A LSM-generated controversy

Today is Gay Pride Day in San Francisco, the day when gays can dress up like drag queens or wear seat-less leather pants and expect the rest of the United States to take them as "normal". Not conincidently, it is also the day that the First Presidency of the LDS Church will have "the letter" read in California church meetings, urging the members to do all they can to pass the "one man, one woman" marriage amendment to the California constitution.

Since gay marriage is something that the LSM supports, naturally, they will go out and find any members of the LDS Church which do not support the church's stand on gay marriage and give them a forum to rail against the evil LDS Church. Of course, these members of the LDS Church will be shown as "thoughtful" and "open-minded" in contrast with the "bigoted" LDS Church. Some will have even gone so far as leaving the evil LDS Church for their beliefs, which will be found to be "principled" and "courageous" and everyone will come away thinking what a bunch of hateful right-wingers are the LDS Church.

Actually, what the LSM shows and what is the truth are two different things. It has been my experience that members of the LDS Church who "spout off" like this have already been thinking of leaving the LDS Church for many years and are almost already inactive or because of their behavior against the teachings of the LDS Church, could be excommunicated if their local church authorities found out. However, they don't want to offend their friends and family (leaving the church would kill your parents and Grandma might just cut you out of her $1 million dollar estate when she dies), so to make it look like it's not their fault, they "manufacture" some reason, whether that be gay marriage, Utah state liquor laws or the defunct Equal Rights Amendment of the 70's to leave the church. That way, the family is not offended and the ex-member comes off like a saint for living up to his or hers convictions. In general, this last only for a short time until the person's family suddenly finds out that all this talk about leaving the church "just for a short time" was a big lie when the former-member suddenly moves in with his or hers "special friend" and starts drinking booze, smoking and generally living like someone from Sodom and Gomorrah. People outside the LDS Church may think that this is an over-simplification, but it happens all the time.

Bottom line: There will always be critics of anything the LDS Church does, both in and outside of the church and they are not indicative of membership of the LDS Church.