Friday, September 24, 2010

The real reason the LDS supported Prop8

A student at BYU wrote a piece for the school paper about Prop 8.
The way Cary Crall tells the story, his letter was first rejected, then turned into a full blown "guest" editorial, published, and then quickly removed from the newspaper's website and labeled, "offensive."

Crall wrote that Mormons ought to be honest about the real reasons they put so much time, money and effort into passage of prop 8. After reading the decision of the federal judge in the prop 8 case, he concluded there is little rational basis for many of the arguments for prop 8. So if such arguments were not the real reasons for their support, then what? "The real reason," he wrote, "is that a man who most of us believe is a prophet of God told us to support the amendment."
Crall read the Prop8 decision by Judge Vaughan Walker, and realized that all the talking points used in the election were not supported in trial. So, he comments, the Mormons should be honest that their reason to oppose marriage equality is fundamentally a religious one.

You can read his entire editorial here (.doc file). But here's the conclusion, that got it censored as "offensive":
The question remains that if proponents of Prop. 8 were both unwilling and unable to support even one rational argument in favor of the amendment in court, why did they seek to present their arguments as rational during the campaign?

It is time for LDS supporters of Prop. 8 to be honest about their reasons for supporting the amendment. It’s not about adoption rights, or the first amendment or tradition. These arguments were not found worthy of the standards for finding facts set up by our judicial system. The real reason is that a man who most of us believe is a prophet of God told us to support the amendment. We must accept this explanation, along with all its consequences for good or ill on our own relationship with God and his children here on earth.
Smart young man.

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