fear, bigotry, and loathing

I'm glad the election is over. It has been a long ride, and I wish I could have back all of the hours I've spent watching, reading, and talking about this election. kinda. For the most part it has actually been a lot of fun, and I feel like it has been an epochal shift that has occurred in the country over the past 18 months.

But:

Proposition 8 in California has been a psychic thorn in my side. I don't have a dog in that fight, in one sense-- I'm not gay, I don't live in California, and I think the whole yes on 8 has been petty and mean in origin and execution, largely not worthy of discussion.

The problem is that people I like and respect are taking a position I find odious- including many members of my own family. They are, almost universally, supporting their church and the position it has publicly taken in aggressively pushing the yes on 8 campaign.

If there is a God, S/he is clearly NOT speaking to anyone in the lds church leadership. It will one day be ashamed of what it has done, but will exorcise that shame with the same Orwellian dishonesty it has used to disavow positions in the past- see especially polygamy and blacks in the priesthood. In the meantime, people I would like to respect are being led by the nose into a position, based on fear and bigotry, that is indefensible in any reasonable way.

I look forward to putting this episode, and the acrimony discussing it brings, behind me. I will not help the church by forgetting, though. it has willfully taken a stand in a fight that it could have avoided.

It is a long, difficult path into the realm of rational discussion, but automatically assuming that a position is right because your "leaders" hold it is a guaranteed way to stop that progression before it can really begin.