NEWS
POLITICS
- ALL POLITICS
- COMMENTARY
- PROP. 8
- MARRIAGE
- POLL
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
- ALL ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
- ENTERTAINMENT NEWS
- ART
- BOOKS
- COMMENTARY
- DANCE
- DVDS
- FILM
- INTERNET
- MUSIC
- PROFILES
- TELEVISION
- THEATER
BUSINESS
- ALL BUSINESS
- AUTOMOTIVE
- CAREERS
- ECONOMY
- FINANCE
- MONEY
HEALTH & FITNESS
SPORTS
TRAVEL
VIDEO
PRINT ISSUE
RESOURCES & FEEDBACK

Everyday Advocates Left Hand promo (getty) | Advocate.com

|| News ||

April 06, 2009

Mormon President Urges Faithful to Stay Strong

The leader of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints alluded to the backlash against the church's support for Proposition 8 during his concluding remarks to the 179th annual conference in Salt Lake City on Sunday. President Thomas S. Monson urged the Mormon faithful to cultivate fortitude in the face of criticism.

"The moral footings of society continue to slip, while those who attempt to safeguard those footings are often ridiculed and, at times, picketed and persecuted," said Monson, according to the local ABC affiliate, KTVX-TV.

The LDS Church has been the subject of protests around the United States for its instrumental role in the passage of Prop. 8, the ballot initiative which overturned legal same-sex marriage in California in November.

"Though the storm clouds may gather," Monson continued, "though the rains may pour down upon us, our knowledge of the Gospel and our love of our Heavenly Father and of our Savior will comfort and sustain us and bring joy to our hearts as we walk uprightly and keep the commandments. There will be nothing in this world that can defeat us."

Monson reportedly made no mention of the Iowa supreme court.

Reader Comments

These comments are reproduced as written by visitors to this Web site. They have not been edited for content, grammar, or spelling. The viewpoints appearing here are those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the opinion or views of advocate.com, The Advocate, or its affiliates.

Name: Deb Ivan
Date posted: 2009-04-07 10:50 PM
Hometown: Washington, DC

Comment:

In the Advocate, the head Prophet of the Mormon Church (Monson) said: "There will be nothing in this world that can defeat us." HE SOUNDS LIKE HITLER !! He's going after gays in the way Nazis went after the Jews before & during WWII. There ARE good & loving Mormons. They need to remove this tyrant from power. By definition, a tyrant is a "ruler who exercises power in a harsh, cruel manner." That's Monson. The Prophet is obsessed with ruining the lives of GLBTs. Wasn't Prop 8 enough? Obviously not! Read between the lines. He wants the Mormon Church & Mormons to fight GLBTs--and cause others to rise up against LGBTs--with more hate crimes, beatings, murders & campaigns to defeat gay rights. This man has declared war on GLBTs. We've got to fight back with all the money, political power & gay-friendly religious support we can muster!!

Name: John ADRIAN
Date posted: 2009-04-07 5:18 PM
Hometown: Staten Island

Comment:

Dear President Monson, Imagine your nephew, the one who died of AIDS in Rochester, New York, about 15 years ago, is still alive, healthy and living in an intimate, homosexual, relationship that has lasted for almost thirty years. Imagine that you had the power, and authority to seal him and his "husband" as a family unit, together with their adopted children "for time and eternity" just as you and Sister Monson have been sealed, with your children, as an eternal family? Would you refuse to officiate at that sealing? What reason would you give him for your refusal? Would you tell him you cannot do it because you, as "prophet, seer and revelator" have not sought "revelation" because you already know the "mind and will of The Lord" and have no need of revelation on a subject that directly affects 1.3 million of the 13 million members of the church you lead? Where would you and your followers be today if Joseph Smith, jun. had waited for revelation?

