Religious Freedom According to Mormon Apostle = It’s Ok to be a Bigot!

From the Salt Lake Tribune:

LDS apostle: Prop 8 backlash against Mormons like civil-rights-era persecution of blacks

Noteworthy:

“During my lifetime I have seen a significant deterioration in the respect accorded to religion in our public life, and I believe that the vitality of religious freedom is in danger of being weakened accordingly,” Oaks said. “Atheists and others would intimidate persons with religious-based points of view from influencing or making the laws of their state or nation.”

Here’s a video on this story from the local Fox affiliate:

(free advice: Thanks for letting people embed the video! It’s a weird size. Aspect ratio should be closer to actual video source…)

Here’s the story from KSL, the church-owned television station.

[ Note: Video removed for sludgy load times. ]

I think it’s called “burying the lede“.

I wrote about how fringe conservatives do this all the time (here); they play a victim role out of one side of their mouth while similarly using the very tactics to act out the thing they claim is working against them. In this case, Mormons are free to discriminate against equal rights for gay citizens, but the backlash is infringing upon Mormons’ freedoms of religion.

While I don’t agree with people vandalizing churches or firing people because they fall on a particular side of an issue, if an organization takes a strong stand against something, it’s flat out naive to expect no backlash, including from within your ranks:

Reid rips LDS Church’s Prop. 8 support

Give ’em hell, Harry!