Soy Made Me Support Prop 8

By Mister Curie

I wrote this post several months ago, but was waiting for an appopriate time to post it (thinking I would wait until I saw "8: The Mormon Proposition"). However, now that the DVD is officially in my possession and I realize that it has the potential power to influence my thinking about Prop 8, I want to have a record of what my thoughts were before I watched the movie.  So, without having seen the documentary, I am publishing this post, intending a follow-up post after I have watched the movie.

Soy made me support Prop 8. No, I didn't actually abdicate my free agency to a blog. I also didn't actually support Prop 8 in any meaningful way. I didn't contribute any money for or against Prop 8. I didn't cast a vote for Prop 8. Prop 8 was before I accepted I was gay. In fact, Prop 8 passed before I even considered my stance on Prop 8. It wasn't until after election day, after all my work to get Barack Obama elected had ended, that I thought about Prop 8 even slightly. Madame Curie and I began following a blog of a CA Mormon who was disaffected with the church due to Prop 8, and I began to consider Prop 8 and the church's stance. While reading this friend's blog, she had linked to a MoHo blog, Soy Made Me Gay. While I eventually came to the opinion (as a TBM) that the LDS church should not get involved politically, I would have voted with the Church for Prop 8 because the Prophet said to.

From Soy Made Me Gay:

The strongest and most understandable argument for supporting a same-sex marriage ban is that the Lord has a prophet on the earth and that that prophet Thomas S. Monson. As the Lord’s mouthpiece, he has counseled us to support such an amendment. State your testimony of his calling and guidance.

Here was a faithful gay Mormon supporting the church's stance against gays. Surely someone with such a large stake in both sides of Prop 8 had thought carefully through this decision, had prayed fervently, and had reached the "correct" conclusion. I could trust in his judgment. Soy Made Me Support Prop 8.

One of the problems I now see with the church's stance on homosexuality is that it claims Divine Inspiration through the Prophet for its stance, but the fact is that the stance on homosexuality in the church is changing. Which stance was "Inspired"? The church's stance on homosexuality has been compared to the church's stance on polygamy and blacks receiving the priesthood. Whereas it was once taught that polygamy was required for exhaltation and that you could not be exhalted in a monogamous state, you are now excommunicated for polygamy. Blacks used to be taught that they were unfaithful in the pre-existence. Are we living in a similar time of prosecution for homosexuality? Are we unneccessary casulties of uninspired teachings if/when the church changes its stance on homosexuality? The church has completely turned around from its position on polygamy and blacks receiving the priesthood, will it do so on homosexuality? I don't believe the church is the one, true church anymore. I think there is sufficient historical evidence that the LDS church is not God's only true church, and this can be documented through faithful LDS sources, not anti-mormon sites. It was very tough to accept that the church isn't "True", but now I'm actually grateful for that disaffection. There was too much cognitive dissonance for me to be able to accept my homosexuality while I was TBM. Being disaffected, I no longer have to believe that God hates homosexuals or homosexual behavior. I no longer have to believe that homosexuals are "broken" and will be fixed in the Resurrection. I don't have to believe that God wants some of His children to be discriminated against. There are a lot of other things that make more sense when I give up my former beliefs. I feel that the world makes a lot more sense without belief in the Mormon, or even the Christian, God.