Name: Sam BeGoode
Date posted: 2009-04-07 1:47 PM
Hometown: Menlo Park, CA

Comment:

As 1of18000 has his tongue firmly inserted up the Mormon Church's anus, he has the gall to say, "I'm no supporter of the LDS" but rants on and on how the Mormons didn't have ANYTHING to do with Prop 8 passing. His head must be up their ass as well as his tongue, since he goes on to ask, "Blacks and Latinos had the highest rates of voting for Prop. 8. Where's the outrage against them?" 1of18000, if you'd pull your head out long enough to look around, you'd see we HAVE criticized those groups, as WELL as Obama supporting homophobes. Were have you been? London? Don't they get news over there? Are you BLIND as well as an IDIOT?

Name: Jeff W
Date posted: 2009-04-07 11:44 AM
Hometown: Granada Hills, CA

Comment:

Responding to LONDON: As a Californian who married my partner last year, I can speak clearly that there is a huge difference between the people of California voting their conscience and the Morman church financing their religious views. While I am disappointed in the people of California who voted for Prop 8, they had every right to do so. The Morman church is supposed to maintain a separation of church and state. They violated the law and deserve to be punished according to the law. I think that is where the outrage exists. Like Ray from Florida, I submitted form 3949-A to the IRS with supporting documentation that proves the Morman Church's violations. We have a voice!

Name: Brett
Date posted: 2009-04-06 9:21 PM
Hometown: Los Angeles

Comment:

Mormons love to play the martyr and claim they're the persecuted ones ... not bothering to mention how they persecuted LGBT people by financing all the commercials intended to take away rights from Californians and destroy 18,000 marriages that took place LAWFULLY. The problem here is that because they believe they are the sole BEARERS OF TRUTH, they don't respect the way anyone else chooses to live. They proselytize non-stop, they perform baptisms and other temple ordinances for the dead -- believing that the dead will accept them in the after-life -- even those these actions are incredibly offensive to the descendants of those dead people. Perhaps they'll learn that respect is earned. People will respect them when they respect others. Legislating morality with unseemly amounts of money in an effort to force people to live they way they do doesn't work. So if the finger of ridicule is pointed their way, I'm fine with it.

Name: chris
Date posted: 2009-04-06 8:58 PM
Hometown: st robert, mo

Comment:

If there is one event that has truly shaken my faith in "traditional" christianity, it is this prop 8 bull. I don't think we can honestly say that organized religion has had a positive effect on ANY society. Clearly we don't get our morals from religion. On the contrary, we simply cite the few biblical references that we approve of and ignore the many crazy and barbaric ones that we don't. Does anybody here really think we should stone our kids to death for being disrespectful? Atheists have fewer broken marriages and are underepresented in the prison population. If Atheists are more moral than religious folk, what doest that say?

Name: diane
Date posted: 2009-04-06 8:54 PM
Hometown: novato

Comment:

Mormon president says that "The moral footings of society continue to slip, while those who attempt to safeguard those footings are often ridiculed and, at times, picketed and persecuted," He just doesn't get it that his church is not the moral decider of the entire society, and cultural world at large, not even just California, in fact nobody. He should try to keep his "flock" contained and leave the rest of us alone. Who does he think he is, GOD?! That he can be the human judgement of all the persons he thinks he has command over. Who made him GOD?! What a narcissistic, ignorant, homophobe! To hell with him and all you who think your moral, religious values ought to be PUSHED on everyone else.

Name: diane
Date posted: 2009-04-06 8:47 PM
Hometown: novato

Comment:

Continued by Diane Your churches' treatment of others has shown me you are a religion who should not be listened to or trusted. You need to stay to your own churches and stay out of society and politics, and understand and follow the idea and practice of the separation between church and state. You are trying to push your religious values on all of society and are ignorant and selfish and beginning to be quite evil! The leader of the church is a homophobe, a racist, an old ignorant man who sees nothing of what Jesus or God has taught. He is unkind and afraid and dangerous. To hell with all of you who unthinkingly follow such a sick ideology.

