Hateful old men

This weekend was General Conference, the quarterly gathering of Mormons to listen to the church elders here in Salt Lake City. What did God say through his starched-collared, flappy-skinned mouthpieces on Earth? We still hate those gays.  Boyd K. Packer, President of the Quorum of Twelve Apostles, informed the gathered faithful that

“There are those today who not only tolerate but advocate voting to change laws that would legalize immorality, as if a vote would somehow alter the designs of God’s laws and nature,”

Packer, like the Pope, speaks with all the authority of a man who has no true authority.  He and his fellow Mr. Mac clones are doing their best to keep the LDS church an active hate organization and a tax-dodging Political Action Commitee. He's not a scientist, psychologist or a contributor to a better society. Yet he claims to know with certainty that all the people in the world who are attracted to members of their own sex are just faking it.

Some argue that “they were pre-set and cannot overcome what they feel are inborn tendencies toward the impure and unnatural,” he said. “Not so! Why would our Heavenly Father do that to anyone? Remember he is our father.”

Indeed, Boyd, why would your Heavenly Father do that to anyone? While we're at it, why would he give anyone cancer, cerebral palsy or cleft pallets? Why would he cause earthquakes, hurricanes and Justin Bieber? It's almost as if he's not really paying attention, or is not really there at all, or, to quote a man far wiser than me and certainly wiser than all twelve of you put together, a malign thug.

Packer may be a hateful old man, but his co-apostle Dallin H. Oaks would be hilariously inept if he wasn't at the top of a culture of lock-step authoritarianism. He advised the gathered Saints how to make personal decisions:

“Some seek to have their priesthood leaders make personal decisions for them,” said Elder Dallin H. Oaks, also of the quorum. Instead, when it comes to personal decisions, individuals should be praying for answers themselves.

However, if the response to prayer they’re getting is in opposition to the statements of church leaders, their answer is not coming from God, he said.

Brilliant! Don't do what I tell you, do what God tells you. But if God disagrees with me, he's not God. World class delusional arrogance.

I rode the train downtown this weekend and saw all the white shirts and dresses filing into the Conference Center. I wished I could grab the three young brothers on the seats in front of me by their ties and say "You know they are going to lie to you in there, right?" Of course I said nothing to them. Maybe they are lucky enough not to be gay in the ranks of the psychologically abusive Mormon church. Maybe they aren't.