As discussed below, the LDS Church has objected in the strongest terms to the charge that they intended to invalidate any existing marriages or otherwise harm GLBT people, and has continued to demand that someone “apologize” for the ad that depicts a home invasion and destruction of a California couple’s marriage license. Anti-gay activist Jennifer Roback Morse, acting as an official spokesperson for the Prop 8 campaign, actually started a facebook group to complain about the “Home Invasion” ad. Here, from that site, is a typical verbal assault:
The official position of the Yes on 8 campaign is that we will not challenge the existing marriages. As far as I know, no one else is planning to challenge them either. Every single thing about that ad was false. Members of the LDS church exercised their rights, along with everyone else in CA, to participate in the political process. The people who created that ad should be ashamed of themselves. I am not aware of a single person from the No on 8 side who has condemned those ads.
On November 5, Prop 8 campaign manager Frank Schubert told the San Francisco Chronicle that his organization had no plans to challenge any of the 18,000 marriages that took place after the court ruling in May. Difficult to believe, but that’s what they said.
Then, on December 20, we learn this from the Sacramento Bee:
The sponsors of Proposition 8 asked the California Supreme Court on Friday to nullify the marriages of the estimated 18,000 same-sex couples who exchanged vows before voters approved the ballot initiative that outlawed gay unions.
The Yes on 8 campaign filed a brief arguing that because the new law holds that only marriages between a man and a woman are recognized or valid in California, the state can no longer recognize the existing same-sex unions. The document reveals for the first time that opponents of same-sex marriage will fight in court to undo those unions that already exist.
“Proposition 8’s brevity is matched by its clarity. There are no conditional clauses, exceptions, exemptions or exclusions,” reads the brief co-written by Kenneth Starr.
It seems then, that every single thing about that ad is true. But wait, it gets better. Apparently, the Prop 8 folks are now arguing that they didn’t really lie, because they didn’t challenge any individual marriages in court. They aren’t trying to “nullify” the marriages, they say, only demanding that they “not be recognized” as marriages. Like Eugene Delgaudio’s criminally irresponsible accusation of arson and attempted murder by “homosexuals,” this was a meta-lie, worded to convey a glaring untruth while trying to avoid the consequences of lying. In both cases, the distinction being drawn is completely meaningless. What they are doing here is actually much worse than simple lying, and we thank Mr. Delgaudio’s little “helper” for pointing it out in comments.
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A place at the table isn’t good enough?
Once again, Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson nails it. These self-corrections have happened throughout the history of the church, and they will continue to happen as long as there is a church.
The occasion for this happy reminder is that Robinson will be opening the inaugural events with a prayer at the Lincoln Memorial on Sunday. “It will be an enormous honor to offer prayers for the country and the new president, standing on the holy ground where the ‘I have a dream speech’ was delivered by Dr. King, surrounded by the inspiring and reconciling words of Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address,” he wrote to friends in an email. “It is also an indication of the new president’s commitment to being the President of ALL the people.”
I know that many people in our community are angry and insulted by the invitation to bigoted Saddleback pastor Rick Warren, and that the inaugural invocation is an honor that he, as an unrepentant exclusionary figure, does not deserve. Even Bishop Robinson has said that the announcement was like a slap in the face, and that such an honor amounts to more than “a place at the table.”
But you have to admit that this situation has a positive side. A place at the table is all that any community has the right to expect – and just look at the behavior of the Christianist right when they have been graciously offered even more than that.
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