[In a recent post I said this:
QUOTE(smac97 @ Aug 14 2008, 05:05 PM)
Affirmation is resorting to emotional manipulation of the public in order to coerce the LDS Church into changing its doctrines. For example, Affirmation is blaming the LDS Church for homosexuals who commit suicide. I've addressed this before:
QUOTE
Suicide is indeed a tragedy, but I get the impression that Pearson and her ilk are going beyond mourning the suicides of homosexuals and actually exploiting those suicides.
Frankly, I dislike what I see as the GRM's (Gay Rights Movement) exploitation of these suicides. Their websites and books trumpet these suicides as epidemic, as being caused primarily by ostracism/homophobia (with no mention of other factors, including those possibly arising out of gay culture).
It comes across as cynical arm-twisting of a rather revolting sort. "Hey, Mormons! Either change your doctrines or I'll kill myself and blame you for it!"
I am appalled and saddened that anyone would kill themselves for any reason. I think it is tragic that Latter-day Saints with same-sex orientation are treated poorly because of that orientation. However, I firmly believe that homosexual conduct is not compatible with the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. I also believe that there is a concerted effort to legitimize homosexual conduct and undermine any organization that feels differently. I also believe that this concerted effort bears substantial responsibility for inculcating vulnerable Latter-day Saints (those with same-sex attraction) with the notion that their orientation is either compatible with or superior in importance to the Restored Gospel.
As further evidence of this form of guilt-tripping, I offer the following article by Carol Lynn Pearson that appears in today's Salt Lake Tribune:
QUOTE
Reading the various reviews of the new LDS Church-authorized book, Massacre at Mountain Meadows, prompts me to stand as witness for another tragic killing of a group of people in our community for which - when we have the benefit of history - we will be deeply ashamed.
You can see it coming, can't ya?
QUOTE
The insidious thing about this killing is that we manage - though it would break our hearts to know it - to get the unfortunate ones to pick up the gun and kill themselves.
Look at this. She is blaming all Mormons for homosexuals who commit suicide. She is saying that Mormons "get the unfortunate ones to pick up the gun and kill themselves."
This is an appalling accusation.
QUOTE
I speak of the suicides of our LDS gay brothers (occasionally sisters) in a number that far exceeds the 120 members of the Fancher party.
Right. And how many of those suicides have been "caused" by Mormons?
QUOTE
Each victim at Mountain Meadows had walking beside him a man poised to raise his gun and shoot. History will show that the gay men of whom I speak had walking beside them a dark shadow impersonating God, a shadow that gave them misinformation about who they were, misinformation that most of us now acknowledge was both dead wrong and deadly: "Homosexuality is often caused by masturbation . . . may lead to bestiality . . . caused by selfishness . . . electric shock will set you right . . . a good woman . . . reparative therapy . . . fasting and prayer . . . you would be better off at the bottom of the Great Salt Lake with a millstone around your neck . . ."
Note how she throws in "fasting and prayer" as being a bit of "misinformation." Sorry, Ms. Pearson, but I still believe in the power of fasting and prayer.
QUOTE
Our current discussion of this issue reflects better science and a more generous spirit, but too many deaths continue.
Her acknowledgment here is pretty darn glib.
In any event, might it be possible that her laundry list of "misinformation" is not the cause of these suicides? After all, if the LDS Church's current stance "reflects better science and a more generous spirit," but if "too many deaths continue," then isn't it possible that the material causative factors behind gays who commit suicide are not those Ms. Pearson includes in her laundry list?
Confidential Informant has provided statistics showing that acceptance and love of gays does not decrease the levels of suicide and other maladies common in gays and which are regularly blamed by folks like Sis. Pearson on "bigotry." See here:
According to a study in the Netherlands where homosexuality has been accepted and mainstreamed for years, homosexual behavior significantly increases the likelihood of psychiatric, mental and emotional disorders, negating the mindset that society's lack of tolerance of homosexual behavior and lifestyle produces these psychoses. Youth are four times more likely to suffer major depression, almost three times as likely to suffer generalized anxiety disorder, nearly four times as likely to experience conduct disorder, four times as likely to commit suicide, five times as likely to have nicotine dependence, six times as likely to suffer multiple disorders, and more than six times as likely to have attempted suicide. (Study of 5,998 Dutch adults) Theo G.M. Sandforte et al., "Same-Sex Sexual Behavior and Psychiatric Disorders: Findings from the Netherlands Mental Health Survey and Incidence," Archives of General Psychiatry 58, 10 (2001): 85-91.
Researchers found "an elevated suicide risk for homosexuals" even in tolerant Denmark. Ping Qin, Esben Agerbo, and Preben Bo Mortensen, "Suicide Risk in Relation to Socioeconomic, Demographic, Psychiatric, and Familial Factors: A National Register-Based Study of All Suicides in Denmark, 1981-1997." American Journal of Psychiatry 160 (2003): 765-772.
Ms. Pearson, of course, studiously ignores such things because they contradict the narrative she has constructed. She also ignores stuff like this:
American Journal of Epidemiology:
Active Latter-day Saints Seven Times Less Likely to Commit Suicide
SOURCE: American Journal of Epidemiology 2002;155:413-419. Write-up in: "High Religious Commitment Linked to Less Suicide", by Charnicia E. Huggins (Reuters Health), Daily News (6 March 2002), URL: http://dailynews.yahoo.com/htx/nm/20020 ... ion_1.html
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Young Mormon men living in Utah who closely adhere to the dictates of their faith are less likely to commit suicide than their peers who are less active in the church, study findings show.