Name: diane
Date posted: 2009-04-06 8:42 PM
Hometown: novato

Comment:

Ok facts folks! Blacks were not allowed to even be members of the Mormon church or participate in any type of Mormon ceremony until 1978. True, True, True. SO The Book Of Mormon teaches that Abel and Cain story, but a bit twisted. It teaches that Cain killed his brother Able, and so God smote him(Cain) with a black/brown spot on his forehead, which over time spread to encompass his whole body's skin. Cain became the first black man. He was believed by the Mormons to be "born of sin" because of God's actions. So because of the archaic belief, African _American's were not accepted to be part of the LDS church. It was only because of federal pressure, and social pressure that finally in about 1978, blacks were allowed to become members of the LDS church, but still were not allowed to hold the priesthood. They were still thought to be "born of sin."

Name: Sam BeGoode
Date posted: 2009-04-06 8:08 PM
Hometown: Menlo Park, CA

Comment:

Robin says, "Besides calling people names has never helped anything." BULLCRAP. Calling EVIL out and naming it - showing others what EVIL is - that does a LOT of good. If someone says they truly believes and sees and talks with in leprechuans, we throw them in a psychiatric hospital, and yet George Bush gets away with starting a war that killed over 100,000 innocent Iraqi women and children because GOD TOLD HIM TO. Is Bush in a psychiatric hospital? NO. Why? Because PEOPLE LIKE YOU - ROBIN - are afraid of calling religious nutwhacks what they are: INSANE. They need hospitalization. At the VERY least, we need to remove them from society, where they spread the cancer of delusion.

Name: Bob
Date posted: 2009-04-06 7:21 PM
Hometown: Keywest

Comment:

Anyhow, narcissists are habitually cruel in little ways, as well as big ones, because they're paying attention to their fantasy and not to you, but the bruises on you are REAL, not in your imagination. Therapies work at all only when the individual wants to change and, though narcissists hate their real selves, they don't want to change -- they want the world to change. There are usually a favored few whom narcissists regard as absolutely above reproach, even for egregious misconduct or actual crime, and about whom they won't brook the slightest criticism. These are people the narcissists are terrified of, though they'll tell you that what they feel is love and respect; apparently they don't know the difference between fear and love. Narcissists just get worse and worse as they grow older; their parents and other authority figures that they've feared die off, and there's less and less outside influence to keep them in check. ^

Name: Bob
Date posted: 2009-04-06 6:09 PM
Hometown: Orlando, FL

Comment:

Wayne - Uh, your ignorance is agonizingly transparent. Here, let me help you out. African Americans have always been allowed to be members of the church unlike most organized Christian-based churches who defended slavery until the bitter end. Mormons don't try to convert DEAD people. Believing baptism a requirement for salvation, they perform baptisms on behalf of deceased ancestors so they may accept the ordinance in the after-life. The long-history of polygamy ended over 100 years ago. Is this what you're talking about? Native Americans are from (what a shock) somewhere on the American continent. The Book of Mormon details a family who crossed the ocean from Jerusalem about 600 BC and was eventually wiped out by internal fighting. Facts are a lot less sensational that your emotional rants.

Name: Robert
Date posted: 2009-04-06 5:45 PM
Hometown: Vallejo, CA

Comment:

A commentator posted about all the good things Mormons do. People who engage in evil acts do good thing all the time. Sometimes those who serve them do not even realize the good works they are doing have a malevolent purpose. Mormon's, like many religions, use charity to enslave the minds and souls of the naive and desperate to manipulate them into joining a religion that would have them reject their children and would treat one group of people as second class to another. A wolf in sheep's clothing is still a wolf. No amount of good can make up for the ongoing evil they are engaging in. The fact they use good acts to cloak their deeds turns any virtue they may have into something profane. True charity is its own reward, best done anonymously and with enormous selflessness and humility when the philanthropist is known. Anything else is about ego or agendas.

Name: Blake
Date posted: 2009-04-06 5:26 PM
Hometown: Oakland

Comment:

Narcissists can and do control themselves when someone's good opinion is sought -- in front of a judge, for instance -- and are skilled at presenting a respectable, even admirable, public face; some are actually meek and mild in public. Most of us who've lived with narcissists have had the experience of being disbelieved when we dared to tell what goes on in private; in some ways, we can hardly believe it ourselves. Life with a narcissist is like a bad dream that you can't wake up from. As a child, I used to be dazed by my narcissistic parent's public demeanor -- I wanted to take that person home with me or else live our entire family life in the protection of the public eye -- so attractive, modest, and sweet that even I could hardly believe that this same person could be the raging fiend I knew at home and had seriously thought, for a while when I was about ten, might be a werewolf.

