Mormons with Hope + Kukla, Fran and Ollie

Yesterday, in response to Israel breaking the ceasefire and murdering hundreds more Palestinians, a group called Mormons with Hope sponsored a protest in which I participated. Turnout was very small, I'm guessing because most Mormons support genocide and war crimes. This group is obviously run by progressive Mormons, as attested by the opening prayer to "heavenly parents," which would probably get them in trouble in an actual church setting. "I'm a leftist because I'm a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints," one speaker announced. Respectfully, I don't believe that. I believe most people choose their values independently of their religious beliefs, and Mormons on both sides of the aisle choose which parts of their church to accept and which to reject. For example, the church has been unambiguous for decades that same-sex relationships are sinful, but I know nobody in this group believes that (as they shouldn't). Of course the church has progressive roots and undertones that one could point to for validation, but we all know its actual track record as an institution has been anything but. I think progressive Mormons have to do even more mental gymnastics than conservative ones. I think their worldviews make little sense. Still, I really like them as people.

Some ex-Mormons came because Mormonism is their culture or their heritage. For me, that didn't factor into it at all. When I first left, I tried to cling to it as my culture and my heritage so I would feel less like the first three decades of my life were wasted, but I've drifted further away now. If I'd grown up in Utah, things might be different, but I identify less and less with Mormonism in any capacity. Still, it is my heritage on my mom's side, and I still knew from memory the hymns that we sang. This was my first time singing Mormon hymns in almost three years. I don't remember if I sang at my niece's baby blessing, but if I did, they were just Christmas songs. Anyway, I went to a pagan event last weekend. I'll fight alongside anyone who agrees with me on what's most important. I don't care if they're pagans, Mormons, Jews, Muslims, Rastafarians, Scientologists, etc.

The jackass who wore a Pope costume and tried to disrupt the pagan event with a megaphone was back, interrupting the speakers and yelling stuff like "Palestinians don't exist!" I tried to be a good boy and ignore him, but at one point I snapped and asked "Where's your Pope costume" and then added "asshole" to the end of that sentence without even thinking. I don't think I've ever called someone an asshole in person before, and it felt really good. Of course it didn't bother him because his entire purpose was to get reactions out of people. It really rubs me the wrong way that the onus is always on us to be the bigger people and ignore counterprotesters while they behave like consummate shitbags just because they can. As far as I'm concerned, it should be legal for us to kick their teeth out when they disrupt us. (This particular jackass is big enough to flatten me with ease, but we outnumbered his group.) I'm not talking about an infringement on their constitutional rights; if they just stood next to us quietly with their counterprotest signs, I wouldn't care. It never ceases to blow my mind how people whose entire purpose in life is to bully others call themselves followers of Jesus without a trace of cognitive dissonance. I guess they just don't have the mental capacity to experience cognitive dissonance.

A lady whom I recognized from several protests because she's very loud announced that she wants to do a quiet, respectful protest during the Mormon General Conference to call out the church's silence on Palestine and urge it to divest from Israeli investments. I'll take a break from the nationwide April 5th protests to do that with her if we can gather more people. We'll just stand outside with signs. Unlike the Christian protesters that the attendees are used to, neither of us has any desire to antagonize them or attack things they hold sacred.

I really want to talk about things besides politics. This week I discovered an old TV show (1947-1957) called "Kukla, Fran and Ollie." In my eternal search for new and diverse music on Spotify, I found one of their albums and assumed from the title that it was from a Finnish show. It wasn't. This TV show, one of the earliest ever, was wildly popular with kids and adults alike, but it's now mostly forgotten. Its pace is probably too slow for modern kids. I won't likely take the time to watch all the hundreds of episodes, but I watched a few and enjoyed the cute puppet characters. This is the earliest one that's survived.