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Live and Let Die
Nov. 7th, 2008 05:56 amSo my last journal post was a hot-headed tirade about the political entity CLDS (a.k.a. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints a.k.a. the Mormons). When I woke up stinging from the passage of Prop 8, I had a half-baked idea on how to curb the disgusting, immoral, reprehensible behavior of CLDS.
My idea was to limit the practice of coercive tithing by attacking payroll deductions for tithing that make it easier to conceal religious discrimination in employment. After consulting with several former Mormons about the details of how tithing is generally enforced, I found that the practice of using payroll deductions for collection was fairly limited in scope, and no one knew of an instance of it more recent than the 1990s nor outside of Salt Lake City. Perhaps this was a pilot project that was abandoned when they realized it could not be implemented without making themselves vulnerable to counter-attack or which didn't work for other reasons. In any case, the CLDS defended its revenue stream long before they started using it to attack me. Therefore I conclude that the idea from the prior post won't work to stop the CLDS from imposing what they view as God's plan on me.
In practice, the lowest level of financial organization in CLDS is led by a Bishop. For those familiar with other Christian group naming systems, this is title elevation, and Mormon Bishop is more like what other groups call "Priest" or "Minister" rather than the larger position the title Bishop refers to in other Christian religions.
The Bishop has one or more clerks who collect checks or cash directly from the Mormons, and conducts an annual review to make sure the contributions add up to 10% of the pre-tax income of each Mormon, like a personal tax auditor.
Everyone agreed that hiring and promotion preference by Mormons for other Mormons was common and covertly encouraged by the CLDS. The local Bishops provide introduction services through CLDS activities so that everyone knows who is or isn't a Mormon in good standing, which creates a power base from which to discriminate. This is already illegal, but enforcement remains as elusive as ever.
The CLDS has a prophecy that some day the Constitution of the United States will hang by a thread, and the CLDS will step in to save it. They believe that the End of Days will feature the return of a vengeful version of Jesus Christ who will literally burn lots of people in fire. This isn't a phoenix-style purification burning; they mean "die in a fire" to whatever people fail their litmus test. In the Book of Mormon there are references to lighter-skinned people who dominate and destroy darker-skinned people. The Book takes the side of perpetrators of the racial genocide, not the dead.
One (of many) things that burns me about this is to hear them say "I'm not really free to practice my free speech if people call me hateful for it" Freedom of speech does not, can not, and never should extend to freedom to quash a response. If you don't want to be called a bigot, stop proposing to treat people differently.
The CLDS has acted on these teachings and continues to work to impose their religion on others. In addition to the recent bans on same-sex marriage, they have also supported bans on adoption by homosexuals. This is not an isolated attempt to legislate same-sex marriage, but part of a larger agenda.
Reacting to that agenda when things like prop 8 hit the ballot is allowing the bigots to choose the time and terms of the engagements. If they win we lose, but if they don't nothing changes. That sounds like poor tactics to me.
I want to caution the CLDS and those like them that before Prop 8, I wasn't looking for a way to curb their funding. My interest in limiting their power derives from their use of it to limit freedoms I hold dear. By imposing their will on me, they have ruined the neutrality between us. I'm looking for a way to change the ground and counter. I'm not the only one.
My idea was to limit the practice of coercive tithing by attacking payroll deductions for tithing that make it easier to conceal religious discrimination in employment. After consulting with several former Mormons about the details of how tithing is generally enforced, I found that the practice of using payroll deductions for collection was fairly limited in scope, and no one knew of an instance of it more recent than the 1990s nor outside of Salt Lake City. Perhaps this was a pilot project that was abandoned when they realized it could not be implemented without making themselves vulnerable to counter-attack or which didn't work for other reasons. In any case, the CLDS defended its revenue stream long before they started using it to attack me. Therefore I conclude that the idea from the prior post won't work to stop the CLDS from imposing what they view as God's plan on me.
In practice, the lowest level of financial organization in CLDS is led by a Bishop. For those familiar with other Christian group naming systems, this is title elevation, and Mormon Bishop is more like what other groups call "Priest" or "Minister" rather than the larger position the title Bishop refers to in other Christian religions.
The Bishop has one or more clerks who collect checks or cash directly from the Mormons, and conducts an annual review to make sure the contributions add up to 10% of the pre-tax income of each Mormon, like a personal tax auditor.
Everyone agreed that hiring and promotion preference by Mormons for other Mormons was common and covertly encouraged by the CLDS. The local Bishops provide introduction services through CLDS activities so that everyone knows who is or isn't a Mormon in good standing, which creates a power base from which to discriminate. This is already illegal, but enforcement remains as elusive as ever.
The CLDS has a prophecy that some day the Constitution of the United States will hang by a thread, and the CLDS will step in to save it. They believe that the End of Days will feature the return of a vengeful version of Jesus Christ who will literally burn lots of people in fire. This isn't a phoenix-style purification burning; they mean "die in a fire" to whatever people fail their litmus test. In the Book of Mormon there are references to lighter-skinned people who dominate and destroy darker-skinned people. The Book takes the side of perpetrators of the racial genocide, not the dead.
One (of many) things that burns me about this is to hear them say "I'm not really free to practice my free speech if people call me hateful for it" Freedom of speech does not, can not, and never should extend to freedom to quash a response. If you don't want to be called a bigot, stop proposing to treat people differently.
The CLDS has acted on these teachings and continues to work to impose their religion on others. In addition to the recent bans on same-sex marriage, they have also supported bans on adoption by homosexuals. This is not an isolated attempt to legislate same-sex marriage, but part of a larger agenda.
Reacting to that agenda when things like prop 8 hit the ballot is allowing the bigots to choose the time and terms of the engagements. If they win we lose, but if they don't nothing changes. That sounds like poor tactics to me.
I want to caution the CLDS and those like them that before Prop 8, I wasn't looking for a way to curb their funding. My interest in limiting their power derives from their use of it to limit freedoms I hold dear. By imposing their will on me, they have ruined the neutrality between us. I'm looking for a way to change the ground and counter. I'm not the only one.
