Proposition 8: Personhood Redux

For FHE last week we read and deconstructed section 134 of the Doctrine and Covenants. I commend it to you. A declaration that is beautiful but sad in retrospect. And, an interesting counterpoint to where we find ourselves today in the gay marriage debate. Then we were talking explicitly the slavery issue, but avoiding the marriage issue. Today we are talking marriage but often not the other more hidden issues that are intertwined with the church's legal right to speak out and what it perceives to be its moral duty . . . . at least at this juncture.

In terms of Proposition 8, the church (i.e. corporation of the president) did what it had to do to preserve its rights and voice. And it's legally protected in doing so. Time to stop headbanging folks. Ever hear of silence as consent or silence as ratification?

As is the case in Coke wars, there is always some Pharisee out there ready to beat the caffeinated Pepsi guy over the head with a full plastic diet caffeine free coke bottle. But that's beside the point. And someone's going to point out that caffeine really isn't the problem, that it's the sugar that will rot your teeth that you need to worry about. Oh and don't forget the theory that it is the carbonation slowly riddling your bones with micro tunnels that is the real culprit. And, just think what giving up one soft drink a day could do for the environment and the downtrodden. Just be sure to recycle, Ok?

We had a recent reversal by the U.S. Supremes regarding corporations as persons who make political campaign contributions and said persons right to make campaign contributions. I'll leave it to the brilliant legal minds to further explore the consequences of that in terms of the activities of the LDS church in matters moral now that one decision allows more engagement by corporations financially in politicking.

Did I enjoy the "Proposition 8 debacle?" No, it's the reason, I'm even blogging, I was so internally conflicted. Conflict, that's the key word here. There is conflict. Things that don't match up, cannot be meshed, a vast divide that seems unbridgeable and more that cannot be resolved. I ask is there anything in life, ever, in the scriptures, or elsewhere that is one hundred percent black and white? If you answer this question yes, I fear that you will unnecessarily bloody not only your poor noggin but that of others as well.

Zenna Henderson: Ingathering the Complete People Stories

I am currently reading this book and I highly recommend it to the MOHO blogging community.

For a review click here.

S. E. X.

As a young married couple, a bishop gave us some unsolicited advice which I thought was silly at the time. He suggested that we pray over our sexual relations, that they would be satisfying and enhancing of our relationship. Being young and arrogant, I told him that we didn't need any help in that department. In retrospect, I realize how very little I knew about sex and life in general.

It WAS good advice and over the years I have had cause to remember and on occasion take questions to Heavenly Father, study the scriptures, and had silent moments of prayer on the issue. All to an ever increasing understanding of physical intimacy in marriage. It waxes and it wanes, yet practice does make perfect. However, the vicissitudes of life also play a role and many, many factors affect our abilities and interest levels at any given time.

There have been a number of posts in the MOHO blogosphere of late that have provoked this line of thinking for me and I only wish that it was appropriate for me to say more, but it's not. And just to underline the point here, I'm not talking about guilt or repentance, I'm talking about taking your most tender yet sexual desires to the Lord and asking him how best to exercise those in your relationship with your beloved in whatever circumstance you then find yourself in.

Sloganzilla-Men Are Pigs

So, as I was pondering political feminism, I was reminded of the lovely and implicitly sexual slogan of the seventies, "A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle." I remember this well. I also recall "Men are Pigs." "Pigs" seems to have considerably more staying power than "fish" and has been co-opted by men as well, and believe it or not, gay guys seem to have embraced the term. As I was perusing available internet content, the infamous 2009 New York Times article on Gay Marriage that contained a very stereotypical "men are pigs" quote came up in the search results as did more that one blog on GayPatriot.org discussing the rarity of actually fully committed gay marriage because "men are pigs."

I find both slogans grating and disappointing. I also think more highly of men than that. And women. We need each other. I hope for a future with less promiscuity, better relationships and less stereotyping.

Sexual Orientation is a Choice-Political Feminism

So you wonder why large numbers of LDS people believe that sexual orientation is a choice? Look no further than political feminism and separatist feminism for your answer. Political feminism argued that women should choose lesbianism as a way of combating the patriarchy. Chief among the proponents of separatist feminism was Sonia Johnson, the mormon ERA (Equal Rights Amendment) advocate who later went onto a very colorful life in feminist and lesbian extremes outside the mainstream culture. She was the most famous LDS LGBT person of her time.

Keep Austin and Mormondom Weird

Here are a few ideas I might explore in the next few weeks:

The purpose of Polygamy was to keep Mormonism Weird.

Spritual Matriarchy and presiding in the Mormon Home.

Sex abuse litigation against the LDS church (I'm absolutely for it as long as its not frivolous).

The Palin family as a case for arranged marriage in the church or, "if he brings a boy home, I hope it's a nice mormon boy from a nice mormon family."

Gay or Straight for the Cause? Can sexual identity be based on socio/political/religious ideology?

Sexual Pragmatism as risk management, reward or punishment?