Name: Blake
Date posted: 2009-04-06 4:51 PM
Hometown: San Francisco

Comment:

How wicked of the Mormons to shell out $259.8 million in humanitarian aid around the world. How cultish to have donated food, clothing, hygiene supplies, and medical aid worth $750.9 million. How spiteful for the Mormons to donate 54,840 wheelchairs to those in need in 54 different countries. How wicked of the Mormons to encourage education and skill training by providing funds, schools, and teachers in the U.S. and abroad. How wicked of the Mormons to encourage it's members to participate in democratic society, to obey the laws of the nation in which they reside. How wicked of the Mormons encourage volunteer service. You are right, sounds like a cult! What "whackos" for trying to help society and relieve suffering! They must be stopped. I can't believe we've allowed this to happen! Why we should banish them from our society! Oh wait! We have before! And they're still here? It's almost as if they are doing some kind of good...and are supposed to be here.

Name: Dr. Paul Landerman
Date posted: 2009-04-06 3:55 PM
Hometown: Atlanta,GA

Comment:

Dear Angry in Michigan: the "perverted" amount of money may be just that; in the late 1980's the Arizona Republic newspaper in Phoenix did an in-depth look at the finances of the Mormon church (I was still a practicing Mormon at that time) and found them to have an estimated income of $1million per day, from all sources. That was 20 years ago; they own huge real estate holdings, huge for-profit businesses, and a huge trading firm on Wall Street. None of this is illegal, but it does bolster your question: is it still "religion" when the money is used to tear down other people, rather than build up those who need it the most? What kind of religion is focused on destroying something?

Name: Angry in Michigan
Date posted: 2009-04-06 3:08 PM
Hometown: Orange, TX

Comment:

The issue is really not about the fact that the Mormon church hopped on the bandwagon to see Propositon 8 passed. It's their perogative - it IS a free country. What is reprehensible is the perverted amount of money they put into their efforts when the precepts of the church are to help the poor and needy. With the amount of money the Mormon AND Catholic churches put into their campaign to see Prop 8 passed, one would simply have to conclude that these "non-profit" entities have a bottomless checkbook just like our government. If Jerry Brown succeeds in his efforts to overturn the ballot initiative, it could be found that the Mormon and Catholic churches participated in something that was illegal and unconstituional. I wonder what their defense will be then - "we did it in the name of Christianity?" That's not the Christianity I was taught.

Name: c.m.
Date posted: 2009-04-06 2:45 PM
Hometown: ohio

Comment:

i seem to recall reading in the bible that having your family's genealogy done was condemned 3 different times in the bible.since the mormon church has done millions if not billions of these anti-bible acts & never turned from their wicked ways.i feel it is up to us "hellbound sinners" to call them out on it.i believe that the 3 verses that condemn doing one's genealogy also are in the catholic's bible as well so i wonder if the vatican or anyone else will be spending the same millions they did to ban gay marriage in california on trying to get the mormons to turn from their wicked ways that go against the word of god.does anyone know if the vatican has traced all of the popes family trees down thru history?if so it would probably go against the bible as well.we should tell these "bible believers" to practice what they preach or shut the hell up!

Name: Wayne
Date posted: 2009-04-06 2:37 PM
Hometown: NYC

Comment:

RJS - Funny for all your complaining, not once do you try to even dispute the facts that I spoke of. That's because everything I said was true: The Mormon cult's history of racism against African Americans is clear (Blacks were not allowed to even be members of the Mormon church or participate in any type of Mormon ceremony until 1978!!!!) They hold strange "baptisms" in which they try to convert the DEAD? (I don't even want to know what that's about). Not to mention their long history of multiple wives (some of those wives being little more than children). Mormons teach a philosophy of hatred and and warped weirdo type lies (you wouldn't believe some of the whacked out stuff in the book of Mormon. They actually think Native Americans are from Israel!!!) The Scientologists don't have anything on these whackos!

