Before 1978, black men couldn't be priests in the church. Their black skin was the "mark of Cain" and they were all direct descendents of Abel's killer. (Every male is a priest in the church.)

The Civil Rights movement in the 60's led to federal legislation. The Mormon Church was being threatened with... losing their tax exemption maybe? I'm unclear.

They were also having trouble getting black people to join and their proselytizing efforts in Africa weren't going so well, as you can imagine.

So the President of the Church got a message from God in 1978 that God has now forgiven Cain's descendents and they can now be priests.

Personally, I think this is behind why the Mormon Church pushes back so hard on gay rights. They are afraid the government will step in and punish them for anti-gay stances. So they want to get it in the law to protect themselves.

I may have some of the details wrong -- this is the essence of it.


>> ^Sagemind:

in 1978, God changed his mind about black people... (??)
Comedy Religion

A friend of mine told me that she was at a Gay Rights March on Washington. She stood on the Capitol steps and waved a rainbow flag. She was told that she couldn't do that, that only American flags were allowed on Capitol grounds.

When I was 15, I sat down on a chunk of marble at JFK's grave site, off to the side. A soldier in full regalia came over and told me that I was "sitting on his grave" and that I should stand up to show respect.

I am beginning to see a theme to these stories.

Sometimes respect has to be legislated, if there are so many different understandings of what it means to show respect.

Certainly there is a conversation to be had about whether it is even appropriate to say "this space is sacred". But why turn it into "Adam versus The Man"? It is childish and in my opinion, is a kneejerk response from a guy who has authority issues.

There are real problems with police brutality -- take this energy and instead highlight the brutality that results from our misguided war on drugs. Now that is something worth fighting for. This just diminishes the whole concept of "police brutality."

And bottom line.... this is just silly.

I lived in Texas for about 25 years, and I learned hospitality is important there. It doesn't surprise me that they are offended by an inhospitable waitress - a person who is especially expected to be nice. It may have more to do with that than standing up for gay rights. It's also worth noting that 44% of Texas voters went for Obama, so it's not like the entire state is full of right-wingers.

Hey - I can be interested in both. And this is in the sports channel.>> ^bareboards2:

GIDP = Grounded Into Double Play per my quick google search. For those of us more interested in gay rights than baseball.

GIDP = Grounded Into Double Play per my quick google search. For those of us more interested in gay rights than baseball.

It is so hard to listen to this.

But thanks. One good thing.... the gay rights activist got to speak the most.

In reply to this comment by eric3579:
Thought you might be interested

At the end of the day I would always support gay rights, not so much for honestly caring about other people being trampled for what is in most cases most likely a natural orientation, but for the off-chance that 20 years from now I'll find myself bored with sexuality as I know it, adventurous enough to tell myself "hey, why not suck a cock?" and mature enough not to cringe at the mere thought.

(not saying heterosexuality is immature, just that I believe we are all capable of evolving new 'orientations' through genuine open mindedness and experience, albeit most of us unfortunately have no interest in doing so.)

>> ^shinyblurry:

Videosift, the progressive secular humanists of the new internet? You can check the tempurature of the beliefs here by who the sift repeatedly gives a voice. Apparently homosexual atheists are in force these days.
Since the sift is so anti-christian, I don't mind speaking up about these things. Homosexuality is a sin, period. You're not born that way. We're all born with a fallen nature, with a predisposition for sinning. People have different trials. Homosexuals aren't a special class of people deserving special rights. That is a joke. They are people who are faced with this sin in particular, for whatever reason.
What Dan Savage does isn't sex. It's consensual sodomy. Thats part of what evil does is redefine the meanings of things. The love that two gay men have for eachother is not beautiful, it is repulsive. God does not approve of their union, and they should never be married. What they love is sin, and sin is not beautiful. It is an abomination before the Lord.

A group of sinners have actually convinced this corrupt culture that they deserve special rights for sinning. lol. It just shows you how far gone this country/world is. Yes, all of this so people can park their junk in whatever they want..anything but what God wants, notice, that is the key point. People who embrace sin as they do could never please God. You can't serve two masters. Gay rights? Sinners have no rights, they are a slave to sin. America is becoming more like babylon every day, especially in what it deserves as punishment for its actions.


