Outer Lightness » UTARNIA » August 2007

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UTARNIA

• 

  Take us off the list!

  Posted: August 14th, 2007, 9:48am EDT by Kita Kazoo

  Tags:    [edit]

  Take us off the list!
• 

  Utah Luck

  Posted: August 14th, 2007, 9:33am EDT by Kita Kazoo

  Tags:    [edit]

  Life is hard in Mormonville
  
  People frown
  People stare
  People judge
  God's people are rude
  
  The desert dries up your life
  It eats your car
  It eats your house
  It eats at your soul
  Nothing left but dust and bugs
  
  Nothing but bad luck here
  You work too hard
  Get paid too little
  
  Pounding your head
  On a brick wall
  Always bleeding
  Never catching your breath
  
  Vultures circling
  
  It sucks you into the Mormon misery
  Even if you aren’t
  
  Joseph Smith
  Burn in Hell
• 

  Doc's Opening Comments

  Posted: August 14th, 2007, 3:21am EDT by Doc

  Tags:    [edit]

  I wrote some time back that I was fed up with trying to disguise my disgust with Mormon Facist Domination in Utah.
  
  Then I was distracted by National and International events and it seemed my determination to discuss the juvenile bullying and anti-American behavior of Utah Government and the general anti-human, anti-American attitudes fostered in Utah as it's Mormon Pioneer heritage kind of took a back seat.
  
  While I have found many very nice people in Utah, in almost everyone who was raised here lays an undercurrent of intolerance and hate as well as a willingness to bend or invent "law" or "correct/proper" behavior as it suits them.
  
  The Mormon Church sets the precedents for nearly all social perspective, even for those who do not formally subscribe to the Mormon Religion.
  
  This means that anyone who disagrees with someone or the government or the church is branded as simply having "hurt feelings" and amazingly, once enunciated, that serves to put an end to seriously considering the issue.
  
  Just like when people throw the "race card" to cripple their opponant legitimate complaint and justify their own unjust behaviors, the Mormon Church has taught the Utah public to consider anyone who disagrees with them or who violates in any way their perspective to be criminal.
  
  This means that if you are attacked, and when the police arrive, if you use some vulgarity, suddenly you are the criminal and whatever attack you suffered is suddenly justified in the minds of the police because you said a bad word.
  
  The government that is suppose to protect the rights of citizens minimizes abuses if you do not fit the perfect Mormon profile.
  
  Then, if you do fit the perfect Mormon profile, they refer you to your bishop and drop the case.
  
  Only if you are a community leader or excessivly wealthy can you get support from the government in Utah.
  
  In those cases, right and wrong simply do not matter.
  
  In Utah, the maxim "We believe in the Golden Rule;Those with the Gold, Make The Rules" is really true!
  
  Now, this happens in almost every culture. What is different in Utah is that these criminals are held up as Good Citizens and role models for the community. Their success in defeating their enemies, even if that enemy is the Law, is seen as proof of their superiority and righteousness.
  
  In other communities, a crook is a crook and when the Mayor or Governor or the Police or Religous Leaders or Teachers, etc. break or bend the law to enrich themselves or to avoid justice for their unjust or criminal treatment of their fellows it is described just that way.
  
  Outside Utah, crooks are plainly shown to be crooks. Inside Utah, crooks who get away with it are given a mantle of public and heavenly approval.
  
  In Utah there is an idea handed down from Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, John Taylor (the first three presidents of the Mormon Church) and their successors that was formally described as "Beating The Devil At His Own Game" and "Lying For The Lord".
  
  These two ideas permeate nearly every social, political and religious interaction that occurs in Utah and it is used to justify just about every abuse that is committed.
  
  Citizens who do not fit the "perfect" Mormon mold are scapegoated by the culture and persons who fail to "dress right" or "speak right" or attend the Mormon Church are routinely persecuted and prosecuted for no "good" reason.
  
  So, I decided to start this blog as a separate place to just discuss Utah and how it perverts what the rest of the Nation considers Constitutional Protections and Basic Civil and Human Rights and how these behaviors are inculcated into nearly every part of life here.
• 

  Free Utah From Mormon Oppression

  Posted: August 11th, 2007, 5:22am EDT by Kita Kazoo

  Tags:    [edit]

  While I was growing up in the 60's one of the Sunday School lessons taught in our Mormon meetings was on the "plan of salvation" which included "the war in heaven".
  
  The main theme of the lesson being that it was very important for God to protect our free agency. So much so that he would be willing to allow Satan to create the war in heaven and eventually lead off a third of his spirit children, rather than to force us to live our lives in a world without choice. That a world without error or sin would be evil and undesirable... a sin in it's self. The ultimate damnation for our souls.
  
