GROWING UNREST WITHIN MORMON CHURCH

There seems to be a rapidly growing segment of the faithful within the Mormon church who oppose their leaders actions regarding Proposition 8 in California. Some even oppose the proposition itself.

Because they don't feel that they can speak out within their own church, they're organizing on the internet. This all started when, in many people's opinion, the church's hierarchy overstepped their authority and went against church scripture.

In June, top Mormon leaders distributed a letter to be read from all California pulpits to call on the faith's 750,000-plus members to contribute money and time to help pass Proposition 8 (see my June 30th post).

Many Mormons felt very uncomfortable with what their leaders were instructing them to do and a few tried to speak out against it. A Westminster College Professor, Jeffrey Nielsen lost his job at Brigham Young University after he expressed doubts based on the separation of church and state philosophy (see my July 1st post). This extreme, dictator-like maneuver didn't quell the dissenters. It only drove them to the internet - with a new, more serious accusation.

Lds4gaymarriage.org quotes legal decisions and LDS scripture from the Doctrine & Covenants, which states that religious freedom doesn't "provide license to infringe or impose upon the rights and liberties of others."

"We need a place where people can have a discussion and get information," said Laura Compton, a contributor at MormonsforMarriage.com. "And people need to know that it's not coming from an anti-Mormon place, or a gay Castro district place. It's coming from a faithful place." This site opposes Proposition 8 outright.

These are just two of the many sites that have been popping up on the internet either in opposition to the LDS leadership's direction or opposition to Proposition 8 itself. It would be nice to think that this ground swell of opposition within the LDS would be enough to cause the leadership to rethink their approach and back off. Knowing how entrenched and arrogant they are I doubt it will.

What it could do is start getting the faithful talking with each other and maybe deciding, on their own, not to follow their leaders on this one.

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