I am having a hell of a hard time working out if this is just an elaborate parody of fear-mongering bigotry or not. It's just too good.

Yeah, well.. that's just, like, your opinion, man.>> ^shinyblurry:

Videosift, the progressive secular humanists of the new internet? You can check the tempurature of the beliefs here by who the sift repeatedly gives a voice. Apparently homosexual atheists are in force these days.
Since the sift is so anti-christian, I don't mind speaking up about these things. Homosexuality is a sin, period. You're not born that way. We're all born with a fallen nature, with a predisposition for sinning. People have different trials. Homosexuals aren't a special class of people deserving special rights. That is a joke. They are people who are faced with this sin in particular, for whatever reason.
What Dan Savage does isn't sex. It's consensual sodomy. Thats part of what evil does is redefine the meanings of things. The love that two gay men have for eachother is not beautiful, it is repulsive. God does not approve of their union, and they should never be married. What they love is sin, and sin is not beautiful. It is an abomination before the Lord.

A group of sinners have actually convinced this corrupt culture that they deserve special rights for sinning. lol. It just shows you how far gone this country/world is. Yes, all of this so people can park their junk in whatever they want..anything but what God wants, notice, that is the key point. People who embrace sin as they do could never please God. You can't serve two masters. Gay rights? Sinners have no rights, they are a slave to sin. America is becoming more like babylon every day, especially in what it deserves as punishment for its actions.

Holy shit you're nuts.

Can you just make some dumb comment to get yourself insta-banned so I don't have to know that you exist as a person anymore?

>> ^shinyblurry:
Homosexuality is a sin, period. You're not born that way. We're all born with a fallen nature, with a predisposition for sinning. Gay rights? Sinners have no rights, they are a slave to sin. America is becoming more like babylon every day, especially in what it deserves as punishment for its actions.

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)

It's the same destructive energy as the Taliban - seems to exist in every culture - dudes want to get married so the US deserves to fall like Babylon. They don't see it as psycho because the little man in their head (God) tells them it's the way things should be. >> ^alien_concept:

>> ^shinyblurry:
Videosift, the progressive secular humanists of the new internet? You can check the tempurature of the beliefs here by who the sift repeatedly gives a voice. Apparently homosexual atheists are in force these days.
Since the sift is so anti-christian, I don't mind speaking up about these things. Homosexuality is a sin, period. You're not born that way. We're all born with a fallen nature, with a predisposition for sinning. People have different trials. Homosexuals aren't a special class of people deserving special rights. That is a joke. They are people who are faced with this sin in particular, for whatever reason.
What Dan Savage does isn't sex. It's consensual sodomy. Thats part of what evil does is redefine the meanings of things. The love that two gay men have for eachother is not beautiful, it is repulsive. God does not approve of their union, and they should never be married. What they love is sin, and sin is not beautiful. It is an abomination before the Lord.

A group of sinners have actually convinced this corrupt culture that they deserve special rights for sinning. lol. It just shows you how far gone this country/world is. Yes, all of this so people can park their junk in whatever they want..anything but what God wants, notice, that is the key point. People who embrace sin as they do could never please God. You can't serve two masters. Gay rights? Sinners have no rights, they are a slave to sin. America is becoming more like babylon every day, especially in what it deserves as punishment for its actions.

Yay, a christian with little other than hate in his/her heart, my absolute favourite contradiction!
Shhhh shh shh

>> ^shinyblurry:

Videosift, the progressive secular humanists of the new internet? You can check the tempurature of the beliefs here by who the sift repeatedly gives a voice. Apparently homosexual atheists are in force these days.
Since the sift is so anti-christian, I don't mind speaking up about these things. Homosexuality is a sin, period. You're not born that way. We're all born with a fallen nature, with a predisposition for sinning. People have different trials. Homosexuals aren't a special class of people deserving special rights. That is a joke. They are people who are faced with this sin in particular, for whatever reason.
What Dan Savage does isn't sex. It's consensual sodomy. Thats part of what evil does is redefine the meanings of things. The love that two gay men have for eachother is not beautiful, it is repulsive. God does not approve of their union, and they should never be married. What they love is sin, and sin is not beautiful. It is an abomination before the Lord.