Name: Shirley Drouin
Date posted: 2009-04-06 2:18 PM
Hometown: Paducah, Ky.

Comment:

Is it just me, or does anyone else notice the same ugly face of hate in this man as in the face of that Fred Phelps Baptist Creep?!! Where is the love for other people that they should have? What makes these people think that they and they alone have all the answers?. I've lived just short of 70 years and I don't have any answers. The only thing I do know is that Religion is the cause of most problems in the world. It has created hate for hates sake. It goes against Science and good common sense. It is based on a Patriarch System. It denegrates Women and pits One Form of Religious Fanaticism against another. It brainwashes us all at a very young age and it never lets up. I say F--- It!! If you're Gay...Be happy. God has given you a blessing. He has also given you a heavy cross to carry. Remember it's not a choice and God does not make mistakes!! He loves his Gay Children too!

Name: Robin
Date posted: 2009-04-06 1:49 PM
Hometown: DM

Comment:

Narcissists are generally contemptuous of others. This seems to spring, at base, from their general lack of empathy, and it comes out as (at best) a dismissive attitude towards other people's feelings, wishes, needs, concerns, standards, property, work, etc. It is also connected to their overall negative outlook on life. ^ The nature of narcissists' personality disorder is so profound and so primitive that narcissists damage virtually everyone who comes into contact with them. They hurt their children in ways that are hardly imaginable to anyone who hasn't been there. Narcissists elicit profound rage primitive wrath and hostility from sane and stable people. This damages the social fabric by alienating the very people who might possibly be able to counterbalance the narcissists' malign influences.

Name: J. Andrew Stevens
Date posted: 2009-04-06 1:08 PM
Hometown: Salt Lake City

Comment:

Sophistry at its best! LDS President Thomas S. Monson is a voice for those who are afraid to speak for themselves, a mind for those who are unable to think for themselves and ultimately a guiding hand for those unable to see. It would be to their benefit regarding this situation if they indeed practiced what their doctrine teaches them to do. "We believe that religion is instituted of God; and that men are amenable to him, and to him only, for the exercise of it, UNLESS THEIR RELIGIOUS OPINIONS PROMPT THEM TO INFRINGE UPON THE RIGHTS AND LIBERTIES OF OTHERS; and, "WE DO NOT BELIEVE IT JUST TO MINGLE RELIGIOUS INFLUENCE WITH CIVIL GOVERNMENT, whereby one religious society is fostered and another proscribed in its spiritual privileges, and the individual rights of its members, as citizens, denied." (Doctrine & Convenants: 134: 4,9) Enough said.

Name: Martin
Date posted: 2009-04-06 12:53 PM
Hometown: McKinleyville

Comment:

Not only did they not accept African Americans in their church, they also considered them to be less human. It was not till they feared retaliation from the US government, but also one of their leaders said that god had spoken to him and told him that their church had misunderstood gods words and his epiphany was that blacks aka African Americans were indeed human and welcome in their church. Someday they will also have an epiphany and realize that the LGBT community is also human, not less than and we deserve the same EQUAL rights as everyone else. All the Mormon church does is breed discrimination and hate. It is long overdue for them to suffer taxation.

Name: JD
Date posted: 2009-04-06 12:05 PM
Hometown: Bodega

Comment:

Narcissists I've known also have odd religious ideas, in particular believing that they are God's special favorites somehow; God loves them, so they are exempted from ordinary rules and obligations: God loves them and wants them to be the way they are, so they can do anything they feel like -- though, note, the narcissist's God has much harsher rules for everyone else, including you. [Many readers have questions about narcissism and religion. Here is an interesting article on the Web: "Narcissism Goes to Church: Encountering Evangelical Worship" by Monte Wilson. "Modern American Christianity is filled with the spirit of narcissism. We are in love with ourselves and evaluate churches, ministers and truth-claims based upon how they make us feel about ourselves. If the church makes me feel wanted, it is a good church. If the minister makes me feel good about myself, he is a terrific guy. If the proffered truth supports my self-esteem, it is, thereby, verified."] [More on grandiosity.] ^

