Gorillas in the Mist: Mormon Main Street Plaza Surveillance Video

The Salt Lake Tribune has the story and the Main Street Plaza video:

LDS Plaza "Kiss" Surveillance Video (double speed):



LDS Plaza "Kiss" Surveillance Video (normal speed):



Ugly? Uncalled for? Join the nationwide response to this incident HERE.

Seven-Year-Old Utah Boy Makes His Getaway From Church

Preston Scarbrough, you're somethin' else ...



Watch the future NASCAR driver in action:

'Not gonna go!' / Boy, 7, drives away in family car to skip church

PLAIN CITY, UTAH -- Maybe he also missed the day the sermon covered the Eighth Commandment: Thou shalt not steal.

A 7-year-old boy led officers on a car chase Sunday through Weber County in an attempt to avoid going to church, authorities say.

"Most kids fake illness," said Weber County Sheriff's Capt. Klint Anderson. "They don't take the car out and go joy riding."

Dispatchers received reports of a child driving a vehicle recklessly near 4100 West and 1975 North around 9 a.m.

The motorist who called in the complaint followed the child and witnessed the boy drive through a stop sign at 4700 West, Anderson said.

Two deputies caught up with the boy a few blocks away and attempted to stop the car, but the child kept driving, Anderson said.

The boy drove through a parking lot, then went south on 4700 West before driving the family's white Dodge Intrepid into a driveway on the 5000 block of 1500 North. The driver reached 40 mph and ran stop signs along the way, Anderson said.

The boy reportedly entered the home through the garage and ran upstairs. When deputies questioned the child's father, he told them he had no idea his son had taken the car.

"They had to explain to him they had chased his car," Anderson said.

"The father confronted the kid, and the boy straight-up admitted he had driven it. When asked why he took the car, he said he didn't want to go to church."

The boy's father was told to make sure his car keys are kept where they are not accessible to children, and the child was lectured about the dangers of taking a vehicle out on the road, but authorities cannot do much else.

Police would not identify the family, as there would be no citations issued.

Anderson said the boy is too young to prosecute and that the boy's father won't be cited because he was unaware his son had taken his car.

For a 7-year-old, his driving wasn't too bad, Anderson said.

Mormon-owned KSL.com: We strive to be a family-friendly site, unless the topic is gay

I know it's the Internet. Threads littered with hateful comments are part of the terrain almost everywhere. But KSL.com is not just anywhere. It is owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. As KSL's warning to commenters notes:

... KSL strives to be a family-friendly web site, so please keep the language clean when you add your comments. We reserve the right to accept or reject any message. Thanks.

But 385 comments later, dozens of hateful, sickening messages have been accepted and posted under this story. Where are the moderators? They are no doubt Mormon. Do they not understand the disservice they're doing their LDS-owned employer by giving free rein to homophobia and hate at KSL.com? Sad.

Here's the story: SLC one of many cities signing on for national kiss-in

If you can spare a moment, head over, register, and leave a comment of your own.

It now seems more obvious than ever why this particular action needs to happen: The Great Nationwide Kiss-In

Update: Good for KSL.com, they've begun deleting some comments.



P.S. Memo to LDS Public Affairs: You're the problem, not the solution.

P.P.S. A random righteous rant.

P.P.P.S. All charges have been dropped.

Trapped in a Mormon Gulag, The Sequel

For those who missed the first installment: Trapped in a Mormon Gulag

And an update from David Hart: Utah Sen. Chris Buttars has Some Finances to Explain

Now on to the trailer for Gulag II:



Full-length version available at www.mormongulag.com.

Weekend Video Roundup: Kiss and Make Up (Utah Edition)

Part I: "She's a Mormon housewife from California, plays the organ in her Cupertino ward ... "



Part II: "This stems from years of teachings that have led people to have fear or revulsion towards gay couples ... "



Part III: "This shouldn't be part of our church meetings. This is political, this is something that we should leave outside ... "



Part IV: "Prop 8 was very painful ... But it did allow the [LDS] church to establish itself as perhaps the preeminent counter gay marriage institution in the United States ... "



If you haven't already, please sign the petition.

