IN DEFENSE OF RELIGIOUS FREEDOM

IN DEFENSE OF RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
by Timothy Rollins, Editor and Columnist

October 19, 2009

AUTHOR'S NOTE: This column is NOT to be construed as an attack on gays as a whole, but rather, on those within the gay community who insist on their rights while denying others with differing viewpoints the right to express theirs.

Last week, Elder Dallin Oaks (pictured, right) of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (also known as the Mormon Church) set off a firestorm of controversy when he spoke at BYU-Idaho in Rexburg on the importance of preserving the religious freedoms guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution against societal forces that threaten those freedoms. In his address, Elder Oaks - a former Utah Supreme Court Justice and Professor at the University of Chicago Law School - likened the harassment and intimidation against Mormons over passage of Proposition 8 to indignities directed against Blacks in the 1960's Civil Rights Movement.

Suffice it to say, these remarks infuriated both the black and gay communities. The fact remains that Elder Oaks' assessment was directly on target. In their efforts to legitimize gay relationships and equate them to those of 'straight' couples, the gay community deliberately ignores the fact that the measure - Proposition 8 - went down to defeat because, assertions from the gay community notwithstanding, the majority of Californians who went to the polls voted against the ballot initiative. In the marketplace of ideas, the arguments espoused by the gay community were not sufficient to sway Californians whose personal and/or religious beliefs run contrary to the alternative lifestyles promoted by those who consider themselves either gay or lesbian.

Not only will I stand by Elder Oaks' assessment, I will take this one step further: Gays and their supporters and other sympathizers can bark at the moon all they want. Seeking the so-called 'right' to marry is merely an attempt on their part to (a) appear 'normal'; and (b) obtain societal validation for a relationship that is widely perceived as deviant, sinful and/or contrary to nature.

Another point where I have an issue with the gay community is that until 1973, homosexuality was listed as a mental illness. I say was listed, because the gay lobby successfully bullied the American Psychological Association into delisting it as a mental disorder, and as Elder Bruce C. Hafen of the LDS Church's First Quorum of the Seventy said, that the delisting was based on politics and not science.

In true retaliatory fashion, opponents of Prop 8 are planning to get the issue back on the ballot in 2010; this is their right in the free and open society in which we live. As LDS Church spokeswoman Kim Farah best put it in response to Tom Hanks' case of foot-in-mouth disease, "expressing an opinion in a free and democratic society is as American as it gets."

And while seeking a relisting on the ballot is expected, it only goes to show that gays are not willing to accept the will of the majority of the people, and will browbeat, ridicule, harass, threaten, intimidate and annoy as need be, in order to ram their perverted agenda down the collective throats of all of America and not just Californians.

Being the whiners by nature that liberals - and especially gay activists are - they took to loud protests at Mormon temples, sent white powder to some LDS temples so as to incite fears of anthrax, and then had the nerve to claim that they were the victims of the smear campaign. If ever there is a modern personification of the double standard, it is to be found among the gay activist community, who like petulant brats, want it either their way or not all. In their episodes of not just civil disobedience, but also vandalism of LDS Church buildings, the gay community and their sympathizers sought and obtained copies of Prop 8 donor lists and used them to harass and bully individual donors, with some of them losing their jobs because spineless employers were more interested in pleasing a fringe minority. Call it what you want, such actions are acts of domestic terrorism and nothing less.

All this behavior is merely 'business as usual' for liberals, and it because of their corrupt philosophies that conservatives and others opposed to gay marriage must draw a line in the sand and choose for themselves where they stand. If we kowtow to one fringe group, all the others will get in line, and in the end, there will be nothing left, which only cements my belief that gay activist groups and others of their ilk are nothing more than scavengers and extortionists - sucking up all the leftovers and beating on anyone who does not bow to their agenda of evil and depravity.

There. I said it - and oh, do I feel better! ***

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ADDITIONAL INFORMATION AND OTHER RELATED ARTICLES:

Elder Oaks' Remarks on Religious Freedom (The actual text of his remarks)
Short Biographical Info on Elder Oaks (Professional and Ecclesiastical Background)
LDS Apostle Under Fire for Civil Rights Analogy (Salt Lake Tribune - 2009-10-14)
Is LDS Church taking a step back on gay issues? (Salt Lake Tribune - 2009-09-25)
LDS Church Articles of Faith (See Article #11)
Tom Hanks Says Mormon Supporters of Proposition 8 'Un-American' (FOX NEWS - 2009-01-16)
Tom Hanks Apologizes for Calling Mormon Supporters of Proposition 8 'Un-American' (FOX NEWS - 2009-01-23)
IN DEFENSE OF TRUTH AND VIRTUE (TAP-2008-11-12)
THE HYPOCRISY NEVER ENDS (TAP-2009-01-19)

Photo of Timothy Rollins courtesy of staff files
Photo of Elder Dallin Oaks courtesy of LDS Newsroom

A veteran freelance writer, Timothy Rollins brings a wealth of political and military experience dating back more than three decades. He is a freelance writer and policy analyst living in Oklahoma who has been featured on both television and radio. He has appeared both in online publications as well as in print newspapers in the United States such as the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, USA TODAY, the Deseret News in Salt Lake City, and also in Canada, where he has appeared in The Toronto SUN and the Daily Herald in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The views expressed here by Mr. Rollins are his own and do not represent the official views of any organization or entity with which he may otherwise be affiliated. As such, Mr. Rollins alone takes full responsibility for them. He can be reached by e-mail at rollins@american-partisan.com. ***