God, If you're reading this (since we all know you read kos :), please punish the Mormons:
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints issued a statement opposing gay marriage on Tuesday, two weeks before Utah voters decide on a proposed constitutional amendment on the question. The nearly 150-word statement says that only opposite-sex couples should marry and that "any other sexual relations, including between persons of the same gender, undermine the divinely created institution of family."
The Mormon Church had said in July that it supported the idea of a constitutional amendment against gay marriage but wouldn't speak specifically to the Utah ballot measure. The new statement could be a late push to sway Utah voters who will consider the amendment on November 2, though the church declined to elaborate on its motives.
There is broad support in Utah for an amendment banning same-sex marriage...
As a gay man who was raised Mormon I know two things from having seen the church from the inside:
- Progressives have no greater enemy in the religious right than the Mormon church. The LDS chruch commands a fanatical devotion which is cult-like and everyone I knew in the church either got out of it or supports a hardline ultra-conservative agenda. There is no dissent within the Mormon church, either you agree with the party line or you are ex-communicated.
- There is nothing hotter than a couple of corn-fed Utah boys living together as missionary "companions" in a strange and foreign land. Imagine if you will the two lonely kids in their late teens praying together in the humid, foregin heat of Asia. They are wearing only their holy undergarments and as they pray together they feel an emotional connection, a deep bond which stirs something inside them. The heat in their loins builds, straining against their garments as they engage in a passionate embrace blessed by God, but forbidden by the church...
Anyway, when Kerry wins they will be on the frontlines of the coming culture wars. Be prepared.