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July 15, 2007
Would Joseph Smith Have Been Cool with the Queers?
I've said this before on my blog, and I'll probably say it again: my friend Troy is awesome. He just sent me a link to his latest editorial in the Salt Lake Trib, in which he offers a "queer eye for Mormons." Here's a highlight:
You can't complain when people don't believe you are Christian if you teach that all other Christian faiths are apostate. That never goes over well at interfaith functions. And remember, "as ye sow, so shall ye reap."If you continually attack the LGBT community, then karma will eventually come back around to bite. Nobody likes a bully. And Mormons, of all people, know what it's like to be a persecuted minority. Imagine, instead, if the Latter-day Saints were to rally to the defense of the poor, marginalized and oppressed - wow. You could so change the world.
I like to think that Joseph Smith would have been cool with the queers. He, too, lived on the fringe of respectable society. And, like Mitt, he loved this country enough to run for president.
I personally doubt JS would have been cool with the queers--he was thoroughly homosocial but too into promoting a patriarchal power structure built on men's sexual power of women, and sex between men would have complicated that. But I like the other points Troy makes a lot.
Posted by holly at July 15, 2007 9:23 PM
I think J.S. would have been fine with gay people on a "You don't want any chicks? Fab, more for me" basis. His fondness for a patriarchal power structure seems largely due to the fact that it gave him a Biblical justification for asking for so many people's wives and daughters. But he included some egalitarian aspects in the temple ceremony (women acting as priestesses) possibly to help woo some of his potential conquests (Eliza R. Snow? or perhaps to appease Emma?).
I think if he'd had a gay guy in his inner circle, he'd have been happy to have a revelation that allows for a special role for men who have been called to be with other men instead of with women.
(I assume his calling for the lesbians would be the same as his calling for the straight women.)