ‘civil right’ of same-gender couples to enjoy the privileges of marriage.”
“Those who seek to change the foundation of marriage should not be allowed to pretend that those who defend the ancient order are trampling on civil rights,” Oaks said. “The supporters of Proposition 8 were exercising their constitutional right to defend the institution of marriage …”
Oaks said that while “aggressive intimidation” connected to Proposition 8 was primarily directed at religious people and symbols, “it was not anti-religious as such.” He called the incidents “expressions of outrage against those who disagreed with the gay-rights position and had prevailed in a public contest.”
“As such, these incidents of ‘violence and intimidation’ are not so much anti-religious as anti-democratic,” he said. “In their effect they are like well-known and widely condemned voter-intimidation of blacks in the South that produced corrective federal civil-rights legislation.”
We don’t need to flag all the red herrings in Oaks’ argument (particularly about this “alleged” civil right), but let’s make this clear: While Oaks believes the anti-gay sentiment is “directly comparable to the intimidation of black people in the South for asserting their civil rights,” he is, horrifically and unmistakably, wrong.
Black Americans did not endorse discrimination in the 50s and 60s; they (and we) fought against it. Gay Americans do not endorse discrimination (even the religious type!); we are fighting against it.
The Mormon Church, however, is advocating for discrimination, and crying wolf when they get criticized for it. This is very different.
That the nation is becoming less and less a place for hate and divisiveness is a positive thing. It’s just a shame folks like Oaks don’t understand their mentality increasingly exists only on the fringe, and will quickly wind up in the same category as white supremacism and anti-Semitism.
schlukitz
Victimization seems to be the core value of just about all religions.
Someone was done wrong, Christ getting nailed to a cross, for instance, and a whole religion springs up around it.
Then they spend all of their time, money and effort victimizing everyone else in the world that they disagree with, don’t approve of or just downright hate for no good reason.
Cam
That is the Mormon M.O. They always like to claim to be the powerless victims. Interesting though, I would like to ask the members of the LDS church this. Compare the numbers of Mormons in state and Federal Govt. with the number of openly gay people. The entire Utah Delegation, as well as several other senators are Mormon, Mitt Romney almost got the Nomination for President and he is Mormon. So the Mormons can pretend to be victims all they want, but if they were such victims and so powerless then how did they manage to convince the state of CA. to back their adgenda. they sound pretty powerfull to me.
They used the same “we are such victims” when they were attacked for not letting blacks into their church. They ALWAYS say that others pointing out their bigotry or racism makes them the victims.
rudy
Same tactic used by Right Wing Evangelicals, Southern Whites, the Vatican, Glen Beck, even – it’s just so unfair that we get criticized for persecuting people!
rodney
Cam, The Mormons are powerful, and trust me; Prop 8 was nothing more than a show of force. The Mormons are an international Church intertwined into Governments and social groups the world over. There are more Mormons than there are Jews, and they might even be more wealthy. Explain to me how Mormons being less than 2% of the California population “duped” 52% of Californians into voting for Prop 8? Sounds a little far fetched to me to put the blame on Mormons alone and give the blacks and hispanics a free pass. Explain also how the anti-Prop 8 group outspent the pro-Prop 8 side AND STILL LOST!!!!! The more you push Mormons into the spotlight the more powerful they become. For every person that opposes the Mormon stance on marriage there are 3 that agree with it. If you only knew what you were fighting against you’d tuck your tails and run for your lives.
rodney
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dallin_H._Oaks
Pretty impressive resume. I’d say this guy has a pretty good understanding of the law than queerty does.
walt
Yeah Rodney, nice try, but we’re not tucking our tails and running. Sorry.
Bertie
Vile bigots playing the victim card — with no problem over their sin of TV commercials layered with outright LIES.
didn’t the early Mormons slaughter countless Native Americans?
boo fucking hoo
Atleast now mainstream america is more aware of their idiotic , racist, bigoted beliefs…and powerful government tampering.
see ya in the celestial kingdom, bitches !!
Fuck The Mormons
Fuck The Osmonds
Fuck Utah
Fuck Y’all
AlanInUtah
No.5-Rodney: Who’s side are you on?
Mike
LDS is the new KKK.
GeoffM
How ironic a ‘church’ who refused to let blacks hold the priesthood until their 1970s ‘revelation’ would now use them as an example for their own benefit.