Name: Wayne
Date posted: 2009-04-06 11:39 AM
Hometown: NYC

Comment:

I think the Mormons will one day join the likes of the KKK. A racist homophobic relic of the past, that will be shunned by modern society. The Mormon cult's history of racism against African Americans is clear (Blacks were not allowed to even be members of the Mormon church or participate in any type of Mormon ceremony until 1978!!!!) They hold strange "baptisms" in which they try to convert the DEAD? (I don't even want to know what that's about). Not to mention their long history of multiple wives (some of those wives being little more than children). Mormons teach a philosophy of hatred and and warped weirdo type lies (you wouldn't believe some of the whacked out stuff in the book of Mormon. They actually think Native Americans are from Israel!!!) The Scientologists don't have anything on these whackos!

If you would like to submit a comment for posting, please fill out the form above.

All comments submitted via this form are subject to posting or publication. (To send a private letter to an Advocate editor or writer, please use the e-mail button at the top of the page, or use snail mail.) If you would like your comment considered for publication in The Advocate magazine, please include your full name, your city of residence, and a phone number where you can be reached during business hours so that we can confirm your identity. Your e-mail address and telephone number are strictly confidential and will not be shared or used for any purpose other than to contact you about your comment.

See the Contact page for sending comments for reasons other than responding to Advocate editorial and news stories.

Please note that comments sent by fax or snail mail are unlikely to be posted, although they will be considered for publication along with all letters received via e-mail or via this Web page. Comments that chiefly concern Advocate.com content will be considered for posting only on the Web site. The Advocate reserves the right to edit submitted comments for grammar, spelling, obscenities, or libel; we will, however, do our best to preserve the original comment's style and intent. Comments considered for publication in The Advocate magazine may also be edited for length.

More Exclusives

Remembering Jack Wrangler
The director of Wrangler: Anatomy of an Icon remembers the porn star, the actor, the icon, and, most important, his friend -- Jack Wrangler.

The White House Office of Missed Opportunity
While President Obama traveled abroad, the marriage-equality landscape underwent a tectonic shift. But his administration is still too firmly rooted in last year's campaign mode to absorb the change.

Taking Back the Workplace
In the 1950s, Frank Kameny was fired from his job in the Army Map Service for “sexual perversion.” Now he's watching an openly gay man run the very office once responsible for scrubbing gays from the government.

Oprah, Lesbianism, and a Colonoscopy
Gays steaming it up at a Jersey sports bar, Oprah trendsetting with an episode on sudden lesbianism, and a bit too much info from Tyra Banks re: her colonoscopy

L Word Spin-off a No-go?
The Hollywood Reporter and Variety are both reporting that the future looks grim for The Farm, the planned L Word spin-off that was to star Leisha Hailey.

Hot Sheet: Week of April 6
Dolly Parton is heading to Broadway, Hannah Montana is heading to theaters, and shoulder pads are back in fashion as season 4 of Dynasty hits DVD.

The Original Gossip Gal
In her heyday, Rona Barrett got in bed with Cher, reported on the antics of Patty Duke, and even got Burt Reynolds to address those gay rumors. Now, Barrett looks back on her career with Advocate.com.

Cruising on the High Seas
Traditionally afraid of gay cruises, one man takes his chances with a gay cruise company aboard an otherwise straight ship and lives to tell about it.

Time to Reset Our Revolution
COMMENTARY: A bold agenda that would provide full equality for all LGBT people is currently gaining ground outside gay organizations and politicians -- Lane Hudson says it might be what our movement needs.

Green Becomes Her
With a film career that includes Death Becomes Her and Blue Velvet, what could Isabella Rossellini possibly do to surprise fans? How about shtupping sea creatures as star of a short film series about animal sex, Green Porno 2?