Huge turnout for mass resignation from Mormon church after new discriminatory LGBT policy

http://m.dailykos.com/stories/2015/11/16/1450680/-Huge-turnout-for-mass-resignation-from-Mormon-church-after-new-discriminatory-LGBT-policy 

Huge turnout for mass resignation from Mormon church after new discriminatory LGBT policy

Nov 16, 2015 7:31pm GMT by Jen Hayden

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In early November, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced a new policy—natural and adopted children of same-sex parents would no longer be baptized in the church. In response to the new policy, which Mormon church leaders said was necessary to protect innocent children, attorney (and former Mormon) Mark Naugle planned a mass resignation event for November 14, 2015.​ The event took off and as of this weekend, around 1,500 members had already resigned:

About 1,500 Latter-day Saints have submitted letters of resignation from the Mormon Church to protest a new policy barring children of married same-sex couples from being baptized until they are adults, movement organizers said on Sunday.

More than 1,000 people gathered on Saturday near the Salt Lake City headquarters of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) to protest the policy they see as discriminatory and harmful to families, with many standing in long lines to submit their resignations, they said.

Attendee Brooke Swallow said LDS policies that discriminate just tear families apart:

"It is difficult for people to leave the Church. It takes people a long time to make this decision. It is a well-thought-out one and it is not taken lightly," said Brooke Swallow, one of the organizers of the Saturday protest.

"The people in the Mormon Church are finding that this is not a Christ-centered policy," Swallow added. "This is a policy that is about the people at the top, and their views and prejudices, and they are not thinking through what this will do long-term to families."

Another rally is scheduled for November 21st. From the Utah Rally for Love, Equality, Family and Acceptance Facebook page:

There is a new generation rising here in Utah! We rally together on November 21st, to show our state, and our nation, that we stand together as a community dedicated to believing that everyone deserves Love, Equality, Family, and Acceptance In large numbers our voice will be heard; it is up to EVERY ONE OF US to be the voice of change.

At noon, we will meet on the steps of Capitol Hill where will we have a number of community activist speak to the crowd. At 1:45pm, we will walk together to the LDS Church office building. We will show Utah the impact of peaceful protesting, by wrapping around the LDS Church office building since this is a leadership decision, in a human circle, holding hands, uniting one another.
12:00 PM: Rally @ State Capitol 

1:45 PM Peaceful walk to the blocks around the LDS Church office building that are public property, not the plaza on the west side of the office building. We will have markers up so no one gets in trouble 

At the time of this article, approximately 1,300 people had shown an “interest” in attending. Those numbers may swell throughout the week. Stay tuned!

Sheldon by Dave Kellett (Nov.19th. 2015)

Telling the truth will win no Teapublican votes; they don't believe in reality.

The Rachel Maddow Show / The MaddowBlog

 

The ‘reality gap’ poses real political challenges

11/20/15 09:20 AM—UPDATED 11/20/15 09:25 AM

 

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By Steve Benen

 

In any democratic political system, the parties are supposed to disagree. They’re supposed to fight and argue, denounce their rivals’ ideas, and make the case to voters that they know what they’re talking about while their opponents are fools.

 

But what’s often exasperating about American politics is the degree to which partisans live in alternate realities. It’s one thing to disagree on the merits of ideas; it’s something else to disagree on whether objective, quantifiable truths are real.

 

The Washington Post’s Greg Sargent yesterday flagged a fascinating result from the latest Bloomberg Politics poll.

Republicans say by 53-38 that the unemployment rate today is worse than when Obama took office. Americans overall say the opposite by 56-34.

 

In January of 2009, the unemployment rate was 7.8 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The rate rose to around 10 percent by October of 2009, then declined steadily to 5.0 percent last month.

Whether or not the unemployment rate has improved is not a matter of opinion. No matter how one sees the world, a 7.8% rate is higher than a 5% rate. That’s equally true for Democrats and Republicans.

 

But most Republican voters don’t believe it. The “reality gap” persists, and it’s a problem.

 

Here, for example, is the unemployment rate since President Obama took office.

 

If GOP voters want to make the case that Obama’s policies don’t deserve credit, fine. If they want to argue that there are other, more important metrics, no problem. If they want to suggest the rate would have fallen faster with a right-wing economic agenda, we can at least have the conversation.

 

But the polling suggests Republicans prefer to pretend reality isn’t true. It’s as if a form of cognitive dissonance is kicking in: the president is bad, falling unemployment is good, ergo unemployment must be higher, not lower.

 

This is by no means limited to unemployment. President Obama increased border security, and Republicans are absolutely certain that he’s done the opposite. The deficit has dropped by $1 trillion in the Obama era, and Republicans just know in their gut that the deficit has ballooned.

 

The Affordable Care Act has lowered the uninsured rate to unprecedented depths, but Republicans are confident that “Obamacare” hasn’t improved the uninsured rate at all. The United States’ international reputation has improved dramatically since the end of the Bush/Cheney era, though Republicans believe it’s deteriorated.

 

Maybe the bubble of conservative media has shielded many Republican voters from details the party’s voters don’t want to hear. Maybe Republican voters have a tribal reflex that gets in the way.

 

Whatever the cause, this “reality gap” makes conversations awfully difficult.

 

Q: If the unemployment rate has fallen quickly under Obama, why should we dramatically change economic course in 2016?

 

REPUBLICAN VOTER: Because the unemployment rate has gone up, just like the deficit.

 

Q: But reality says–

 

REPUBLICAN VOTER: Spare me your economic mumbo-jumbo.

 

It’ll make for some interesting Thanksgiving Day chats next week, won’t it?