Legal Loopholes

In 1791 the American government added to the Constitution to include the 1st Amendment to “make no law respecting an establishment of religion”. This effort to separate Church and State protects the religious to believe in any particular invisible deity of their choosing. This protection also provides sufficient support of no real evidence to allow religions to practice what they believe “God told them to do” separate from State law. Throughout history our government has also revised other laws to help protect other classes of race, gender, and sexual orientation. The following will compare and contrast Church and State laws and policies.

The Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 abolished slavery while the Bible still contains verses condoning the racist immorality. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlawed discrimination of race, color, religion, gender or national origin and one year later The Voting Rights Act of 1965 prohibits racial discrimination in voting. In 1968, the Fair Housing Act protects a buyer or renter of any race. Years later in 1970, the Mormon church stops referring to Satan as having black skin in the temple endowment. Finally, 14 years after the Civil Rights Act and considering much influential pressure, the Mormon church decides to receive a “revelation” allowing black men the priesthood and worthy black members the temple endowment. In 2013, the Mormon church secretly published an article disavowing the theories that black skin is a sign of a curse or reflecting unrighteous actions in a premortal life or that mixed-race marriages are a serious sin. All of which was taught at one time. The Book of Mormon still contains versus of an evil civilizations being cursed by God with a black skin. God’s chosen religion should be leading Civil Rights, not lagging.

Moving right along from racism to misogyny, here are some more comparisons. In 1920, the 19th Amendment is ratified to allow women to vote and the Equal Pay Act of 1963 helps protects women’s wages. In 1965, The Supreme court establishes the right to use contraceptives and the 1973 ruling, Roe v. Wade, makes abortion legal. A number of religions still ban contraceptives and consider abortion a serious sin in all cases. In 1981, Princess Diana omits the traditional vow to obey her husband while the Mormon temple endowment still required women to covenant to obey the law of their husband until 1990. Currently, the endowment only requires women to hearken to the “counsel” of their husband. In 2013, the government removed the ban against women in military combat positions while the Mormon church still doesn’t allow women to have the priesthood or various positions of leadership.

I really shouldn’t need to point out the extreme contrast between Church and State policies concerning LGBTQ people, but I will anyway. In 1962, Illinois decriminalize homosexual acts between consenting adults while the Bible still classifies it as an abomination and death crime. In 1995, The Mormon church publishes The Family: A Proclamation to the World, claiming true marriage to only be a man and woman. In 1999, California adopts a domestic partner law allowing same-sex couples equal rights as married couples. The Mormon church attempts to reverse California’s domestic partner laws by requesting members to support Proposition 8 in 2008. In 2011, President Obama dismisses the Defense of Marriage Act allowing the recognition of same-sex marriages and 4 years later same sex marriage is legal is all 50 states, but never in Mormon temples. In 2015, the Mormon church declares same-sex parents as apostates unable to baptize children until age 18 and only after they disavow same-sex unions and receive permission from the First Presidency. Suicide is currently the #1 cause of teen death in Utah and homophobic culture is suspected as a main reason.

There is so much more I could discuss including child sexual harassment, voter influence, and tax evasion, but I tried to be brief. My main point is that government’s protection of religious freedom has created a loophole of legal escape. We don’t allow human virgin sacrificial murder for religious groups, but where can we draw the line with legal protection. When can the government forbid Mormon bishops from having one on one interviews with children about sexual issues. “It’s ok because they believe their particular invisible god told them to do it”. Such a pathetic excuse. To what extent should we respect non-evident beliefs that disobey secular laws? Where do we draw the line between deceptive and corrupt cults and moderately benign religions? It’s a very fine line.