Mormonism

Steve Gray reports

The coroner who declined a full inquest into the suicide of a gay soldier is a Mormon church elder who attacked same-sex marriage in a submission to Parliament, saying it was an unnecessary “social experiment”. Gordon Matenga put the submission before MPs just three months before declining to open an inquest into the death of Corporal Douglas Hughes, 26, who took his own life in Afghanistan. His submission brought a carefully worded rebuke from Attorney-General Chris Finlayson on the involvement of the judiciary in political issues. Mr Finlayson said judges and coroners could make submissions “in appropriate circumstances” on well-established technical legal issues. Mr Matenga’s refusal of the inquest – made public last Friday – also came with a broader order suppressing all details relating to the corporal’s death including the Defence Force court of inquiry report. The Defence Force has now refused to comment on any of the details of the case, saying Mr Matenga’s suppression order means it is bound to silence.

So it turns out that Coroner Gordon Matenga is far from a neutral party in this matter.  He  made a written submission to the Select Committee on the Marriage Amendment Bill   Read more »

Maybe Mormons aren’t so fundy after all:

Church apostle Elder Quentin L. Cook stresses that Latter-day Saints, who devote their lives to following Jesus Christ’s teachings, should be an example to the world of expressing love and hope for those with same-gender attraction.

“As a church, nobody should be more loving and compassionate,” Elder Cook said. “Let us be at the forefront in terms of expressing love, compassion and outreach. Let’s not have families exclude or be disrespectful of those who choose a different lifestyle as a result of their feelings about their own gender.”

Mitt Romney opposes marriage equality and refuses to let same sex couples have mothers in law, but his grandfather had multiple mothers in law:

It would be hard to think of two politicians more different than Dukakis and Romney. Dukakis is a short, unassuming (for a pol) ethnic American. Romney is a tall, self-confident dynastic WASP (or at least WASM), one of whose campaign flubs was to claim his father was an immigrant from Mexico. (George Romney was born in Mexico because his family had fled there to practice polygamy unmolested by big government and burdensome regulations.)

Rick Santorum has lots of views, some controversial others not so much. We have been looking at these over the past few days.

On reminding America that some view Mormonism as “a dangerous cult”. This is of course a direct attack on Mitt Romney who is a Mormon.

“Would the potential attraction to Mormonism by simply having a Mormon in the White House threaten traditional Christianity by leading more Americans to a church that some Christians believe misleadingly calls itself Christian, is an active missionary church, and a dangerous cult?” (Santorum’s Philadelphia Inquirer column, Dec. 20, 2007)