How else can they spread the Word?

Focus on the Family has a message for gay rights activists: stay off the playground.

Candi Cushman, an education analyst for the James Dobson-founded group, told The Denver Post this weekend that gay rights advocates have inserted their agenda into anti-bullying efforts, at the expense of Christian values.

"We feel more and more that activists are being deceptive in using anti-bullying rhetoric to introduce their viewpoints, while the viewpoint of Christian students and parents are increasingly belittled," Cushman told the Post.

In an email to TPM, Cushman expanded her argument. "Listing certain categories creates a system ripe for reverse discrimination, sending the message that certain characteristics are more worthy of protection than others," she said.

Cushman's argument has two levels: first, she says anti-bullying efforts wrongly put the focus on the "characteristics of the victim" instead of the "wrong actions of the bullies." Second, she thinks that gay rights activists are using the whole issue to sneak their agenda into the nation's schools. She denounced the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN).

"In many cases, these politicized bullying policies are being used as tools to undermine parental rights," she said, "and censor or marginalize students and parents with differing viewpoints."

So.... you want your Christianist children to be able to call suspected gay children names and beat up on kids with wrong religious beliefs or something? Just WHAT are you saying here?

Scapegoats are needed

To bond people together! How can we know we're all on the same side if we don't define who we're against??!!11?

Virginia attorney general instructs state colleges to stop protecting gay students from discrimination.

A pledge to repeal California's Prop. 8

Repeal Prop 8: Restore marriage equality to California Sign the pledge to build the Marriage Equality Movement

The birth of a new Marriage Equality Movement -- the civil rights movement of the 21st Century -- is unfolding before our eyes.

Movements are visceral and popular, often borne of outrage and anger. What we are witnessing on the streets and online is a community of people who have come together to say: "These are our lives. This is our time. This is unacceptable." Organized from the bottom-up by thousands of ordinary people just like you, this people-powered phenomenon is exponentially growing by the minute, online and offline.

This is our moment to stand strong together -- gay and straight -- and say that we refuse to accept a California where discrimination is enshrined in our state constitution. Please show your support by pledging to support our campaign to repeal Prop 8 and restore marriage equality to California.

Please sign the pledge to repeal Prop 8 -- then forward this link to your friends:

We, the undersigned, are united in our refusal to accept a California where discrimination is enshrined in our state's constitution.

We pledge to repeal Prop 8 and restore marriage equality to California.

Update 11/12: Keith Olbermann's special comment:



Update 11/14: Another petition to sign demanding that the Mormon church lose its tax exempt status because they have become directly involved in pushing a political agenda.

Teddy Partridge of the Campaign Silo asks if the Mormon Church cheated in their political maneuverings.

University of Phoenix

Apollo Group Inc. has agreed to pay $1.89 million to settle a federal lawsuit alleging discrimination against non-Mormon employees at its University of Phoenix Online division.

The amount of the settlement, which still requires court approval, is believed to be the largest in a religious-discrimination case brought by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, according to EEOC regional attorney Mary Jo O'Neill.

The class-action lawsuit, filed two years ago, covers 52 former enrollment counselors who charged that members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were favored in sales leads, promotions, tuition waivers and more at the for-profit school.

[snip]

The University of Phoenix and Apollo were long dogged by murmurs of Mormon influence. Apollo's longtime chief executive officer, Todd Nelson, was active in the church, and the company was said to heavily recruit church members as enrollment counselors.

I wonder if they teach how to hate gays at this school as well?..

The ugliness hatched by the Mormon Church and the Catholic Knights of Columbus

Will be challenged in court:

Reporting from San Francisco and Los Angeles -- After losing at the polls, gay rights supporters filed three lawsuits Wednesday asking the California Supreme Court to overturn Proposition 8, an effort the measure's supporters called an attempt to subvert the will of voters.

"If they want to legalize gay marriage, what they should do is bring an initiative themselves and ask the people to approve it," said Frank Schubert, co-chairman of the Proposition 8 campaign. "But they don't. They go behind the people's back to the courts and try and force an agenda on the rest of society."

