Between Romney’s adversaries in prior campaigns and the reality shows about the polygamists, I could fully understand the CJCLDS feeling the need to push back on the PR front, to say,* “hey, being theologically badly at odds with mainstream Christianity doesn’t make us Bad People!” *
[aside]
Y’know, no matter how many times I see it, spelling “proselytizing” with a “th” as in the OP still looks odd to me. Is it an accepted alternate spelling? I mean, there’s no theta in προσήλυτος
But the misuse of “Morman” instead of MormOn just makes me think many people mostly only hear the word in radio or TV but seldom actually read it in print and if so they hardly notice…
I found the segment about Alex Boye to be very interesting, so much so that I went back and watched it a second time. As an atheist and a musician, I think the ads do a really nice job of showing that Mormons are, in fact, real people, and that being Mormon is just one of the ways in which they identify themselves, not the only way.
Let’s put it this way. Let’s suppose there was a hypothetical new religion on the fictional planet of Mon Calamari, called Latter Day Squids (or LDS.) They originally both practised polygamy and legally banned same-sex marriage, both sanctioned by their god. Then, in order to be part of the galactic alliance, their leaders conviently received a new “revelation” from their squid-god Cthulhu that polygamy was suddenly bad. But homosexuality, no, that’s still bad, because Cthulhu’s word is “eternal” and “unchangeable”.
Of course most Mon Calamari are not a member of the Latter Day Squids and consider their change of viewpoint inconsistent. For instance, what would Admiral Ackbar think of their stance?
The funny thing about these ads is that it caught many of the church members by surprise. A number of years back, as part of the Mormon church efforts to become part of mainstream Christianity, the church dropped the use of the term “Mormon” and discouraged members from using it. This was really hard for many members, such as my elderly mother, because she had identified herself so strongly with that word for her entire life, that she would keep slipping up in conversations, and then having to correct herself. You can see it in past discussions where Dopers would use LDS instead of Mormon.
Apparently God changed his mind after the big name ad agencies did the focus group, and the church decided to go back to owning the term.
Just because they see it as God’s requirement for them to be anti-gay doesn’t mean they’re not anti-gay. Even if it’s right as rain for them to be anti-gay, they’re still anti-gay.
In WWII, we were anti-Hitler, and most people didn’t have a problem with that.
I think you should stop talking about my views about the fact that Mormons have legitimate, non-hypocritical, views on gay marriage and polygamy (having ALWAYS been against both since both are the eternal unchangeable word of God) and focus more on the problem of Admiral Ackbar.
Is that shit still going on? Only the catholic church would think a pretty flyer and some ad spots would get ex-members back in the pews instead of actually addressing the issues that make people light out like the altar’s on fire.
We don’t always agree on everything, but up to this point you’ve always made sense to me. But I confess I’ve got no idea what you mean by “the problem of Admiral Ackbar.”
If I may clarify from earlier, though, my point was that being anti-something isn’t inherently a slur. The Ten Commandments are objectively anti-murder, anti-adultery, anti-coveting, anti-theft, anti-lying - and there’s nothing wrong with that. If Mormons believe that homosexuality has been, from the foundations of the universe per the decree of God, so wrong that not only must they not practice it, but they must place legal impediments in the way of others who would practice it, then Mormons are objectively anti-gay - and they should be willing to own, and own up to, this truth. It’s just that Mormons feel being anti-gay is a Good Thing, and increasingly, most others don’t.