The Mormon Church is known formally as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS).
For more than 10 years, 15- to 34-year-old males in Utah have had suicide rates markedly higher than those seen nationally. In fact, in the early to mid-1990s, suicide was the number one cause of death among 25- to 44-year-old men in the state and the second-leading cause of death among men aged 15 to 24.
"These results provide evidence that a low level of religious commitment is a potential risk factor for suicide," Dr. Sterling C. Hilton of Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, and his colleagues write in the March 1st issue of the American Journal of Epidemiology.
Hmm. The Latter-day Saints who are at increased risk for suicide, then, are those who do not live according to the teachings of the LDS Church.
Put another way, the teachings of the LDS Church decrease the risk of suicide. This kinds contradicts Ms. Pearson's narrative, doncha think?
More here:
Previous studies have used population data to demonstrate an inverse association between suicide rates and religious commitment. This report examines Utah suicide rates for young men aged 15–34 years, stratified by their membership in and commitment to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), the predominant religion in Utah. All state death records for males from 1991 to 1995 were obtained and linked to LDS church deceased membership records to obtain a measure of religious commitment that is not self-reported. Religious commitment for LDS church members was determined by age-appropriate priesthood office. Of the 27,738 male deaths reported, 15,555 (56%) linked to an LDS church record using a probabilistic linking program. Using active (high religious commitment) LDS as the reference group, the less-active (low religious commitment) LDS group had relative risks of suicide ranging from 3.28 (ages 15–19 years) to 7.64 (ages 25–29 years); nonmembers of the LDS church had relative risks ranging from 3.43 (ages 15–19 years) to 6.27 (ages 20–24 years). Although the mechanism of the association is unclear, higher levels of religiosity appear to be inversely associated with suicide.
So if Ms. Pearson is so concerned about homosexuals committing suicide, why isn't she encouraging them to to maintain high levels of religious observance? And why is she (and her compatriots) instead trying to persuade/cajole the LDS Church into altering its teachings about homosexuality when living in accordance with those teachings appears to lower the risk of suicide?
Back to Ms. Pearson's article:
QUOTE
I recently received an e-mail (quoted with permission) from a woman in Utah who said, "I'm in agony over the suicide death two months ago of my youngest son, Marshall, age 25, a gay student who was a senior in chemical engineering at the U. of U. He knew all about spreading love but didn't feel enough in return to keep him going. On my refrigerator I have a package of flower seeds marked, in his writing, '5/1.' That was the day he was going to plant them. He didn't make it that long, so I'll plant them for him - next spring."
Tragic. But the teachings of the LDS Church are not at fault here.
QUOTE
The stories keep coming: A woman in my ward just told me of two gay nephews who both took their lives; a woman in the airport recently told me of three LDS gay boys who killed themselves in her neighborhood in Bountiful.
The dozens of stories I personally know are the tip of the awful iceberg. I think of Stuart Matis, an LDS celibate gay man who shot himself on the steps of the stake center in Los Altos, Calif., as a direct result of the intense religious rhetoric around a "protection of marriage" initiative similar to the one proposed in California today.
One of the historians of Mountain Meadows, Ron Walker, says that he's "come to see the massacre as a cautionary tale in making judgments about those who are different" and that the story "is a case study in how not to apply religion and how one should apply true religion in one's own life."
I believe, with these historians, that we LDS people are hungry for the truth and that we want to apply true religion in our lives. I believe with Anne Frank that people are really good at heart and I know that there is no better heart than the Mormon heart, leader and member alike.
This is disgusting. First she counterfactually accuses Mormons and Mormonism for "causing" suicides - while ignoring substantial countervailing evidence as well as the established link between homosexuality and increased risk of suicide, then tries to butter us up by telling us we have "good hearts." Her implicit suggestion in mentioning Anne Frank is that Mormons are currently acting like the Nazis of World War II, and that we need to wake up and stop victimizing homosexuals (the corollary to Anne Frank - a Jew).
Appalling.
QUOTE
I believe that if the rider had reached Salt Lake in time, Brigham Young would have done what he could to avert the massacre in southern Utah. Many messengers today, of which I am one, have ridden in with reports and pleas for help regarding the ongoing self-slaughter of so many of our best and beautiful young men.
Great. Now she is comparing all Mormons to those who butchered the Fancher Party at Mountain Meadows.
In sum:
1. According to studies noted above, observant Latter-day Saints have a decreased risk of suicide. And yet Ms. Pearson wants the LDS Church to change the very teachings whereby such decreased risk is developed.
2. Ms. Pearson makes outrageous allegations against the LDS Church, accusing it and its members of acting like Nazis and the murderers involved in the Mountain Meadows Massacre.
3. Ms. Pearson is placing culpability for LDS gays committing suicide at the feet of the LDS Church and its members, while disregarding the established link between homosexuality and increased risk of suicide. She has nothing to say about encouraging homosexuals to alter their behavior to conform to the teachings of the LDS Church (even though, as noted above, such observance would probably lower their suicide risk).
Thoughts?
-Smac
What he strives so hard to avoid:
1. Stuart Matis was celibate. He was living the dictates of the church. He killed himself on the steps of a stake center. Seems to me that he was trying to make a statement about the church.
2. Jesus said love everyone; treat them kindly too. I think that includes gay and lesbian Mormons, whether they are celibate or not. Anyone who walks outside of those basics of the gospel is the one with the greater sin.