Cam
“”Explain to me how Mormons being less than 2% of the California population “duped” 52% of Californians into voting for Prop 8?”The more you push Mormons into the spotlight the more powerful they become…For every person that opposes the Mormon stance on marriage there are 3 that agree with it.
_______________
Sorry Rodney, you are wrong on this….let me explain.
1. How did the Mormons effect Prop 8? Easy, they donated a fortune in money ran ads and…and this is the important part, drafted huge humbers of people to walk door to door and talk about how gay marraige was going to harm children.
2. You claim the more you push Mormons into the spotlight the more powerful they become. You are completely unaware of how the LDS church really works. They absolutly do not want the spotlight, they are just recovering from the scandal about not allowing blacks into their church. They have set out on an effort for years, running kindly ads about family and encouraging good feelings. The problem is, the previous head of the church was a P.R. genius, he organized the Church to stay quiet, and quietly add to their numbers. he is gone now, the Prop 8 situation was a fiasco for the church, the LAST thing they want is to be named as “Different” i.e. bigots, racists, or…the WORST thing for the Mormon church’s image, is to be seen as “Powerful”. Even in their sermons today they will talk about how their religeon used to be dispised and what victims they are. They will lie and say that Joseph Smith was murdered because he was Mormon (Leaving out the part that he was killed by his previous followers after trying to attack one of their 15 year old daughters.
3. Lastly, that for every person that disagrees with the Mormons position 3 agree with it. Interesting, even in CA. Prop 8 did not go through with a 3 to 1 vote, so right there it is obvious you are wrong.
Cam
No. 7 · Bertie
Don’t say “Fuck the Osmonds” Marie Osmond gave the church a big kick in the balls when she came out and said that she has a lesbian daughter and that her daughter should be allowed to marry whoever she wants…..this is actually a big deal in the church because it makes it hard for them to go after other people that disagree with their stance since they aren’t able to go after Marie Osmond. So fuck everybody else, but Apparently the Osmonds, or at least some of them are on our side. lol
Attmay
No, just Marie.
Robert, NYC
Its not just the mormon cult, its the rest of them, primarily the roman cult that’s even more powerful and just as vicious and evil. Theirs is a chosen belief system, a chosen lifestyle, learned behavior to discriminate, denigrate and demean our lives, not something they were born with unlike straight or gay orientation. Why should our tax dollars prop up their right to tax exemption while they get a free pass to invoke referenda to discriminate against us? Why should any of them be above the law while the rest of us are taxed to the hilt? Make them pay like the rest of us, they’re re nothing more than a bunch of parasites, very sick ones at that.
Peter
Why is it impossible to read a post on this website without seeing gratuitous spelling and grammar errors everywhere! Do you people at Queerty not proof-read your posts?
Bertie
I don’t care how much Marie loves her dyke daughter or how much Marie loves her gay dresser and botox injecter in Vegas —
she still probably tithes the shit out of her Vegas and QVC doll profits to her beloved church…so yes, fuck her.
tell me when she’s atheist
ps —
The Osmonds 70s LPs were on their KOLOB label.
KOLOB – the planet closest to God in heaven. hA!!
terrwill
RODNEY: Please transfer your account to: http/www.ilovebigotedhatefulldiscriminationlovingreligiousscumbags.com They would love to hear from you!!
terrwill
And to everyone else: Please remember the poor Moron church members really are victims of discrimnation. From their very inception people have been against them. You know when Brigham Young founded the church so older men could marry and screw as many underage girls as they could get their hands on. People ALWAYS seem to be discrimination against these poor souls for some reason!!!
terrwill
sp: “ing” David: when do we get spellcheck???? ;-P
Joseph Smith is my Bitch!
If you cut a Mormon do they not bleed? So next time one purchases pro-discrimination ad buys in your state (ie Maine) feel free to cut one!
Freddie
All mormons are freaks, liars, and deluded cult members. After a few thousand of them are murdered, lynched, and denied their absurd tax-exempt status, then someone might believe their crapfest about victimhood.
Fictional fascist cult, nothing more.
Seth R.
It seems that some wrongs done to people in this country, we are not allowed to learn from.
