Elder Wickman gave a talk Thursday at the J. Reuben Clark Law Society Conference at the U of U. He quoted from much of Elder Oaks' infamous "Religious Freedoms Are Being Trampled!!" devotional given Oct. 2009 at BYU-Idaho. You know - the talk where Elder Oaks compared the treatment of Mormons during Prop 8 to the treatment of blacks in the South during the Civil Rights era. The talk that won for Elder Oaks Keith Olberman's "Worst Person in the World" award, and the scorn of even TBMs. Concerning that previous devotional, Elder Wickman stated:
"That address, I think, promises to become a classic, even a benchmark in our day," he said.I'm not going to rehash the old arguments again for the umpteenth time. Instead, I direct you to the following flowchart, which, I believe, adequately summarizes them all in visual format (thanks to Patrick Farley for developing the chart!)
What they're essentially saying is that some religions should be more privileged than others. My church, for example, believes in blessing gay unions, but is barred from doing that by laws that favor other religious traditions.
ReplyDeleteSo religious freedoms should be defended and protected as long as they're conservative Christian ideals.
You know, I am getting really tired of LDS General Authorities being treated like they're experts on everything ex officio. To me, Wickman's remarks deserve no more special attention and as much scrutiny as we'd give any other lawyer's about a subject he's not an expert in. If he wants to waste the JRCLS' time rehashing Dallin Oaks' unfortunate remarks, then I'm glad I didn't attend that meeting (yes, I'm a member).
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