And have a great weekend.

Ron Prentice Speaks, July 2009 Edition

H/T Unite The Fight ...

Ron Prentice: When Pedophiles Attack

"So, for example, if a pedophile were to attack - I say 'attack' - approach a child in a church or in an employment situation or public school situation and you or I were to pull that pedophile off the child and say something to that pedophile about his poor behavior, that pedophile could actually file suit against you for having committed a hate crime against them for what you verbalized."

Ron Prentice: Thank you, Mormons

"Next week, I'm told, Time magazine is putting out an article that talks about how Proposition 8 was successful. They give a lot of credit to the Latter-day Saints, as they should. Because Latter-day Saints were out there on the street. LDS's have a model of community action and when we worked with LDS and said this is what we want to do, you know, before we knew it, they were knocking on doors with their own information about marriage. It was wonderful. And the Roman Catholics and the Evangelical Protestants had to catch up. And, fortunately, eventually, we feel like we sort of did. But I remember being here, and addressing a group of 200 or more pastors about Prop 8 early on, and the Time magazine article is gonna say that the Evangelicals were nowhere to be found. And I had a call from one of the members of our executive committee for Protect Marriage who is Mormon and he said, 'I just want to apologize, because I didn't write this article, but it gives all kind of credit to LDS' and I said, 'Mark, don't worry, the LDS deserve a lot of credit ...'"

This Ron Prentice: Crusading for ‘Judeo-Christian values’ doesn’t come cheap

Blabbeando: Must-See Interview with Ruben Diaz, Jr.

Papi says: "Yo soy la Iglesia y yo soy el Estado."

Meet marriage equality opponent and New York state senator, Ruben Diaz, Sr.:

"I AM the Church and I AM the State."

And now meet Junior:



Watch the vid.

Rate it.

Leave a comment.

Post it, recommend it to a friend, and then head over to Blabbeando and read the post:

Ruben Diaz, Jr. on his father's homophobia, Blabbeando on NY1 Noticias

Andrés Duque, you rock.

DNA jefe Beetle Blogger? Not so much.



Seriously, Señora Rockwood ... Angela ... A smart Mormon girl like yourself should have better things to do with your time than cheerleading a two-bit Bronx preacher with the bad habit of declaring himself the incarnation of both Church and State.

Mormon Prophet Thomas S. Monson meets with President Obama

LDS pollster Dan Jones:

"Pres. Monson wants to get across to the people of the United States and the world that we want our president to succeed."

  DU: President Monson, Obama meet

  AP: Obama, Mormon leader meet in Oval Office ...

  WT: Mormon leader brings family records to Obama ...

  SLT: Mormon leader presents family history to Obama ...

Mormon Church leaders presented President Barack Obama with a detailed family tree in five leather-bound volumes Monday during a private meeting in the Oval Office.

The 30-minute sit-down was the first time Obama has met with Thomas S. Monson, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Monson was escorted by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, the highest ranking Mormon in the government, and LDS Apostle Dallin Oaks, the chairman of the faith's genealogical committee.

President Barack Obama meets with (from left) Senator Harry Reid, Joshua DuBois, President Thomas S. Monson and Apostle Dallin H. Oaks in the Oval Office. Michelle Obama met with Mormon Apostles Quentin L. Cook and M. Russell Ballard in Salt Lake City last year.

Obama's White House continues a tradition of meeting LDS Presidents:




While the Mormon rank-and-file continue with their disapproval:



If Pres. Monson wants to "get across" that Mormons want Pres. Obama to succeed, that's a welcome message, but is it really how the Mormon prophet's own followers feel? Based on my own experience with email forwards from my Arizona Mormon family during the campaign, my guess would be that most Mormons remain deeply suspicious.

