Archive for February, 2016
Separation of Church and State: An Open Question
by codemonkey on Feb.19, 2016, under Dave's Rants
Right now is the time in Utah when our legislature votes on issues. And, it is also the time when the LDS Church changes their D&C and tells their congregation and members how they should vote. While this does anger me, more than that, I do not understand how they can do it righteously:
So, to illustrate my actual question, let’s divide the world into two groups: Followers and Heathens.
## Followers
Followers are members of the Church. They believe and follow the rules of the Church, so that they may attain salvation. In this case, why would the Church ever need to legislate their rules? They should not, since their members are trying their best to be saved. And, any laws would only serve to punish the Followers when they lose their path. Since it is not the job of a legal body to punish — according to all scripture I’ve read — what would be the point in lobbying?
## Heathens
Heathens are either people who have rejected the Church, people of other religions, or people without faith. Now, what would be the Church’s need to legislate their morality onto Heathens? I have only come up with a few possibilities:
- To convert them? – Church’s generally convert people by showing them the good work that they do, not by lobbying governments to punish them. I doubt anyone who has a hard time buying a beer decides to suddenly go to church.
- To save them? – While I honestly think this is part of it, I have to ask “Why?”. If a person is not interested in the salvation that a Church offers them, why try to save them against their will? If they are damned to whatever hell the Church has, why prevent them from marrying their true love, because it is wrong to the Church?
- To punish them? – This is the only one I can think of that I can’t debunk. Maybe the Church is trying to punish everyone who is not following their beliefs. And, again, why the need to levy their beliefs onto others? This is not being a missionary, the Church is not spreading their beliefs, they are spreading their rules and punishment.
## Thoughts
I wish I had an actual conclusion. Churches are imposing their beliefs onto strangers and non-believers. And, they’re trying to stand behind their scripture as the reason for doing so. But, in reality, it does not matter what book they use for scripture: there is no point to this nonsense. They will not save anyone. They will not convert anyone. They will only anger people, and make more haters of their religion.
When the LDS Church took on the Gay Marriage proposition in California and shot it down: what changed? I can only think of one thing: People everywhere started to hate Mormons. Daniel Tosh made it a point to trash them on every single one of his shows for a year. The federal government then declared gay marriage legal.
So, what good came from the LDS Church standing up against strangers’ rights in California? Nothing. (Well, I’m sure the LDS haters out there enjoyed people flocking to their cause, but, again, hatred begets hatred)