Aspiring Gay Spouse? Dead Orthodox Jew? The Mormons Know Best!

“...I will go and do what the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them.”

---The Book of Mormon


Well, I haven't read the commandments in a while, but I'm pretty sure that none of them is, "Get all up in everyone's business!"

The involvement of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in California's Proposition 8 has been well publicized, and from their own viewpoint, understandable. They believe that God is the creator of everything, and that He believes marriage is between a man and a woman. Therefore they oppose legalizing gay marriage.

From a moral standpoint, this is absurd. Everyone doesn't subscribe to the Mormon church's teachings, and therefore shouldn't be subject to them. And on a legal level, the Constitution provides for a separation of church and state, so none of the teachings of any church, Mormon or otherwise, should be allowed to influence the law. You run a church, and you don't want gay people to marry? Don't marry them. The state, on the other hand, has every right, and religious persecution shouldn't be allowed to hinder that.

But wait! The Mormons don't just have a vested interest in keeping gays single. They also undertake the fascinating work of baptizing dead Jews by proxy---including those who died in the Holocaust! Holocaust survivors have asked the Mormon church to discontinue this practice on very reasonable grounds, amongst them: that baptizing Holocaust victims could encourage Holocaust deniers; that it dishonors these Jews because they were killed specifically because of their religion; and because in the future these Jews might be identified as Mormon victims of the Holocaust.

What's the Mormon church's position on being asked to cease and desist? They decline, thank you. "We don't think any faith group has the right to ask another to change its doctrines," Mormon Elder Lance B. Wickman said. "If our work for the dead is properly understood ... it should not be a source of friction to anyone. It's merely a freewill offering."

Elder Wickman, George Orwell would be proud. Holocaust survivors shouldn't ask you to stop turning dead Jews into Mormons because it goes against your religion! Even in the long annals of entirely self-serving rationalizations made by organized religion, that is an all-time classic.