  One of the other lessons I had been taught as a child growing up in the Mormon Church, along the same theme as the previous lesson, was that the Constitution was an inspired document, written by men of God. That we as Saints of the Latter-days were to uphold and defend the rights it grants to us and to others, even if we don't always agree with them.
  
  It is hard for me to reconcile these childhood Sunday School lessons with the reality I live in as an adult in the state of Utah. It seems to me that there is an active movement within our state government to create a Utah without sin. (As defined by some of the narrow-minded power hungry Mormons)
  
  It seems to me that the legislators in this state are aggressively trying to limit the personal freedoms of its citizens. They have openly declared war on the personal choices of people who are not harming others, about things that wouldn't be given a second thought in other parts of the country.
  
  They have taken it upon themselves to judge and discriminate against anyone who does not have the same beliefs as them. Since I grew up out in the mission field and not here in Utah I have to wonder if the Mormon children in Utah got the same Sunday School lessons that we did back east?
  
  It seems hypocritical to me, for a person to consider oneself a Latter-day Saint and then purposely use the freedoms that that Constitution grants everyone, to try and deny others the same. It is not right or ethical to attack minorities and deny them access to the same expressions of freedom we enjoy, no matter what their beliefs are.
• 

  Utah Mormon Snobbery

  Posted: August 10th, 2007, 9:24am EDT by Kita Kazoo

  Tags:    [edit]

  The short answer is that Mormons, especially in Utah are religiously stuck-up.
  
  You all know it - "The only true church" - "God’s in embryo" stuff…
  
  The long answer is what I've been thinking about for a long time.
  
  A prime example of Mormon hating and religious snobbery is in the comments posted on the Daily Herald website. There are tons of great examples of “Mormon vs. Gentile” warring going on there. (Gentile is a term used in Mormonism to describe everyone who is a non member.)
  
  The littlest thing brings out the nastiest comments on both sides of the fence. Every topic turns into a religious battle. There is no topic off limit for a tug of war of nuclear proportions. The nasty and mostly uninformed thoughtless comments go on and on... the name-calling and unkind crap has no limits!
  
  Since the non members are assumedly evil (i.e. the Mormon saying - If you aren’t for God - the Mormon God - then you are against…) one could excuse the angry outbursts from them, but one would think it strange for people who refer to themselves as "Saints" to participate in such abusive angry conversations.
  
  As I remember things, the LDS membership is counseled against arguing with others over religion. Not only was it wrong to do (11th Article of Faith) but it was also seen as unseemly and unconstructive behavior for “Saints”.
  
  Here in Utah where the Mormons are the majority they insist that their religious values are the only valid values. And the majority of Mormons in Utah refuse to accept that other people who don’t believe as they do could possibly have the right to live the values they choose and not the predominant Mormon life-style.
  
  Often times when they are put in public office they forget to balance their desires to build a society that fits their religious needs against their own scriptures and teachings, which support the freedoms that are afforded every American through the Constitution. They are much like the puritans of Plymouth who where chased abroad for their religious views and then in turn tolerated nothing else once they arrived here.
  
  What is frustrating to most non members is they’d all be happy to let Mormons have their belief system in peace. They only get riled up when they feel invalidate and forced to live by Mormon standards. i.e. No dancing except at church dances, no parties outside of church parties, restrictive liquor laws, no porn, opening prayers at city counsel and zoning meetings, slanted news reports… (I won’t even start trying to address the unconstitutionality of their anti-polygamy laws and anti-gay movements. Those deserve full blogs of their own.)
  
  This is very hard for people in the rest of the country to understand as they have not experienced such a broad sweeping rejection of human rights. The only other place in our country subjected to similar religious domination it the Bible Belt.
  
  On a personal level it is hard for most Mormons to even consider that anyone else’s life experiences and spiritual perspective could be as valid as theirs are. Since they have all of the truth, you are wrong by default. This causes no end of division and cruelty amongst family members. The pressure to conform is intense for if you are too different you may find yourself shunned completely.
  
  When it comes to dealing with Mormons I have found that it is good to remember, they believe they have a two-headed quarter and you don’t.
  
  I can hear the protests already... Not me – I’m not that way!
  
  Perhaps not, however, everyday I meet someone who is socially shunned here in Utah, sometimes starting in elementary school. It seems like people who don't at least show up for church on Sunday are just plain left out and often discounted as human beings.
  
  In my opinion it is this social exclusion and repression of freedoms granted in other states that breeds this hatred for Mormons and their religion.
  
  I don’t think this is the kind of social situation our Creator would find acceptable.
  
  I know that not all Mormons are narrow-minded and bigoted; there are a lot of awful nice folks in the church… Too bad there aren’t more of them in Utah.