Neither do I. What galls me is the LDS Church did not break any laws by doing what it did regarding Measure 8. If the gay world wants civil rights then it has to respect the civil rights of others too.

As for your view on being gay, I politely disagree with them. We can agree to disagree and be civil about it.

That being said, when my Church (Mormon) was being attacked, when my Prophet was being sent hate mail, when my friend was being persecuted for giving 100 dollars to Yes on 8, my first reaction was “Okay you want some gay bashing, I will show you some gay bashing. You want to do this, bring it on baby!” Thankfully, God watches over fools and children because it would’ve been a fool thing to do. I would be no different then the ones I was fighting against. I am glad cooler heads prevailed in my case, but if the gay community keeps pushing this they will not. And people will get hurt and whatever empathy has been brought out in straight people will quickly be squashed. And it will be your community that suffers, not ours. I just hope these militant gay activists wake up and realize the detriment to their own cause they are causing and will back down. Because despite my initial reaction, I really don’t want anyone getting hurt.

Lastly, I just wanted to add, I am glad to see there are those in your community who are not swayed by false equality arguments in regards to marriage. My son’s father is gay and he voted yes on Prop 8. Someone said he was a pathetic excuse for a gay man for doing so. Ah yes, that must be the well known tolerance gays are always talking about.

Also, I think it wasn’t prudent for that group to go into SF and do their thing. Even if they’ve done that for a long time, you know people are going to be pissed. Is it really about God? Or is it about your ego? It gives Christians a bad rap.

I think John in CA has had it right all along – they can’t accept themselves and they have to constantly hear how everyone else thinks they are wonderful.

AFW, you make a very valid point. What they’re after isn’t tolerance, they want complete acceptance, no less. That’s all this is about. Acceptance isn’t going to come through shocking behavior and it seems that they are really just out to shock everyone into accepting them.

As you said, is someone going to get hurt or killed? The weekend is upon us and there are suppose to be six more weeks of nationwide protests. I hope these protests wither away for everyone’s safety.

The Phelps clan regularly tries to goad people into attacking them and they brag about it, because to them it means “more reward in heaven.” Outside the true crazies, though, I’ve seen very few people setting up to be persecuted. Right now, I don’t think any of them would want to.

If a church group goes to The Castro, then don’t you think they are hoping to cause trouble so they can use it for propaganda purposes? We have to watch out for that sort of thing.

That woman in Palm Springs who was harassed by that angry mob; did she go there hoping that would happen to her?

I don’t condone the mob mentaility that occurred in Palm Springs and The Castro. Our response to such things was very wrong. Such responses are never right. It’s also far worse when someone sets us up and we fall for it.

Since when did “tolerance” come to mean “celebrating”? Seriously – I’ve seen this quote at anti-GTMO protests, too. It’s ridiculous.

If you tolerate something, you let it be even if you don’t like it. There’s no “like” in tolerance. When did that stupid idea surface? You don’t have to like something to tolerate it. You don’t have to celebrate it. You don’t have to act like it’s beautiful and wonderful.

You just don’t viciously physically attack or make it otherwise impossible for that person to lead life.

So, it seems here the anti-tolerance people are the ones running around disrupting church services.

Anyway mel, I’m so totally impressed by how on top of this you are and how you’ve been breaking down the story. You’re awesome!