When the Mormons come to your door

[cos]

Apparently some Mormons stopped by my house last week, when I wasn't home, so I heard about it from Valerie later. She was not aware that the Mormon church funded California's proposition 8, donating the bulk of the money to run ads in the final weeks; it's quite likely that it would not have passed without their help.

If I were home when they came, I would have asked about it. I don't necessarily presume that young canvassers agree with their church, but it played such a pivotal role in passing the gay marriage ban, and here they are canvassing for converts, so they're at least acting in support of it. Mormon canvassers are, as far as I can tell, always polite, so I'd be polite. I'd also make it clear that I believe their church is a terrible influence on the world and I actively advise my friends to avoid it.

If Mormons come to your door, remember to ask them about prop 8? I'm curious to hear what they say.

Comments

[zwezda-polnoca.livejournal.com]

This is kind of like saying "all Catholics oppose homosexuality and birth control" or "Islam is inherently evil". It ain't true. Just because the church's party line is one thing does not mean that individual members buy into every last detail. I have cousins who are Mormon. One of them is a young man currently doing his mission trip. As far as I know, he has no problem with homosexuality and isn't even aggressively converting people. In his opinion, he is out there spreading a message which he believes to be capable of bringing people happiness. Now, I do not agree with that message, but I think it's safe to say his intentions are pure and unoffensive. Be careful of conflating the church as an organization with the people who belong to it.

[cos]

It's not like that at all, especially since I said "don't necessarily presume that young canvassers agree with their church" - nevertheless, they are performing an activity in support of that church (and putting a lot of their time and effort into it), so it is entirely a fair question to put to them (and potentially more interesting if the don't agree with what the church did).

[randomorbit.livejournal.com]

They're not at your door for to sell cookies, they're there representing their church, and actively trying to persuade others that their church doctrine is right. When they're off duty I can give them the benefit of the doubt as individuals, but a missionary is a spokesperson for the church. Maybe when they're off duty we can toss back a few brewskis at a gay bar, but as long as they're representing the church I'm going to treat them as representatives of their church.

Given their churches conspicuous involvement in prop 8 the first thing I'm gonna want to know about their "faith" is what they've got against the expression of love and commitment of 2 individuals who happen to be of the same gender? Why do they think it's their moral obligation to take away the rights of others because of who they love.

[cos]

I have canvassed for political candidates who had some position or other that i disagreed with (though never something I disagreed with quite as strongly as this example). I've thought about how I'd answer if someone asked me about that particular thing - someone who shared my view rather than my candidate's. In all of these cases, of course, I had good reason to support the candidate on balance, and very strongly, so I had some good answers that would've been interesting if anyone had asked. In practice, people tend not to ask questions like that when you're canvassing for a candidate, though.