Politics – Page 3 – Stay N Alive

Category: Politics

“That’s So Gay” Lawsuit Warrants No Money

Posted on by jessestay

I just read this article:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1834425/posts

So, a girl’s friends get offended by Mormons, causing them to make inappropriate comments about Mormons. Then, Mormon Girl gets offended by those comments and says “That’s so Gay!”. School Administrators get offended (are they gay?), and suspend the girl for her comments. Girl and her parents get offended by School Administrators by her suspension, and file suit against the School District.

Thank goodness the judge put a stop to this! Should the girl get justice for her offense? Maybe, but when will this stop? Were she to win, would the school administrators be offended and file counter-suit? What happened to forgive and forget? I feel bad for the girl – I’ve been offended myself over similar comments about Mormons, never punished for my reaction for it, but I understand her feelings and reaction – I still don’t see the need to push this any further. Good for the judge – what’s done is done.

What I Would Have Written About Last Week if I Had the Time

Posted on by jessestay

I am on a crunch to finish a software release at Work, so haven’t had an opportunity to blog in the last week. Here are some items I would have blogged about if I had the time. Maybe I’ll still write about them:

Comments

Posted on by jessestay

I just realized I had a ton of comments awaiting moderation. In switching to WordPress lately, I didn’t realize I had moderation turned on. In noticing I wasn’t getting any comments lately, I went and checked, and sure enough, there were over 50 comments awaiting moderation. My apologies to those who commented to get no response from me. I will go through all the moderated comments now and try to respond to any pending questions. I need to decide now if I want to leave moderation on or just turn it off and risk a little spam here and there.

My Review on “The Mormons” (PBS)

Posted on by jessestay

Recently, PBS released a Frontline Documentary entitled “The Mormons” (note the Mormon church now has a sub-path on pbs.org). Produced by Helen Whitney, the film strives to provide an unbiased viewpoint on the history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and what has gotten the Church to be as large and magnificent as it is today. Controversial topics such as Polygamy, the Mountain Meadows Massacre were covered thoroughly, with viewpoints from all sides presented, providing a generally unbiased viewpoint on the topics.

I thought it was fairly well done. While it would not be a missionary presentation the Church would use in teaching about their beliefs (why spend 1/4 of the first half on the Mountain Meadows Massacre, and why so much time on the Fundamentalists, and what about the whole excommunication part?), the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints put it best by saying, “At a time when significant media and public attention is being turned to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and when news media is so often accused of superficiality in its coverage of religion, this serious treatment of a serious subject is a welcome change.” The documentary was certainly a welcome relief to the biased accusations and anti-Mormon rhetoric presented to counteract Mormons in the public domain such as Mitt Romney running for President.

I only hope those not of my faith could feel the touching influence of the Holy Spirit reflecting truth as I did throughout the documentary.

What if Harry Reid Were Running for President?

Posted on by jessestay

I was recently reading an excellent article quoted from a Series Deseret Book is doing on famous Mormons, which is a testimony by Senator Harry Reid about his conversion to Mormonism entitled “Why I believe”. The article can be found here:’

[http://mormonstories.org/?p=244](http://mormonstories.org/?p=244)

I have also been following all the hoopla surrounding Mitt Romney running for President and his “being Mormon” hurting his bid. He keeps quoting the Kennedy factor and how Kennedy being Catholic was a similar challenge as to what he is facing today. I can’t help but wonder though, what would happen if the tides were turned and it were instead a Democrat, with very liberal-leaning focus, but with still a firm devotion to the Mormon Church running for President? I personally think it would be a very different story. Here is why:

* He is a Democrat – the majority of Romney’s opposition comes from the Conservative evangelical right, who tend to be anti-Mormon in view. Reid would have a greater chance of surviving his primary.
* The media bias is in his favor – the media is more likely to ignore the issue of Reid’s religion, making it more of a non-issue. They have done so thus far in his political career.
* I don’t recall Reid having issues with his religion in his run for Senator. Romney, being conservative, in his run for Governor it was one of the top issues in his race. I think the same would reflect in a run for President.
* Reid hasn’t worn his religion on his sleeve as Romney has. I’m not saying that’s a good thing, but it has allowed him to avoid the Mormon question.
* Reid is a Mormon convert – he was not Mormon his entire life, and I’m willing to bet he does not have the Mormon history of polygamy, etc. that Romney has been so criticized for. Does that matter? Only when trying to convince the Evangelical right that your religion will not take charge of your politics.
* He, too would probably get the majority of the Mormon vote, a strong conservative base especially in the West

Having thought of this, it’s a scary thought – I’m not a big fan of Senator Reid’s politics. I sincerely hope he does not run – he has a good chance of winning!