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Guest Post: Reaction To Oaks Address

Guest Post: Reaction To Oaks Address

Last updated on: October 22, 2015 at 8:42 am by Natasha Helfer

Guest Post: Reaction To Oaks Address 2015-10-22T08:42:11-05:00 Natasha Helfer

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Elder Oaks recently gave an address at the second annual Sacramento Court/Clergy Conference at Congregation B’nai Israel in Sacramento, California. It was notable to me that this address had a different tone and emphasis than some of the messages I have heard in the last few years – especially since the LDS Church has been so involved in the fight against marriage equality here in the United States. I recognize and appreciate the shift. At the same time, I think it is important to note that we have been guilty of doling out much of the same types of discrimination that Oaks appeals to others to now not throw our way. And this discrimination that remains in our church practice today continues to harm LDS LGBTQ members, in particular, in ways that often contribute to mental health issues. It is important for us to continue to be aware of and educated on issues regarding religious freedom – what it means, how we can support it, and then on a personal level, whether or not we want to participate in discriminatory practices that harm others just because we have the right to do so.

Mormon Apostle Calls for Balance and Accommodation, not Culture Wars

Adam Ford is an attorney residing in northern Utah County. His BYU undergraduate honors thesis focused on religious freedom in Russia during the first years after the fall of the Soviet Union. I am posting the following response he wrote with his permission.

My thoughts on Elder Oaks’ address on the church/state divide:

1. “Governments and their laws can provide the essential protections for believers and religious organizations and their activities. Believers and religious organizations should recognize this and refrain from labeling governments and laws and officials as if they were inevitable enemies.”

I am a hard-core believer in the importance of religious freedom. And yes, Elder Oaks states a clear truth here–religious practice must rely on government to protect it from oppression. What he fails to say is that almost always the oppression comes from other religionists. Government must protect the heretic from the orthodox, the apostate from the established, the minority from the majority (even when it comes to discrimination against former Mormons at BYU).

2. “Office holders remain free to draw upon their personal beliefs and motivations and advocate their positions in the public square. But when acting as public officials they are not free to apply personal convictions — religious or other — in place of the defined responsibilities of their public offices,” he said. “A county clerk’s recent invoking of religious reasons to justify refusal to issue marriage licenses to same-gender couples violates this principle.”

Amen. This is spot on. When the Supreme Court interprets “equal protection” to include homosexuals, clerks must issue marriage licenses. Before appropriate rulings, clerks should not have issued them to same-sex couples.

3. But Elder Oaks said that far more significant violations of the rule of law and democratic self-government occur when governors or attorneys general refuse to enforce or defend a law they oppose on personal grounds — secular or religious.

He is still upset that the California executive branch refused to defend Prop 8 in the courts. It was pretty comical to see the State of California refuse to defend the law as passed by California citizens. Having spent many millions of member-dollars and all their political and social good-will in the fight for Prop 8, it had to hurt to see the state refuse to defend the hard-fought victory.

4. “We all lose when we cannot debate public policies without resorting to boycotts, firings, and intimidation of our adversaries.”

How the secular side would have loved to hear this sentiment when the religious authorities were holding the upper hand. It is interesting now that the fight is lost and those who represent an exclusionary God are in the minority that they are calling for all sorts of tolerance and understanding and cries against recrimination. Where were these teachings when the gay kids were being bullied and gay employees were being fired and gay residents being kicked out?

Two wrongs don’t make a right, but it does stick in the craw a bit when the previously boycotting, firing and intimidators are now suddenly vulnerable and rush to call for protection when they offered precious little to the other before. In spite of the hypocrisy, I hope they get the patience they refused to extend.

5. “Both sides in big controversies like this should seek to understand the other’s position and seek practical accommodations that provide fairness for all and total dominance for neither,”

Said the guy who fought for total dominance of the religious position for decades and decades. Sigh. Still, he is right now. There must be room left for religion to discriminate to its heart’s content. Churches should not be subsidized when they choose to do so, but they must be free to do so.

6. Elder Oaks cited the example of the 2015 Utah Legislature, which, “in a head-on conflict over individual free exercise and enforced nondiscrimination in housing and employment,” crafted a compromise position under the banner of “fairness for all.”

Which law the Church made sure included a complete exemption for itself, including in its for-profit subsidiaries. It is fine and good for the Church to still discriminate under this law.

7. Elder Oaks warned against “extreme voices that are heard from contending positions. Extreme voices polarize and create resentment and fear by emphasizing what is nonnegotiable and by suggesting that the desired outcome is to disable the adversary and achieve absolute victory. Such outcomes are rarely attainable and never preferable to living together in mutual understanding and peace.”

This is shocking to hear a Mormon Apostle say. I have been so conditioned to hear LDS Church leaders speak in terms of black and white, the war between good and evil, the Holy Spirit v. Satan and his host. It seem so odd to hear him say that coexistence in “mutual understanding and peace” is preferable to conversion and submission to God’s (read: the Church’s) authority. I like it. I like it very much. I hope to hear much more along these lines in the future.

Natasha Helfer Parker can be contacted at natashaparker.org.

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