- Voting with your dollars is not democratic when some have more votes than others.
– And as to the masturbation pamphlet, how are you supposed to “Never read about your problem. Keep it out of mind.” when you’re reading a pamphlet about it? Hello ironic. I’m sad I missed that comment thread.
– Perhaps those who supposedly believe in Christianity, whatever they think that entails, should actually crack open the book to see what God ordains in both thought and action. I don’t get many people agreeing with me (about anything really), but Jesus wasn’t a political activist. He didn’t tell people to bomb abortion clinics, or eat organic food, or what to do about other people’s lives. It wasn’t about making/changing the system, it was about being outside it. He didn’t force his ideas on those who chose to walk away. In other words, forcing a (narrowed and inflexible) religious viewpoint on an entire town impacts both the secular and pious alike, and the more rigid you make it, the more likely that neither will agree with it. Either viewpoint states that people have free will to do as they wish, that this is a right, either ordained by god or state. Both believe it is not the right of someone else to force convert by duress. Both have people all across the spectrum, nuts and bolts, people who make either view look good and bad by their actions/thoughts/words/beliefs.
It would do themselves and others a world of good to focus on what is essential to their own lives, as opposed to trying to fix everyone elses.
(But then again, like most ideas, looks good on paper.)
– The blurbodooce family seems to be filled with love and laughter, and if that isn’t natural, I guess I don’t want to be either (Aka, you guys rock).
– and while I’m here, what the hell is this heavenly underwear thing??

Gag! What a thoughtless, judgmental load of crap. How do such sanctimonious, draconian scrooges get elected? How can anyone feel good about such an exclusionary resolution?

Sadly, Utah doesnít even come close to having a corner on crazy.

AARRGGHHH! My head exploded again! I have to go think about something else.

Sir Jon, I understand that you are an openminded kind of guy. I also understand that y’all are now generating income with your ads. More power to ya! I don’t understand why your ads are so pro-Christian, and in one case at least, homophobic. I’m deeply saddened.

Homogirl, if you are referring to the Google ads, I have no control over what gets served.

Wow wow. I had no idea. That really is crazy.

Last fall, my husband and I were casting about for a new vacation idea, requirements for which were three: 1) new (to us). 2) west (from Maryland). 3) pretty. It came down to Oregon vs Utah. I was lobbying for Utah. I wanted to do the Grand Canyon, and Horseshoe Canyon in Canyonlands, and I wanted to volunteer at Best Friends Animal Sanctuary ( http://​www​.bestfriends​.org/ ) which is in Kanab. I was checking out places to stay in Kanab and everything. Well, I lost, and Oregon it was. I enjoyed it, but now I really wish we’d visited Utah, because now, I’m damned if I’m going to give Kanab a penny of my tourist money as long as they’re gooping up church and state over there. Tho maybe I should send Best Friends a donation to make up for striking Kanab off the vacation to-do list; it’s not the animals’ fault they’re being sheltered in Nutjob Country.

And ziggygirl beat me to the Cobb Country comparison. I lived there at the time all that went down. Was so, so happy to see them lose their Olympic venues. And then I moved my ass to midtown Atlanta very shortly thereafter, to live amongst the perverts and the queers, and do you know, people in midtown were *much* friendlier.

I think that it is interesting that even though this post is “for Utah residents,” there appear to be hardly any that actually commented (I think I counted 2, maybe 3?).

That is probably because anybody familiar with the area knows that Kanab is a tiny little hiccup of a town (population 3,500) whose politics are insane as any other deeply religious tiny town, no matter where the state.

I live in California, (I’ve vacationed in Southern Utah my entire life and LOVE it), and I don’t think that any of us would appreciate being judged by Mojave’s legislation.

I really do understand your sentiment, Jon, but using Kanab as a representative is a little unfair.

Certainly Utah has many problems. I’m not going to pretend that the predominant belief system doesn’t infiltrate local government. It does.

But the workings of Kanab aren’t why people hate Utah. People hate Utah because its citizens are constantly portrayed as a sort of pitchfork carrying fanatics. I mean just think, between this and Dooce’s latest entries, your anti-Utah sentiment must have reached several thousand times the number of people that even live in that city or agree with its legislation.

Well done.. but so much for not condoning hate.

Not only should government not dictate what is ‘ordained by God,’ what is ‘ordained by God’ should NEVER dictate government.

Thank you for always posting these kinds of important things.

H, I don’t think I am being unfair to point out a small town letting a bigger city organization write their legisltation.

Southern Utah is beautiful, but civic leaders have a responsiility to keep their God in their hearts, not on the law books.

And how did I or Heather condone hate? I do not follow you there at all.

Jon — you are so right on about this. Thank you so much for eloquently writing about this subject. Good for you for being born and raised into a religous/Mormon family — and now having grown into a smart, thinking, rational guy. I always say — Christianity or religion doesn’t have a monopoly on goodness or morals! You can be a moral person without the shackles of religion hanging off of you. My mom will call someone a ‘good Christian woman’ which I always have to interject about — because she doesn’t use that adjective fairly — why not call the philandering man down the street a ‘bad Christian man?’–

anyway— good job, thanks for the great commentary and for being able to dissect and discuss calmly and intelligently! Jez

“That Mero has the audacity to state that ignorance is what fuels the backlash.”

That doesn’t surprise me. I went to school and lived in Utah for five years, working at a regional newspaper. People would call in rental ads and want to state in the ad that potential tenants must be LDS or have “LDS standards” (which is just a nice way of saying they must be a member), which violates the Fair Housing Act. One woman started screaming that I was discriminating against her and violating her rights. It blew my mind.

Utah — Not Your Everday Conservative Hell.

I live in Utah and while I’m not a native to this state, my husband is. I joke that I’m trapped in Conservative Hell but to be honest, it’s a good place to live and to raise kids if you can overlook the lack of diversity and the interesting state of politics. The non-separation of church and state here is enough to drive you batty.

I think many of the citizens of Utah keep waiting for the (fundamentalist) legislators to die in hopes that the next generation will be different.

I don’t think people hate Utah — I just think they don’t want to live here if they don’t have to.

It is funny that Mr Mero titled his editorial, “Ignorance drives opposition to ‘family resolution’”, when his own ignorance drove him to come up with this family resolution in the first place.

Hmm… I was just in Kanab, there’s not really much there to boycott. I guess you could set up a picket line in front of Honey’s Jubilee Food Mart or something.

Maybe all those Chemical plants on I-15 outside SLC have poisoned peoples minds.