Latter-Day Shitheads

The Church of Jesus Christ of Geriatrics Homophobes has tripped over their own dicks once again.

Despite the calculated PR move behind their Mormons and gays Website which purportedly is aimed at promoting that we all 'love one another', they have drawn a pretty clear line in the sand.

On the heels of M. Russell, 'Lipstick' Ballard's address at the WCF* an organization characterized as a hate group by the Southern Poverty law center, the church has now declared that anyone in a same-gender marriage is in apostasy. This from a 'leaked' change to the super-secret Church Handbook of Instruction  1. This is the book only Bishops and Stake presidents and higher are privy to. The handbook clearly ranks same gender marriage as grounds for mandatory discipline, and categorizes it as worse than attempted murder and forcible rape!

 Additionally, as if this wasn't bad enough, in a manner more befitting La Cosa Nostra than a supposedly Christ led church, they are going after their kids.

Children with any parent in a same gender relationship (marriage, cohabitation,  etc) are to be excludes from being blessed as an infant, baptised at 8 or serving missions at 18, until and only if, at 18, they disavow same gender marriage and leave their home. This is supposedly a way to protect the children. After all, we wouldn't want them being taught contradictory ideas in the home from what is taught in church.

Naturally,  when the Bloggernacle and social media went ape-shit, the church put together a 'press conference' which consisted of an executive from the Church's own PR firm interviewing an apostle, D. Todd Christofferson (I'm guessing the 'd' is for douche). Who, rather than apologize for this shameful policy, doubled down on the 'Homosexuality is a sin' angle, reiterated that this is out of 'love and compassion' and finished with an admonition.    "The church, of course, doesn't attempt to practice mind control, and people have varying opinions. It's only a problem if, there is advocacy and people lobby and advocate against the standard, and the uh, the very clear and expressed position of the church, as it has been stated repeatedly and again now."  In other words, "Shut up and deal with it!"

Aside from the exmo community going batshit, The church has just thrown a massive pile of bullshit onto the already precariously sagging shelves of so many believers. Cafeteria Mormons as well as TBMs are struggling to find a way to remain members of a church that has seemingly thrown in with the Westboro Baptists and other hate groups.

I'd love to see just how many resignation requests are sent in during the next few days and weeks. My Facebook feed is full of posts asking about how to resign. Many former Mormons with spouses still active in the church are reporting that this was the last straw for their spouses. Many who simply, stopped attending or 'inactives' or 'Jack Mormons are coming forward asking about the resignation process. **

As a resigned apostate and LGBT ally myself, I can't help but wonder how long until my still-believing wife is put in the position of being asked to disavow me. Probably soon after this blog post. Fortunately,  she too is shocked and dismayed by this.

The church has a history of sticking to their guns on issues, (polygamy, Blacks and the Priesthood) only to cave once social pressure, usually in a form that directly threatens their corporation's bottom line. This time, we'll see how it plays out, but with the 'traditional family' being so intrinsically linked to the very heart of church doctrine and the eternal plan of salvation,  it seems they are going to stick to their divisive stance.  A nevermo friend of mine said, "Frankly, I hope they stand their ground for a change. I don't agree with them, but if you draw a line in the sand, back it up, goddamnit."  For now, it appears that they ate hoing to continie to be bigoted asshats while crying about how tney are being persecuted,

As much as the ex-Mormon community enjoys the schadenfreude of seeing the church making themselves into an even bigger embarrassment, the predominant attitude seems to be one of sympathy and concern for those still in the church who will be directly affected. From Mormons Building Bridges to the Mama Dragons, those within the church actively pushing for acceptance and inclusion have been dealt a crushing blow, but most insidious of all is the effect this will have on those active, believers in the LGBT community, especially the youth. The suicide rate within the LDS church is disproportionately high for LGBT youth already.

Like so many others I can only hope that the harm this policy will cause can be somewhat mitigated by the backlash against the church and the outpouring of love and support from what I expect will an exponentially larger ex-Mormon community.

 I hope that the youth as well as the millenials and everyone else disgusted by this will leave the church in droves.

Ultimately,  I imagine the church will stand it's ground and the TBMs will fall in line with the edicts handed down from on high by the increasingly decrepit, senilee and narrow minded bigots that comprise the Corporate Gerontocracy. The voices of those who cry out against it will be marginalized.  The cognitive biases of the believers will be reinforced.  The mainstream of diehard Mormons will hold tight to the iron rod and march in lock-step as the LDS church forges onward into irrelevancy and, hopefully,  crawls off somewhere to die.

*  -"The World Congress of Families (WCF) is one of the key driving forces behind the U.S. Religious Right’s 

global export of homophobia and sexism. 
**There is a lawyer posting on Reddit who will assist in processing your resignation for free.

NOTE--When this story broke, like most of my Facebook friends, I began sharing memes about it. Because of that, I was recently accused of "exploiting LGBTQLMNOP issues to qualify my own bitterness" and told to "calm the hell down" by a 'gay friend' of one of my former ward members. In line with the typical view of those who leave the church, I am just bitter and can't leave the church alone. But it is exactly this kind of ignorant, bigoted bullshit that the church pulls that makes it so difficult for those who leave to leave it alone.