On Equal Rights

It was Abraham Lincoln who said: "If you cannot be an honest Lawyer, Strive to be honest without being a Lawyer"
I suppose the same could be said of Christians. "If you cannot be an honest Christian, strive to be honest without being a Christian."
What the LDS church is currently arguing as the "Free Exercise of Faith" as argued for by the Dalin Oaks (Mormon Apostle) taking point IS NOT the "Free Exercise of Faith" but rather a LEGAL PRIVILEGE of discrimination and liability exemption for that discrimination.

Its time the Church get honest and call it what it is.

The current arguments of "Free Exercise of Faith" are a ruse to use ones faith as the rational to exempt persons of faith from public accommodation laws that ban INCORPORATED ENTITIES who avail themselves of the public purse and the public's liability and tax shelters, AS WELL AS PRIVATE INDIVIDUALS WHO ARE NOT INCORPORATED BUT WHO INVITE THE PUBLIC INTO THEIR PLACES OF PRIVATE BUSINESS from discriminating against people based on the target person's membership in an historically oppressed minority group.

The Church argues that employees of INCORPORATED ENTITIES, AND NON INCORPORATED INVITEORS should be able to claim religious conscious exemption and therefore not have to abide by public accomodation laws that are NEUTRAL TO RELIGION but require ALL PERSONS REGARDLESS OF RELIGION TO ABSTAIN FROM DISCRIMINATION ON THE GROUNDS OF RELIGIOUS AFFILIATION, CREED, GENDER, POLITICAL AFFILIATION, and RACE.

We are currently in a national discussion on whether to include SEXUAL ORIENTATION, and GENDER IDENTITY to the list of minority groups who are protected by the federal public accommodations laws.

the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution Reads in Pertinent Part:

"All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."

The 14th Amendment Protects the above classes of persons in its operation because whenever a government actor makes a law that negatively affects the historically protected groups, the law must be looked at as suspect, with a heightened level of scrutiny, to insure that a majority public bias against these groups is NOT eroding the minority groups rights to their priviliges and immunities, due process or equal protection under the law, as EQUAL CITIZENS VESTED WITH THESE RIGHTS.

Neither the Congress of the United States, NOR The Supreme Court of the United States have yet applied full text of the 14th amendment to Sexual identity and Gender Identity Minority Groups.

It is CLEAR however, that both of those groups DO IN FACT meet all of the criteria for having been an historically oppressed minority group as those criteria have been voiced by the Congress and the Courts. It is therefore only a matter of time before this happens.

For the last 30 years since Dalin Oaks Wrote the infamous Anti-Gay Strategy Memo The LDS Church has engaged a financial, legal, and verbal war to KEEP SEXUAL ORIENTATION, and GENDER IDENTITY from becoming protected classes.

The LDS Church acting as a political machine raised and spent over $200M USD from 1987-Present for the purpose of KEEPING SEXUAL MINORITIES AND THEIR FAMILIES FROM BEING TREATED EQUALLY UNDER THE LAW. That effort culminated in Prop 8. In the 6 years since, Prop 8, The LDS Church learned from the PR nightmare that was Prop 8 and has instead chosen to target states legislators. It has sponsored a series of legal conferences and legal scholars to devise a strategy to that end.

The legal scholars and Legal strategists developed the current strategy of claiming religious privilege under the 1st Amendment. They did this with the LDS Church's funding. They crafted legislation to achieve that end and this legislative session the "Religious Conscious Exemption" Bill was introduced into every state legislature where a Conservative MORMON was an elected legislator.

UT, MT, ID, CA, OR, NV, AZ, CO, KS, ND, OK, GA, and now MO.

Based on the well established FACTS the current strategy and push, is a dishonest attempt to secure a legal privilege to discriminate against sexual minorities in the name of religious freedom.

This same argument was made during the Racial Civil Rights Movement, It failed then. It will fail again.

It failed because allowing religious individuals a personal exemption from laws that are made to protect everyone would result in anarchy.

To quote Justice Scalia:

"It is a permissible reading of the [free exercise clause]...to say that if prohibiting the exercise of religion is not the object of the [law] but merely the incidental effect of a generally applicable and otherwise valid provision, the First Amendment has not been offended....To make an individual's obligation to obey such a law contingent upon the law's coincidence with his religious beliefs, except where the State's interest is 'compelling' - permitting him, by virtue of his beliefs, 'to become a law unto himself,' contradicts both constitutional tradition and common sense.' To adopt a true 'compelling interest' requirement for laws that affect religious practice would lead towards anarchy." Employment Division v. Smith. (US 1990)

It was Abraham Lincoln who said, "These men ask for just the same thing, fairness, and fairness only. This, so far as in my power, they, and all others, shall have."

And so shall it be with sexual minorities, despite the LDS Church's Best Efforts