It’s an understatement to call gay marriage a tricky topic. The latest round of scandal, accusations, and indignation involving the Danzigs includes all the calling cards of politics: hyperbole, making policy personal, and histrionic rhetoric that keeps the flames licking long enough to ignite some future tinder when it becomes available. At least, that’s what the passing of William Buckley made me think.
The bloggernacle has been abuzz recently with renewed discussion over the Church, same-sex marriage, and the politics of dissent. Reporting of the rise and fall of Peter and Mary Danzig and the Church’s recent filing of a friend-of-the-court brief in California, along with other religious groups, in support of preserving marriage as union of a man and a woman, have sparked a range of conversation on the merits of same-sex marriage claims, of the appropriateness of the Church’s involvement in politics, and of the role of dissent and disagreement in the Latter-day Saint community. I don’t have much I want to weigh in with at the moment, but there’s plenty of opinions to be found in the bloggernacle at large. For now, I’ll just quote a relevant piece I was reading today from an article in The Salt Lake Tribune on the contributions of President Hinckley, “Gordon B. Hinckley: A lifetime of faithful service“:
When your spouse announces he is gay
CNN.com - February 15, 2008
LDS Church wades into California traditional marriage case
Salt Lake Tribune - February 23, 2008
Over the last couple days, there’s been some online discussion regarding a couple who apparently left the Church over response to an editorial they wrote in support of former BYU professor Jeffrey Neilson’s Salt Lake Tribune op-ed a couple years back. The following are some news articles and blog discussions, including a response by the Church Newsroom:
Fallout from debate over gays leads musician to leave LDS Church
Salt Lake Tribune - February 24, 2008
Care for the Flock
LDS Newsroom - February 24, 2008
I spent this last weekend in North Carolina at a summit exploring the inequalities and injustices which black farmers have experienced in a community there. During Roosevelt’s New Deal, communities of black and white farmers were resettled there and given land which they could farm and eventually own.A major problem, however, occurred right at the outset when the White Farmers were given a much larger settlement of land, and the Black Farmers were moved to low ground that also happened to be a flood zone. In the decades since The Resettlement, further racial discrimination, problematic policies, and inadequate response to flooding that occasionally destroyed their livelihood, have only added to the burden and suffering of many of these farmers. Many of them feel hopeless about their potential to be treated equitably by the Establishment, while at the same time hopeful about some work that is being done both with them and on their behalf by others.
We spend so much time here beating up on homosexuality, I thought we’d give the heterosexuals a good flogging for once. A non-member friend of mine, who is herself devoutly religious in her own faith, which has similar standards of sexual purity of ours, was living with her boyfriend. This was as frowned on in her faith as it is in ours, so she was doing it on the downlow, hiding it from her parents and family. She had a pretty stormy relationship with her boyfriend, who was not fit to be a husband let alone a father, and they had a nasty fight which led to a breakup. Two weeks after her breakup, she found herself pregnant, despite having taken all the usual precautions to prevent such an occurence. So now she is looking at two very bad options: abortion, or single motherhood.
…so he can maintain relationship with his Reno boyfriend…
Speaking of drama…
Man who wanted wife killed gets 15 years
Reno Gazette-Journal - February 8, 2008
The following article discusses Orson Scott Card’s recent awarding of the 2008 Margaret A. Edwards Award, presented to an author who “helps adolescents become aware of themselves and addresses questions about their role and importance in relationships, society, and in the world.” Though his works Enders Game and Enders Shadow were of primary attention, Card’s personal beliefs regarding homosexuality came under scrutiny and there was criticism that an award that recognizes impact on adolescents’ self-awareness would be given to someone who holds those beliefs.
The article also notes Card’s 1990 Sunstone Magazine article, “The Hypocrites of Homosexuality”
Art Transcending The Artist
Daily Targum - February 11, 2008
My surprise at finding that I belong to a gay church
Robert Kirby
Salt Lake Tribune - February 8, 2008
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