Lawyers for same-sex couples argued that the anti-gay-marriage measure was an illegal constitutional revision -- not a more limited amendment, as backers maintained -- because it fundamentally altered the guarantee of equal protection. A constitutional revision, unlike an amendment, must be approved by the Legislature before going to voters.

The state high court has twice before struck down ballot measures as illegal constitutional revisions, but those initiatives involved "a broader scope of changes," said former California Supreme Court Justice Joseph Grodin, who publicly opposed Proposition 8 and was part of an earlier legal challenge to it. The court has suggested that a revision may be distinguished from an amendment by the breadth and the nature of the change, Grodin said.

They've just exposed what their churches really stand for, and it isn't tolerance, understanding and the core belief that God is Love.

The Catholic Knights of Columbus and the Mormon church have just proved they are supporters of hate and exclusion, that discrimination drives their churches. They wanted this proposition, an amendment that actually DENIES civil rights, written into the California Constitution.

Why?

Don't give me the lies and stupid shit that schools and children are under attack, that churches will be sued. Marriage between gays has been law since May. Have these things happened? No.

So why?

Because these churches need a scapegoat to beat to death in the village square to unite their faithful.

That is it, plain and simple.

And how utterly cynical and ugly.

I just don't see why Proposition 8 is so threatening to Mormons

The LDS First Presidency announced its support for Proposition 8 in a letter read in every Mormon congregation. Since then, California LDS leaders have prompted members to sign up volunteers, raise money, pass out brochures produced by outsiders and distribute lawn signs and bumper stickers. Bishops have devoted whole Sunday school classes and the weekly Relief Society and priesthood meetings to outlining arguments against same-sex marriage. Some have pointedly asked members for hefty financial donations, based on tithing. Others have even asked members to stand or raise their hands to publicly indicate their support.

Gary Lawrence, writing in the online Meridian Magazine, compared opponents of Proposition 8 to those who sided with Lucifer against Jesus in the pre-mortal existence. Others have questioned such members' faith and religious commitment, accusing them of undermining the prophet.

Literature written by Proposition 8 proponents is freely distributed in Mormon wards, giving the impression the church approves it, but much of it is "misinformation," said Morris Thurston, an LDS attorney in Orange County.
Thurston has circulated a point-by-point refutation to an anonymously authored document that has been widely disseminated by Mormons, "Six Consequences . . . If Proposition 8 Fails." Thurston argues that most of its arguments are either untrue or misleading.
He welcomes critiques of his analysis, but some have been hostile and many question his motives.
"I feel like I am entitled to my opinions, especially when they involve legal matters," Thurston said, "and I don't think I should be compared to Satan's minions."

From someone who was a Mormon:

My point is this: the Mormon Church is pulling out the stops. These kinds of wedge issues help them retain members by engaging them in "causes" that make people feel special and on God's side. There is no discussion in church or outside about fairness, the Golden Rule, and Unforeseen Legal Ramifications. Being part of a crusade is exciting... and never mind who gets hurt!

Update 10/27: Steve of SteveAudio has a wonderful post on the people who are against Proposition 8.

Update 10/30: Emptywheel of Firedoglake tells the story of her experience with Mormons and their hatred of gays.

John Aravosis of Americablog notes: Legal Adviser to Prop 8 Campaign Compares Gays Who Want to Get Married to Nazi Germany.

Update 11/3: Tengrain at Mock, Paper, Scissors posts a video.

Proposition 8

Steve at SteveAudio smacks it around:

But Prop. 8 will give the Government the right to screw with your churches. Didn't think about that? The Government can, if Prop. 8 passes, tell your church:

* who it can marry
* who it can ordain
* who may attend church-sponsored schools
* how it spends your donations

In other words, the wall protects both sides. Did you forget that? Water flows both ways, and so does power. If you think you can control the Government, the Government can control you and your churches.

Here's Lynne Cheney of all people!:

In response to the legalization of same-sex marriage in California, Dick Cheney's wife Lynne tells Harry Smith that she wishes for her daughter Mary, the same freedom and choices of every American.

It's about love not exclusion:



Didn't Jesus have something to say about love?

Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
This is the first and great commandment.
And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.