In Which Mormons on Twitter Melt Down Over the LDS Church's New Global Communications Director

Mormons often assert that just because they disagree with LGBTQ lifestyle choices doesn't mean they hate LGBTQ people. Perhaps in theory, that could be true. In practice, it seldom is. I've repeatedly observed that Mormons who think same-sex marriage is sinful are dripping with barely concealed disdain for gay people, while Mormons who love and respect gay people don't give a crap about same-sex marriage, even if they don't vocally support it. The other day the LDS Church shocked the former group by hiring as its global communications director someone who has vocally supported it, as well as transgender rights. I admit that choice is a little confusing, but oh, it's been beautiful to watch the bigots' brains break. People who blindly support and defend almost everything else done by their church draw the line when it contradicts their personal politics or prejudices. Of course this isn't the first time. They had a heyday in 2020 when the church asked them to wear masks, get vaccinated, root out racism, and peacefully accept election results. That was the year when I, still a Mormon, lost respect for my own people. Back then I actively encouraged them to leave the church and stop humiliating me. Now I just laugh. The church loses whether they leave or stay, because Lord knows they're not going to change.

Perhaps this will be of little interest to anyone but me, but I've collected several Twitter screenshots to drag back out thirty years from now when Mormons claim that they've always been LGBTQ-affirming. I saved a lot of time by stealing most of them from AntiGaryDages, a fellow apostate, and the last few from StallionCornell, aka Jim Bennett, a liberal Mormon. I actually really like liberal Mormons. I don't think their nuanced approach to the LDS Church makes much sense, but they're good people trying to make their church and the world better, so I don't much care what they believe. Jim has about as much respect as I do for members of his church who make opposition to LGBTQ people the core of their faith.

I'm at a loss as to why doubting Thomas thinks the LDS Church is against "climate activism," a topic it has never addressed in its entire history. It's been all but silent on environmental issues altogether. The one time I'm aware of that any of its leaders even publicly acknowledged climate change was in a devotional speech at BYU-Hawaii in 2017 when apostle Dallin Oaks said, "These are challenging times, filled with big worries: wars and rumors of wars, possible epidemics of infectious diseases, droughts, floods, and global warming. Seacoast cities are concerned with the rising level of the ocean, which will bring ocean tides to their doorsteps or over their thresholds. Global warming is also affecting agriculture and wildlife." Dallin Oaks is not one of my favorite people, but I appreciate that he's not a mindless partisan hack.

Not because of this particular post, but the person running this account is one of the few that I wholeheartedly believe deserves to burn in hell. I don't think it's humanly possible for him to be stupid or delusional enough to believe that Jesus would approve of his vile behavior. Yes, his profile picture is former New Zealand Prime Minister and ex-Mormon Jacinda Ardern with a Hitler mustache. I guess conservatives think she's a Nazi because her administration's response to the pandemic saved an estimated 80,000 lives. Or maybe it's because she responded to New Zealand's one mass shooting by taking steps to keep it from happening again, and then it didn't happen again. That's not the American way!

In case anyone is wondering, 2 Nephi 13, like the rest of the Book of Mormon, doesn't say one word about homosexuality. Ironic.

"iT's StIlL uP tO tHe StAtEs To DeCiDe" No, it isn't, it hasn't been for eight and a half years, and we all know that damn well that conservatives wouldn't complain about "states' rights" if the Supreme Court decided to ban same-sex marriage or abortion nationwide. They're no more sincere with this argument now than they were when they used it to defend slavery and segregation.

^ This. And, again, it doesn't actually seem to be possible to love gay people while opposing their "lifestyle." With the same occasional exceptions you would find among straight people, being in same-sex relationships (against LDS teachings) makes gay people happy, and being alone and celibate for life (in accordance with LDS teachings) makes gay people miserable. If you believe gay people should live in accordance with LDS teachings, you believe they should do that which demonstrably makes them miserable. And that isn't love by any reasonable definition.

