Mormon Exclusivists and Planned Parenthood (Not Related)

A few days ago one of my friends posted a Facebook status beginning like so: "Okay I have to vent. LDS peeps, you might want to scroll if you get offended easily. This is just to let off some steam."

Of course, with a preface like that I could no sooner stop reading than a river could flow upstream. It continued like so:

"Literally, the past five places that I have looked at have been perfect for me. Under 300 dollars a month, not too much utilities, close to school and work, but I absolutely HATE IT when they say, "Preferably LDS." or "We're looking for a fun LDS girl to live with us!" It's stupid, it's discriminating. Not all non-lds people are bad and not all lds people are good, either. Take a person how they are, not by their beliefs/faith/religion. Oh and just because they're not LDS, doesn't mean they're going to bring sex, drugs, and alcohol to your home or that they do any of those things at all. We respect your beliefs! Honestly, people, be more open minded about people not of the LDS faith. I'm tired of it. The end!"

I had to ponder it for a few seconds. I was confused. I had somehow missed the offensive part. All I can say to it is amen, amen, amen. I also can't resist passing along one of the comments:

"This is why I don't live in Utah. I strongly believe in the principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ (I'm even an ordinance worker in the Atlanta temple), but I'm not interested in being as exclusive and divisive as the Utah Mormons I met when I lived out there. The scriptures specifically tell us to love our neighbor and don't judge, but a lot of them are quick to judge and NOT love; they veil it with "concern" because "they know better". Well you know what? These people you're discriminating against are responsible for their own choices. At judgment day, they will be held accountable for all their own decisions, good and bad. YOU will not be accountable for your roommate keeping the commandments, but you will be asked how you treated them. Did you treat them with love and respect? Did you set a good example? Or did you sneer behind their back and refuse to associate with them because they aren't making the same choices you are? 

Ugh. Utah."

Incidentally, I've spent more than half my time in Utah with inactive or non-LDS roommates and I turned out just - oh wait, bad example. Also, it's a bit of a tangent but I can't resist mentioning the time when for some reason my non-LDS roommate from Ghana was asking about the law of chastity. I explained it a little and then his non-LDS wife from Cote d'Ivoire interjected, "What are you talking about? Before he met me, he slept with Mormon girls all the time!"

Speaking of offending people, I'm going to talk about Planned Parenthood now. I've been sharing articles about it on Facebook for weeks now and so far no one has started an argument with me. I appreciate that, and I reciprocate the favor. A couple people may have unfriended me, but they won't be missed. I would rather alienate a few fair-weather friends than suppress my conscience and remain silent about the greatest atrocity of my generation. So anyway, if you find it offensive, sorry not sorry.

I haven't heard anything about the Planned Parenthood scandal for several days, and for the time being a totally unbiased and impartial judge has blocked more videos from being released; but although its supporters wish it would just go away it is still ongoing, as the House Energy and Commerce Committee announced a week ago that it was expanding its investigation. In the meantime, the Obummer administration still refuses to even watch the videos. What if they treated reports of police brutality the same way? (Credit to this guy for the photo.)

What a bunch of spineless tools. Fortunately, we aren't dependent on them for positive results. Florida's investigation has found illegal second trimester abortions going on at three clinics and improper disposal of fetal remains (aka mutilated dead babies) at one. American Express, the American Cancer Society, Coca-Cola, Ford, and Xerox have all denied/cut ties with Planned Parenthood, after which it took down its donor matching list altogether, presumably to avoid further embarrassment as more corporations follow suit. Louisiana and Alabama have joined other states that had already cut ties with the organization, and New Hampshire cut off funds to the tune of $639,000 while allocating funds for other family planning organizations that its supporters don't seem to think exist. Also, while the latest congressional initiative to cut off federal (aka taxpayer) funding predictably failed, more than half of the votes were in favor and it lost by a significantly smaller margin than last time.

So obviously, things are working out nicely and Planned Parenthood has taken irreversible damage even if certain parties continue to willfully ignore the scandal. I predict with confidence that it and other abortion companies will meet their overdue demise within a couple decades. The momentum has been against them for some time now, and it's never going to let up. But in response to the scandal, many of Planned Parenthood's defenders have repeated the same stupid things they always have. Here are the three biggest ones I saw:

Only three percent of Planned Parenthood's services are abortions. Like many statistics, this one is "accurate" while at the same time being a total load of crap. It only makes sense if you count performing an abortion and handing out a condom (for example) as equal percentage-wise. It's about as logical as a bank giving out lollipops with every transaction and then claiming that fifty percent of its business is lollipops. Oh, and in 2013 it gave one adoption referral for every 149 abortions. In what universe does that make any sense coming from an organization with "Parenthood" in its name? The "pro-choice" universe, of course.

It's illegal for taxpayer money to fund abortions. Whoopty-freakin'-doo. That means the taxpayer money just frees them up to use other money for abortions. That makes me feel no better about being forced to give money to an abomination. It's like telling a German citizen circa 1943, "The Nazis aren't using your money to kill Jews, they're just buying food and supplies with it." Yay! (I am aware that comparing people to Nazis is usually inappropriate, but not when their organization kills innocent people on a huge scale and was founded by an outspoken eugenicist.)

Planned Parenthood provides vital services for women's health and without it, they would all shrivel up and die. Okay, that's a slight exaggeration, but sure seems to reflect what they think. Is Planned Parenthood really the only place to go for those services? I think not. (For some reason I'm recalling the time Obummer lied about them giving mammograms.) Even if it was, there's no reason to think no one else would step forward to fill the void when it's gone. If there is a need then people will fill it.

None of these, by the way, acknowledge the violations of federal law or explain why we're supposed to turn a blind eye to it. Granted, some federal laws are stupid. I know people who smoke marijuana and I have no intention of ratting them out because it's none of my business and I couldn't care less. So are these regulations stupid, too? Is that why abortionists are too good for them? Because any sort of regulation on the killing of human infants is "anti-choice" and must be ignored? Apparently so, because that's how Kermit Gosnell got away with his butcher shop for so long and who knows how many others continue to do so. Funny how they say abortion has to be legal to prevent unsafe back-alley abortions, by making it safe for everyone except the baby being killed; but if it were just legal with no regulations enforced, how would that be any better?

Now on a lighter note, here is a song that I heard last week and have had intermittently stuck in my head since then. Apparently it wasn't a megahit or anything but I like it. The fan-made video briefly shows old footage of a guy in blackface, which begs the question, is it racist to include a guy in blackface in a montage of old footage? Like, in old cartoons, declining to edit out the racist bits isn't racist so much as it is just being honest about American history. But if you create a montage, then you make active decisions about what to put in, not just what to leave in. But it still is authentic footage and it's not like you created it here and now when people know better. Hmm...

Bomb the Bass - Megablast

I got a site visitor from Casablanca, Morocco. It's so weird and so cool that my libertarian-ish Mormon self can freely reach people in oppressive Islamic theocracies. Not sure about China, though. I'm sure they wouldn't even take enough notice to block me specifically, but maybe they have a thing that does it automatically. I think they're a lot stricter than the theocracies. Oh well. This too shall pass.