I got a chuckle out of this comment thread.

And I hope that Pres. Monson's visit might send a subtle message to winger Mormons everywhere, this message:

Utah NOW: The Fallout of Prop 8

"The uproar over a gay couple detained for kissing near the Main Street Plaza last week revealed a lingering resentment about the involvement of the LDS Church in the fight over Proposition 8 in California. This week on Utah NOW: the fallout of Prop 8 ... how are the faithful dealing with and talking about gay rights?"

Guests: Laura Compton … Chris Bigelow … Peter Danzig … Adam Blackwell



Enjoy. Leave a comment at KUED. Sign the petition.

Knock, Knock, Anybody NōM?

According to the latest from NOM's Maggie Gallagher: " ... there is no connection between NOM and the [LDS] church except that a Mormon serves on NOM's board."

In that same article, Kim Farah, spokeswoman for the LDS church in Salt Lake City, insists that the church "did not establish the National Organization for Marriage ... [but fails to] respond to a question about whether the Mormon church has been active in the campaigns to defeat gay marriage in New England and New York."

This Kim Farah:



Whatever, Kim.

I look forward to perusing the IRS filings of any of the below NOM iterations as soon as they become available:

National Organization for Marriage, Inc. (EIN: 26-0240498)
a 501(c)(4) formed January 2008
c/o Neil Corkery
9502 Nelson Ln
Manassas, VA 20110-4310

National Organization for Marriage Education Fund (EIN: 20-7472471)
a 501(c)(3) formed July 2008
c/o Neil Corkery
9502 Nelson Ln
Manassas, VA 20110-4310

National Organization for Marriage California PAC (EIN: 26-4205819)
a 501(c)(4) formed February 2009
c/o David Bauer
2150 River Plaza Dr Ste 150
Sacramento, CA 95833-4131

National Organization for Marriage PAC New York (EIN: 27-0394565)
a 501(c)(4) formed June 2009
c/o Brian S. Brown
20 Nassau Street Suite 242
Princeton, NJ 08542

In the meantime, some beyond-the-boardroom LDS-NOM connections for our readers' consideration.

Because that's all I've got. Because tracking down NOM's board and officers has become an exercise in futility. All apologies, I wish I had more, but friends have taken the time to actually visit the NOM office in New Jersey, and here's what they found:



Crickets. Ghosts. Iconography:



So, moving on from what stubbornly remains unknowable, here's what we do know:

Nanci Wudel

Fave line from Nanci's winning essay: "We openly cried to be back home where we knew what freedom meant - the right to live as responsible citizens who cared as much about others' freedoms as our own."

---

Carol Soelberg

Carol qualifies Nanci's take on freedom: "Every aspect of life and freedom as we know it will be diluted by the liberal agenda of the homosexual movement."

---

Glade Soelberg

Glade's son weighs in: "My dad very rarely ever raised his voice, and knowing how my mom confided in me and trusted me, I always made the right decisions so as not to disappoint her." -- Alan Soelberg talking about Mom and Dad.

---

Gilberto Laparra

"The [Mesa] pageant is about Jesus Christ and His love for us, which is very comforting to feel."

---

Dee Dee Abaroa

Dee Dee opines: "Loving leadership is a concept slipping through our young society's fingers. The idea of democracy is being tested by candidates who are socialistic in a democratic bodysuit.

The hidden agendas that our candidates are pushing ever so nonchalantly and deceitfully are the exact contradiction to what we are as a country.

We profess to be the little brother of goodness and mercy for our global neighbors yet our own walls are beginning to lose strength in integrity and honesty.

Do the history! A country fallen always falls from within.

The political battlefield has already been a nasty showing of our own domestic differences. We're not talking a differentiation in just basic partisan platform issues.

We're talking about differences in national structural stances such as same-sex marital rights, socialistic medicine for all and nationalization of the oil industry."

