Orwellian Anti-Mormonism

Last updated on: January 29, 2018 at 11:42 am by Dan Peterson

Orwellian Anti-Mormonism 2018-01-29T11:42:20-07:00 Dan Peterson

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Elder Von G. Keetch (d. 26 January 2018); LDS Media Library

Elder Von Keetch of the Seventy died suddenly last week. He was just 57 years old:

“Elder Von Keetch remembered as kind father, loving husband, remarkable legal mind”

I did not know him. I may be mistaken, but I don’t believe that I ever met him.

However, I look in, most days, on a virulently anti-Mormon and mostly atheist message board. It provides a window for me onto what the latest enthusiasms and fashions are in those often fascinating circles.

I’ve been interested in the reaction of some there to the death of Elder Keetch. To call that reaction hateful would be far too mild. They’re rejoicing at his passing and calling down curses on his head. One suggested, before the details of his sudden passing became public, that he might have “offed himself.” The most mild comment condemns him for unspecified “corruption.”

The reason Elder Keetch has been singled out for such vitriolic contempt is the fact that he was the Church’s principal legal advocate for a couple of decades, long before his call to the Seventy in 2015 — and that, as such, he was centrally involved in the court battles over California’s Proposition 8 and the redefinition of marriage to include same-sex relationships.

Opponents of Proposition 8, you’ll probably recall, often styled it Proposition H8. And yet the only overt hatred that I have seen in this regard has invariably come from proponents of same-sex “marriage,” from enemies of Proposition 8. They destroyed careers, vandalized churches, and so forth.

The message-board reactions to Elder Keetch’s death that I’ve read are simply further (redundant) examples of that seething, vicious hatred.

In fact, some of the participants on that board have worked themselves up to such an ecstasy of rage and personal hostility that, now, they’ve begun to rejoice retrospectively over the premature deaths of two other defenders of the millennia-old concept of marriage — a pair of men, one a lawyer and the other a psychologist, whom I happen to have known slightly and to have liked very much.

As I’ve reflected on their behavior, I’ve asked myself whether I have ever hated anyone so much, and my honest answer has to be that, no, I never have. Not even close.

I’ve read about jubilant parties outside prisons where unrepentant mass murderers have just been executed, and I’ve found them profoundly wrong and unseemly. Even such deaths, to me, are tragic. Sorrowful. When Saddam Hussein was executed in 2006, when ‘Usama b. Ladin was killed in 2011, I felt that grim justice had been served — but I experienced no urge whatever to rejoice or to celebrate.

Alma 14 tells the story of the missionaries Alma and Amulek, who — imprisoned, bound with cords, beaten, deprived of water, and starved in the apostate city of Ammonihah — are forced to watch as their male converts are stoned and driven from the city and as the women and children who have accepted their teaching are burned alive.

The perpetrators of those horrors then mock and taunt Alma and Amulek, “gnashing their teeth upon them, and spitting upon them, and saying: How shall we look when we are damned?” (Alma 14:21).

The answer to that question, of course, is that they will look exactly as they did at that very moment. Such ugliness is the very essence of Hell.

Of course, not all of those who lose their faith become such horrors. Most don’t. They simply drift away. But those who do suffer that transmogrification provide powerful cautionary examples: Don’t ever become like that. And, if you find yourself going that way, think about what you’re becoming and pull back before you no longer can.

P.S. I myself am often the object of such hatred. Most directly relevant here, I’ve even occasionally read fantasies from such folks about the grotesque and sometimes obscene things that they hope to do to my grave, once the world is rid of my intolerably poisonous existence. I suppose that I should be grateful, in a sense, that Elder Keetch’s passing has temporarily distracted them from their obsessive fixation on me. They seem to need objects of hatred.

I can’t help but be reminded of the daily “Two Minutes Hate” in George Orwell’s great dystopian novel Nineteen Eight-Four:

On most days, at least on that one message board, I appear to play the role of Emmanuel Goldstein, enemy of the State. It’s nice to have a few hours off. In the meanwhile, I pray for the family of Elder Von G. Keetch, who was, by all reasonable accounts, a very good man.

Uncategorized

Previous Post

January 28, 2018

Some science-related items of interest

Next Post

January 29, 2018 Contrasting Mormonism and Islam (Part Four)

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Uncategorized

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 March 2014 August 2013 February 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who was stoned to death for preaching about Jesus?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Paul James Peter Stephen