1. Mormons have less right than almost anyone else in the world to get on a high horse about "traditional marriage." 2. Same-sex marriage has not erased "traditional marriage." 3. Yeah, this is kind of hypocritical for the LDS Church. Kind of like when it bragged about Michelle Wright Amos, a mission president's wife, being a NASA engineer who helped put the Perseverance rover on Mars, even though she held that position because decades earlier she'd disregarded the prophet's counsel for all married women to be stay-at-home moms.

I thought the church's chief spokesman was supposed to be the prophet. You know, the guy who's specifically called and sustained to speak on behalf of God. But instead, Russell Nelson hides behind an anonymous PR team every time the church has a scandal.

K.T. Martin is one of the LDS Church's few token gay apologists who haven't left yet.

This guy has really internalized the church's manipulative blame-reversal BS. Nothing can ever be God's fault, the prophet's fault, or the church's fault, so any time something doesn't work out the way God or the prophet or the church said it would, it's your fault. Joseph Smith was a master of this. Once you see it throughout the Doctrine and Covenants, you can't unsee it. Also, Brigham Young was a lunatic, and people who admire him should probably be on a domestic terrorist watchlist.

Yeah, there's not much chance that his social views went backward during the same time period when support for same-sex marriage in Utah rose from 34% to 70%.

These people are so out of touch with reality that they think BYU is a hotbed of liberalism and atheism to which the apostles on its Board of Trustees turn a blind eye for some reason. Also, you know there's a 0% chance the apostles actually run their Twitter accounts themselves, right?

The church only supported that bill because it had already decisively lost the marriage equality battle and wanted to protect its religious freedom to continue discriminating.

Crimson Mamba is clearly unaware of what the First Presidency said in an official statement dated August 17, 1949: "The attitude of the Church with reference to the Negroes remains as it has always stood. It is not a matter of the declaration of a policy but of direct commandment from the Lord, on which is founded the doctrine of the Church from the days of its organization, to the effect that Negroes may become members of the Church but that they are not entitled to the Priesthood at the present time."

Why aren't you asking this question about bishops and other priesthood leaders who sexually abuse children?

It's fun when they say the quiet part out loud. Being kind to all is against the church beliefs.

Heaven called and said get bent.

God called and said mind your own damn business. Seriously though, I have as much authority to speak for God as any of these sanctimonious asshats, or their prophets.

Taking pains to appear reasonable, Erik didn't use anti-gay slurs here like he has on other occasions. No, I'm not joking.

Conservatives: *demonize, harass, and pass laws against LGBT people* / LGBT people: *lean left politically* / Conservatives: *shocked Pikachu face*

These people really can't comprehend that the LDS Church doesn't and has never claimed to align with every particular of their own extremist political views. It's like their brains are missing a synapse.

I'm proud to say that Teddy Bear didn't get along with me either. He blocked me some time ago.

I promise you're not the stupid one, sir.

Does Jeff have the slightest clue how many of the church's young missionaries support LGBT rights?

Caleb shared an artist's rendition of the Capitol riot on January 6, 221. I'm not sure of the relevance. The other comments here are shockingly reasonable.

OMG, is shxxn7 the only person here who's not a Trump supporter??

I have a few suggestions for what you can do, Peter. Also, the real Spider-Man would kick your ass.

Virtually the only way they would know about these tweets is from you idiots spreading them around over and over and over. And then they'd have to be even dumber than you are to think the church wants them to be any of those things while Dallin Oaks is still alive.

Three of the four books, specifically the nineteenth-century frauds (or pseudepigrapha, according to Richard Bushman) by Joseph Smith, say zilch about LGBT stuff. And whenever an *actual* expert explains the context and real meaning of the anti-gay prooftexts in the Bible, Mormons mock them.

So should anyone who votes for Trump, but that's none of my business.

Eric Moutsos was a Salt Lake police officer who made a big stink after he was allegedly fired for refusing to work security at a pride parade. He also runs a Facebook page about LDS temples that he uses to post things like "It's okay to be white."

Jim turns their own weapons against them! What a guy!

If you live in the same state as Tyson, his vote counts the same as yours. Jussayin.

Ah. It was all a big misunderstanding, and this kerfuffle was for nothing. I hope everyone involved has learned a valuable lesson about trusting the prophet.