---

Steve Abaroa

Former pupil: "Apparently [Steve] is now the drama teacher at Highland. What a fabulous position!"

---

Jake Clark

---

Sterling Baer

Michele's husband.

---

Michele Baer

Michele explains Prop 102.

---

In case anyone's forgotten these faces, here's the ad:



And here are the audition reels:

Auditions 1-12:



Auditions 13-23:



Once again, NOM's Maggie Gallagher:

" ... there is no connection between NOM and the [LDS] church except that a Mormon serves on NOM's board."

Will You Take a Lie Detector Test, Maggie Gallagher?

And for those still reading after all this, here's a bonus clip just for you:

Clearing Time: Fighting a Mormon Gulag (Trailer):



Confused? It's the sequel to: Trapped in a Mormon Gulag.

And here's the rub as far as I'm concerned: Since Mormon Gulag went live, there's been an outpouring of support from the LDS community in terms of stepping up and identifying the culprits behind the unrighteous sequestration that is the Utah Boys Ranch, but not so much as a peep from those Arizona Mormons who must've seen the NOM audition reels and recognized their wingnut homophobe neighbors ... what's up with that?

Have you been cowed into submission/silence simply by dint of your co-religionists having access to a camera and a production crew? If so, you've got it bass ackwards ... In the words of Spiderman's Uncle Ben: "With great power comes great responsibility."

And accountability.

Or does it?

Or does parroting NOM's anti-gay lies in front of a camera somehow make it all beyond reproach?

UPDATE: Well, another righteous Arizona Mormon ally has stepped up and helped us identify LDS actor #10: Brent Slade.





Stay tuned, there's more to come ...

Calling all Gilbert, AZ friends: How many Mormon actors in NOM's "Gathering Storm" ad?

So far, here are the LDS folks who've been identified from the NOM ad & audition reels:

Nanci Wudel, Michele Baer, Sterling Baer, Carol Soelberg, Glade Soelberg, DeeDee Abaroa, Steve Abaroa.

There are several more.

Anyone you recognize from the ad?



From the audition reels?

Auditions 1-12:



Auditions 13-23:



From these stills?



If you've got a tip, please click here and let me know.

A reminder of how things could/should be:

Nobody Knows: The Untold Story of Interracial Mormon Marriages

But first, time out for an oldie-but-goodie ...

Interracial Marriage - The Gathering Storm



Sorry, I needed that laugh. The original post continues below ...

I've just finished watching a fascinating (to me) documentary on DVD that attempts to tell the story of black Mormons, who - according to the liner notes - "have been a continuous presence in the LDS church from its earliest days." The creators bring an insider's POV - but don't flinch from grappling with Mormonism's racist past - and I applaud their effort and welcome the Mormon conversation it has engendered.

That said, it wasn't the film's treatment of historical injustice that provoked me to write this post, but rather what the clip below reveals about an ongoing and very present cause for concern.

First, a quick synopsis to set up the clip:

00:00:00 - Faithful young Mormon couple, parents of nine

00:00:55 - Their encounter with racism inside the Salt Lake Temple

00:01:13 - "You speak such good English!"

00:01:25 - This worthy Mormon family is apparently not appropriate for LDS church media? Good enough to tithe, to attend the Mormon Temple, but not good enough for Mormon magazine covers? What is it with NOM the Mormon church and its addiction to artifice and actors?

UPDATE: I bought the DVD and grabbed 3 minutes of the documentary figuring that posting such a short clip together with commentary was a safe move under "fair use" ... Long story short, I've decided to remove the clip.

I'm too busy with my own documentary project (and I could probably use some help with the title, because it seems a bit long) ...

"Everybody Knows Except the Mormons Who Never Got Told: How a religion so rigid that until today it's still grappling with the meaning of interracial marriage in its own church culture found the chutzpah to bankroll a nationwide campaign to define marriage for the rest of the country."