A group of sinners have actually convinced this corrupt culture that they deserve special rights for sinning. lol. It just shows you how far gone this country/world is. Yes, all of this so people can park their junk in whatever they want..anything but what God wants, notice, that is the key point. People who embrace sin as they do could never please God. You can't serve two masters. Gay rights? Sinners have no rights, they are a slave to sin. America is becoming more like babylon every day, especially in what it deserves as punishment for its actions.


Yay, a christian with little other than hate in his/her heart, my absolute favourite contradiction!

Shhhh shh shh

Videosift, the progressive secular humanists of the new internet? You can check the tempurature of the beliefs here by who the sift repeatedly gives a voice. Apparently homosexual atheists are in force these days.

Since the sift is so anti-christian, I don't mind speaking up about these things. Homosexuality is a sin, period. You're not born that way. We're all born with a fallen nature, with a predisposition for sinning. People have different trials. Homosexuals aren't a special class of people deserving special rights. That is a joke. They are people who are faced with this sin in particular, for whatever reason.

What Dan Savage does isn't sex. It's consensual sodomy. Thats part of what evil does is redefine the meanings of things. The love that two gay men have for eachother is not beautiful, it is repulsive. God does not approve of their union, and they should never be married. What they love is sin, and sin is not beautiful. It is an abomination before the Lord.


A group of sinners have actually convinced this corrupt culture that they deserve special rights for sinning. lol. It just shows you how far gone this country/world is. Yes, all of this so people can park their junk in whatever they want..anything but what God wants, notice, that is the key point. People who embrace sin as they do could never please God. You can't serve two masters. Gay rights? Sinners have no rights, they are a slave to sin. America is becoming more like babylon every day, especially in what it deserves as punishment for its actions.

Everybody defines themselves by the kind of sex they like--especially the ones who go on about how "normal" they are, and they never seem to shut up about it either. And anyway, this guy isn't talking about gay rights. He is talking about vile, repulsive bigots, who are much more than 4 percent of the population, unfortunately. It's the bigots, not the gays, who try to force everybody else into having the same kind of sex that they happen to like.

>> ^quantumushroom:

Dear Gays,
You are 4 percent of the population at most. FOUR!
WHY do I keep hearing about your "Gay" problems non-stop? You're the ones putting "GAY" in front of everything else you are and defining yourselves around it. GAY choirs? GAY gun clubs? GAY Republicans? What's next, GAY sex?
For fk's sake, pot smokers and whoremongers outnumber you by the millions. Give someone else a chance to complain!

That was lovely. Thank you.

In reply to this comment by BicycleRepairMan:
>> ^Yogi:

That's a really sweet story and I was totally with this "It Gets Better" campaign that they were pushing. But I still stick by my personal belief that we should make it better, you don't get things better in your society by waiting. You make it better, how about something like that for a pro gay rights campaign?


I think the "It Gets Better" campaign was, and certainly has become, more than just a message to talk young gay or alienated people out of committing suicide (as if that wasnt a worthy cause)

Anyone who has seen even one of these videos or messages from people who have been bullied their entire childhoods and are admitting it and have gotten through it, has either been on the edge of tears or they must be dead inside.

I've never been homophobic or anything like that, but it certainly has moved me in some way to be more sympathetic and aware of the problems that these kids face. Not that I wasn't before, but I'm saying it moves us straights too, thats all.

So what i'm getting at, is that this campaign has, perhaps more than politics or legislation, changed people attitude towards gay/lesbian/transexuality , which, after all, is the most important thing. If you think about the civil rights movement, for example, getting laws etc straight (no pun intended) is one thing,but changing people's mind might be the most important part.