This past week, Mormon church leaders spoke via satellite to audiences in chapels in Utah and California about supporting Prop 8. Mormon Apostle M. Russell Ballard specifically appealed to the youth of the church to use high-tech means (text-messaging, etc.) to ensure its passage. A lot of non-Californian Mormons and their money have been pouring into the Golden State. Why the fervor? Let me lend you all some insight based on 35+ years of (hyper)active membership in the Mormon Church.
Disclaimer: At 50+ years of age, I am still a "member of record" in the Mormon Church, aka The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. My parents converted to Mormonism when I was a baby, and they are still active, participating, extremely conservative Republican Mormons some 55+ years later. I was a devout member, a "scripture chase" champion (even now, don't mess with me when it comes to citing chapter and verse for biblical or Mormon scripture!), held church jobs even as a pre-teen (pianist for Junior Sunday School, etc.)... graduated from Brigham Young University (and believe me, how I wish that were not on my resumé!), and then served a mission to France. Mais oui. I married my husband in a Mormon temple. We were extremely active, tithe-paying, serving members in our Mormon congregation right up until the mid-1990s. (At some point I will have to write a diary about our dropping out; suffice to say that the cognitive dissonance created by being feminists and Mormons reached a point where we had to choose one or the other to save our sanity and self-respect.) Although I have not darkened the door of a Mormon church in more than a decade (except for funerals), I maintain a healthy interest in its doings via The Salt Lake Tribune and conversations with family members, most of whom are still active Mormons. (Aside: I am happy to say that most of my siblings are voting Obama, even if my parents are not.)
When I was growing up as a Mormon in California in the 1960s and 70s, local congregations had far more autonomy than they do in today's corporate, centralized Mormon Church. There were far fewer directives emanating from Salt Lake City; activism of any sort was usually directed at level of the ward (congregation) or stake (collection of 8-12 congregations). Most of my ward's activism centered around picketing a theatre that started showing X-rated movies. I also seem to recall that my parents and others in our ward actively fought against Proposition 19, which would have decriminalized marijuana back in the early 70s.
During my teen years, I and my Mormon peers were convinced that Jesus' Second Coming was imminent, and that we were "Saturday's Warriors"--it was 11:59 pm in God's time (with midnight being Armegeddon, followed by the thousand years of Millennial peace... which would mean that Mormon temples would be going 24/7 to baptize all the dead people who ever were -- assisted by angels specializing in genealogy, to say nothing of the spirits of the dead themselves -- but I digress). In short, Mormon youth then as now are taught to see themselves as having a special mission, being born in the End Times, and so they are easily enlisted in Fighting Evil (especially if doing so requires no introspection or personal repentance).
Turning now to the present: this past Wednesday, October 8th, Mormon Church leaders used a special satellite broadcast beamed to Mormon chapels in California and in Utah County (home to Brigham Young University) to recruit Mormons to participate in a "telephone tree" to urge Californians to vote yes on 8. From the article:
Young Mormons in California and Californian Mormons studying on Brigham Young University campuses should use texting, blogging, videos, podcasts, Twitter and Facebook to "go viral" in support of a California ballot initiative that would ban gay marriage, said an LDS apostle on Wednesday.
"I must admit I don't know how all this works, but you do," M. Russell Ballard said during a videotaped conference shown at LDS chapels across California and on campuses in in Utah, Idaho or Hawaii. "God will bless you as you do your part."
This would have had tremendous appeal to the youthful, fanatical me. More sad, I think, is how many Mormon youths who are struggling with their own sexual identities will work against their own interests by participating in this pro-8 blitz... as vacantlook's recd diary I'm gay so poignantly attests, kids raised in devout, conservative religious households really suffer from despair and self-hatred because they internalize that having homosexual feelings is "sinful." Gay Mormons can and do tell very similar stories.
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!
Some Mormons are fighting against Prop 8, and you should understand that publicly dissenting from the official church position on this issue can cost these brave souls their membership. (This is a very big deal, given the often enormous impact on one's social and family life.) If you run across any Mormons working to stop this monstrosity, thank them. Their opposition may cost them dearly.
The only way to stop the Mormon steamroller is to "go and do thou likewise": get on the phone. Donate. Speak out. Write letters to the editor. Blog. "Go viral." Recruit idealistic youth into working for the cause (and various more mainstream churches and synagogues and other places of worship, along with secular services groups, are a good place to start). If you get a phone call from a Mormon, don't hang up! Ask them if they know any gay people. Ask them about their lives, their marriages (or parents' marriages). Ask them how gay marriage would hurt their own or their parents' marriages. (There aren't any good answers that I've ever received to this question.) Make it personal. If you're Christian, tell them that you don't think Jesus would approve of what they're doing. Create dissonance!
--And especially, keep them on the phone as long as you can, so that they'll end up calling fewer people. If they think you're in any way a potential convert (to either the political cause at hand, or more especially to the Mormon Church), they'll stay on longer. I know the mindset, believe me.
Stop the Hate,
Vote NO on 8!