One Standard For Everyone? Oh Really.

How many times have we heard that from the Church. "There's one standard of ethics and honesty and morality for everyone. We don't treat gays and lesbians any differently than our heterosexual members. As long as gays and lesbians keep the law of chastity just like straight people, they are welcome in full fellowship in the Church." One standard for everyone, remember.

Now, compare.

Post Prop 8 Church press release: "The Church does not object to rights for same-sex couples regarding hospitalization and medical care, fair housing and employment rights, or probate rights, so long as these do not infringe on the integrity of the traditional family or the constitutional rights of churches."

Note the "so long as" clause at the end. Kinda short on specifics.

Equality Utah then takes the Church up on its statement and proposes the Common Ground Initiative package of legislation which specifically addressed health care, housing and employment rights, would create a cause of action for wrongful death of a partner and a state domestic partner registry. Exactly what the Church said it didn't oppose. Great. An olive branch stretched out to the Church. Countless people praying it would reach out in turn.

Everyone waited. And waited. Ultimately in vain. The Church made no public statement about the Common Ground Initiative. And in Utah, where legislative leaders meet regularly with LDS leaders to hear the Church's position on various matters, that kind of silence is enough.

Result: the Initiative is dead. Killed by the Church's de facto pocket veto. By not publicly supporting in Utah that which it said it did not oppose in California, the Church deftly signaled to the LDS majority in the Utah Legislature what it wanted them to do. No doubt those legislators also knew exactly what the 2006 General Handbook of Instructions said: "Church members are encouraged "to appeal to legislators, judges, and other government officials to . . . reject all efforts to give legal authorization or other official approval or support to marriages between persons of the same gender." "Church Handbook of Instructions", book 1 p.187 (thanks Abe for the quote).

The SL Tribune reports that "Conservative activists carried the day before Buttars' Judiciary Committee, arguing that the probate bill would chip away at the legal framework that upholds the traditional family and male-female marriage. They compared the Common Ground bills to a "slippery slope" that could lead to court rulings legalizing same-sex marriage." Never mind that Utah's Constitution already bans same-sex marriage. Can't have that slippery slope, even if it hits a brick wall that prevents what you claim. Gotta love that opt-out clause in the Church's press release. It's like Gumby, bends any which way you want.

Apparently "rights for same-sex couples regarding hospitalization and medical care, fair housing and employment rights, or probate rights" are okay in California for Church PR and damage control purposes, but they're not really okay generally, because they "infringe on the integrity of the traditional family", at least in Utah. Nice opt-out clause, Church PR Dept.! How else to explain the Church's silence and the message it sent?

Reprise: There's one standard of ethics and morality and honesty for everyone, right? If the Church doesn't object to "rights for same-sex couples regarding hospitalization and medical care, fair housing and employment rights, or probate rights" in California then it shouldn't object to them in Utah. Unless, ah, well, um, it really, like, sort of, did object to them in California but didn't get there in time to shut them down, so it just put lipstick on the pig till Prop 8 passed. But when the chance came to kill off those rights before they emerged in its own backyard, well, that's different. This time, silence starved the piglet.

One standard. Uh huh.

Beck said if the Church stepped in to block the Common Ground Initiative, he would start to come apart at the seams. Well, Beck, the Church didn't overtly step in. It knew exactly what it was doing. But it created the same result as if it had. So get out your fiberglass strapping tape Beck because you'll need it to hold yourself together.

You know, I've been an active, faithful Church member all my life. I served a mission, I've kept my temple covenants. But this kind of behavior by the Church is really really starting to get to me. Anybody else?