We Americans tout the benefits of democracy. We seek to spread it around the world, that is, unless you're a liberal and you're in the minority. Then you try to stifle democracy.
Today's Salt Lake Tribune (which I refer to as the Godbeite Gazette) has an opinion piece by a young-skull-full-of-mush, Adam McClain. McClain gets on his soapbox and preaches to the apostles of Christ that they should get the Church out of politics. His primary motive is the Church's opposition to "the proposed rule banning professionals from practicing conversion therapy."
If you're not familiar with that terminology, conversion therapy is a form of psychotherapy that helps gays abandon their perversion and return to normal sexuality. The LGBTQ+ political lobby is trying to have this entire notion banned because it contradicts their narrative that they are born gay. Never mind that people like Chirlane McCray, New York Mayor Bill De Blasio's wife, used to be a lesbian. (See article here.) Acting on homosexual impulses is a choice. No one is born that way, as Elder Dallin H. Oaks reminded us in his recent conference talk. It is that very talk that triggered McClain to write his opinion piece to begin with.
In a democracy, the majority rules. Federalism allows the various states to legislate local laws according to the majority. Federal civil rights laws ensure that every state's local laws meet a minimum standard. That minimum standard protects life, liberty, and property. It is sometimes a tenuous balance. Civil rights laws don't give you a mandate to force your values and opinions on the majority. Satan inspires certain malcontents to do things that defy the majority's morals sometimes. Case-in-point, several years ago, some nitwits had the idea of opening up a bakery that featured pastries or breads shaped like sexual organs--in a latter-day saint community. The decent people were naturally offended and they went to the city council to try to shut the business down. The business had already committed professional suicide at that point and would not last. The citizens sought to accelerate the process and get rid of a public nuisance. The business sued to try to save its skin and profit from the opposition. Eventually, it went away. The majority rules. Take your perverted bread and the perverse mind that thought up such a thing and move to San Francisco or another modern-day Sodom.
The Church sets the standards for its members to follow. If it happens that those members form a political majority in a city or state, then democracy dictates that their views and values will be prevalent in the society. If you oppose those values, then persuade others through reason and build a majority. If you fail to do that, whining doesn't help. Suing the city or the state doesn't help. Your mother should have taught you that you can't always have your way. Grow up.
Of course, when you read these opinion articles, you always have to read the little bio at the end of them. It reads, "Adam McClain, Watertown, Mass., is a graduate of Brigham Young University now attending Harvard Divinity School. He studies gender and sexuality, theology and 20th century dystopian literature." I don't know for sure, but does that sound like the typical academic career path for a latter-day saint young man? I could be wrong, but I read between the lines and see a latter-day saint who has given in to homosexual urges, who went to BYU after his mission, graduated, and has now come out of the closet only to find that he is unable to change the Church to his way of thinking. He goes off to a school, whose purpose is to train up the hireling clergymen of apostate Christianity, and studies The Hunger Games. What career path results from that kind of education?
In the Book of Mormon, when the people became affluent and were lifted up in their pride, they'd try to foist their false philosophies and narratives upon their fellow Church members. When they failed, they always "went over to the Lamanites" to "stir them up in anger against their brethren." It's a pattern we see often among liberal latter-day saints. Does that pattern fit here? Do many BYU grads go to Harvard Divinity School? Do ministers of other faiths promote anti-Mormonism? Will McClain use his education to build Zion or tear it down? Time will tell. This is probably not the last time we will hear from Mr. McClain.
I have lived my entire life outside of "Mormon country," where latter-day saints are a minority. I long for the time when I can enjoy living in a place where you're not looked upon as a menace to society for having a large family, for not drinking, or sleeping around. It would be nice to live in a place where bars and liquor stores are few and where adult-oriented businesses are almost non-existent. Given that the average man reacts to seeing two grown men kiss the same way he does when seeing maggots squirming out of a piece of meat (see article here), it doesn't bother me if homosexuals feel unwelcome in our midst. There are other places for them to go if they can't abide by the norms established in a democracy. The Church should be able to preach its truth and have a place where members can live it as a majority. Members should regard young fools like Adam McCain and kindly invite them to enjoy their minority status and their liberal views in Massachusetts.
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