Is the author of this article really saying that until you suffer as much as blacks did under American racism, you are not allowed to learn anything from their experience? Do we have to actually suffer to that degree before we can use those experiences as a warning to others?
Dallin H. Oaks was not making the point that Mormons are experiencing the level of persecution that blacks received. He was however pointing out that the same sort of feelings are motivating the – currently low-level – attacks against Mormons.
To object to his remarks by saying – “well, Mormons haven’t suffered that much, so they don’t get to use that object lesson” is to miss the point entirely.
Peter
Seth—–And just what do you call the current low-level – attacks against gay people in a country with a Constitution that requires the separation of Church and State, just as Jesus proclaimed while he was on earth?
Daniel
One of the fundamental teachings of the LDS Mormon “Church” is that white people are the race of God and non-white people are the race of the Devil. During the 1960’s Civil Rights era it was still the official policy openly preached by the “church”.
The founder of Mormonism was tried as a traitor to America and killed when he tried to kill his own followers.
LDS Mormons still preach that they each receive their own planet in the afterlife and that non-Mormons such as Christians and Muslims become their slaves on these planets.
It is one of the most creepy cults ever invented.
schlukitz
@ No. 23 Daniel:
LDS Mormons still preach that they each receive their own planet in the afterlife
Greedy little suckers, aren’t they?
mugwah
even the question is racist…shake you heads folks!
Robert, NYC
Lets keep in mind, this cult once promoted and supported polygamy. Now, since the same-sex marriage haters are using polgygamy as one example of what will undermine the foundation of straight marriage, who would these same haters have blamed at the time the cult was practicing polygamy when same-sex marraige wasn’t even a dot on the radar? They can’t even name one example of how polygamy affected their marriages and they certainly weren’t saying that it undermined conventional marriage at the time.
They are no different than the scientology cult, a bunch of psycho-talking wackos, along with the roman cult and others who share a common agenda to discriminate and who by their negative statements about our lives incite right wingers to go out and bash or even kill us, aside from hate referenda to take away our civil rights. Words have consequences but these cults just don’t get it. They cry victim when we retaliate of course.
Cam
No. 22 · Seth R. said….
Dallin H. Oaks was not making the point that Mormons are experiencing the level of persecution that blacks received. He was however pointing out that the same sort of feelings are motivating the – currently low-level – attacks against Mormons.
________________________________
Seth, that is a lie, as anybody who has ever been Mormon or been close to the church knows, they preach from a victimology point of view mired in the 19th century. It is standard cult practice, if you have your followers feel like it is them against the world they are more loyal and less likely to leave, so even though there are several Mormon U.S. senators and no openly gay ones, even though there are Mormon governors, Mayors etc…. they still try to pretend that they are a small powerless group. The main problem with their preaching that now started in around 1996 when their recruitment numbers started tanking, and that was…..the internet. VERY difficult for them to continue to make themselves the victims when people have access to Google.
McShane
@No. 25 · schlukitz The malarkey about their having their own planets applies only to eaach single man and the wives etc that belong to them. That , I think is at the root of their obsession with not wanting two men bound in any way : it fucks entirely with their bizzarre afterlife mythology: how do you reconcile each man with his own planet if two of them are together?
In any case, I think that this is just the aboslute state of confusion we’ve come to in spinning things to suit our needs, whatever they be. You start out with a few confused premises and apply what seems to be common sense to the absolute false beginnings and the reader has to dig and tumble to see what it’s all really about to know the truth because it’s not logically evident.. Bush and Co. were experts at that. But this, with these really crazy peoples’ assumptions, makes sense if you accept the nonesense that they start out with.
greenmanTN
The poor Mormons are being OPPRESSED y’all, ’cause they can’t even fund anti-gay measures without being called homophobes! They are JUST LIKE Southern Blacks during the 1960s Civil Rights struggle! Pay no attention the fact that the Mormon church’s own racism is well documented, they said being black was a curse, and blacks were unable to enter the “priesthood” (all adult male Mormons are “priests” ya know) until the 1970s. But aside from that and the fact that they’re the ones fighting to LIMIT rights, they’re just like the poor Southern black people in Jim Crow days. Oh, except the Mormons are really really well-funded, rich as Croesus really, and they have tons of their people in government, unlike blacks of that era. So to recap, Mormons are just like black people in the 1960s South so long as you ignore…. well, EVERYTHING.