Enjoy the links. And long live the city of Austin and may its weirdness forever wave.

Haiti

To better understand what happened in Haiti, watch the film Ghosts of Cite Soleil. Just a word of warning this might be rated R in theatres due to the graphic language and troubling situations.

Emo, Vanity and Vexation of Spirit

The silly thought that now that the whole Proposition 8 debacle is in the federal court system, the issue of gay marriage might get resolved nationwide one way or another, soon, passed through my mind yesterday. It was quickly banished, one way or another the issue and or its offspring will linger. So much for desperately seeking closure.

I've been reading Ecclesiastes. He might seem like a downer but he's actually about more than Vanity and Vexation, although you'd never know it at first glance. And, vanity and vexation have different meanings than what we think of today. It would be easy to think of some old guy with a stone tablet in front of mirror arranging each beard hair, but that's not his point. He's talking about our inner perspective of joy as we go through life, only in the strangest, bleakest, and moodiest way possible.

Truly interesting and fascinating opportunities pass through my fingers, as well as lots of difficult things I'd rather not deal with in my life or see happen around me, but I simply have to experience my life with peace, calmness, and take time for a little joy in both the good and the travails that I face. It would be as Ecclesiastes, the preacher said, a "vexation of spirit" to try avoid the realities of life, uncomfortable as they may be. The first footnote in Ecclesiastes regarding vexation of spirit says it translates from the Hebrew as "chasing after the wind."

Son of David and Preacher Man, you are a pretty Emo yet wise man.

To My Husband

All you have to know while reading my blog is that I love you.

Forwarding Order Expired

Apparently, there is a special hell reserved for those who move only from one unit to another at the same address-the United States Postal Service National Forwarding Order Database. And the glitch only happens between months 12 and 18 after the first Forwarding order. If I recall correctly, you can only have mail forwarded for 12 months. So anyway, some of my mail is now being returned to sender even though it is correctly addressed. Are we clear on that?

Harvey Milk Day?

Warning: To any of you inclined to inform me that I know not of what I speak, please be advised that the shooting of Mr. Milk occurred on my turf and in my time.

When I saw it, I said surely it could not be so, and checked Snopes.com. True.

Hmmmmm, Harvey Milk Day? Harvey Milk Day? Yes the landmark civil rights ordinance in San Francisco was landmark. Did Harvey singlehandedly bring the civil rights ordinance into law? No. Would anyone even remember Harvey but for Dan White's victimization of him with a twinkie crumb coated handgun? Probably not.

For an interesting post on Dan White and his gay campaign manager's (Ray Sloan) attempts to set the record straight on what really happened with the Milk and Moscone assasinations please read this article. Note the men, depression, homicide, suicide and handgun connection/correlation.

In Quiet Desperation

I read it for the first time today and thought it was rather amazing.

I Left my Flaming Pantyhose at the Summer Cottage in Babylon

So, as a brief and incongruous interlude to my ongoing dissection of domestic violence issues in the LDS and LGBT communities and how those concerns may intersect, I now take you to my very own Summer Cottage in Babylon which I gave up a couple of years ago-Roller Derby. I loved Derby. Due to my age, I rode the second wave ashore and was a dedicated, though mostly closeted fan.

I say mostly closeted, because the fam and I did go together to watch one incredibly satisfying, slutty, violent, catty clash of femmes and butches working together to kick "trash." They all loved it and as I mentioned to DH, "Chicks with big thighs-could it get any better?" He did not object. Certainly one could speculate that my obsession with derby and sizable female thighs is ample evidence of my "sexual fluidity."

I followed a particular team, had a favorite skater and followed her on MySpace and Facebook, and almost broke my pledge regarding never wearing pantyhose again. For you see, derby girls are unrepentant connoisseurs of fish net, tights with flames, and all manner of extreme hosiery. However, I did decide that the incessant innuendo, crude humor and language, and, yes, the violence of it all, probably wasn't appropriate for the part of me that wanted to be a "holy woman." So I left derby behind.

Which leaves the pantyhose issue doesn't it? That's another incongruity and according to some measures of "tru-blu mormonism" a matter of obvious hypocrisy on my part as I refuse to wear pantyhose (well at least the demure sheer or semi sheer that are part of the Sunday Mormon Woman Uniform). The one exception was last year's civil wedding of the "kids." Let it be known that I also wore a girdle for that event as well. Never again.

I digress.

The point being that were I to actually take up wearing pantyhose or tights to church again, they would be of the highly patterned kind or nearly opaque ornate knitted "fishnet." Even if I wanted to go sheer or semi-sheer, there is still the matter of the network varicose veins and spider on my left shin that somewhat resembles a tattoo of the highway network on the Eastern Seaboard. Given the possibility that conspiring minds could mistakenly conclude Quiet Song had a leg tattoo, demure Mormon lady pantyhose is out. Which leaves my Islamic style long skirts which allow me great flexibility in both footwear and hosiery, or lack thereof.