ISBL Asshat of the Week: Mormon Church Elder Dallin Oaks

Last year the Mormon Church handed down a new judgment on LGBT Mormons, basically calling them worthless, labeling those in legal same-sex marriages as “apostates” —  dissenters, defectors, deserters, traitors — of the Church and calling the children of Gay Mormons unworthy of baptism in the faith unless they renounce their gay parents.

It was a Hate-fest.

Sadly, shortly after this new proclamation there was a rash of suicides among LGBT Mormons, the blame for which the group Mama Dragons laid squarely at the feet of the church.

The Mormon Church maintains that the Mama Dragons' assertion about the 32 LGBT youth suicides is not verifiable and has been questioned by Utah state health officials, but LGBT-affirming Mormon therapist Hollie Hancock says that if even Mormon has taken his or her own life because of this new policy then "we've lost too many."  

And last week, Mormon Church Elder Dallin Oaks also addressed the suicide crisis by saying it had nothing to do with the Mormon’s new hate policies, and that only God can judge him on judgment day.

And She will, you know; She will.

Now, the Church itself has not commented on Elder Oaks’ statements, which he made after a speech on the importance of religious freedom, but here’s more of where Elder Oaks stands on the issue of LGBT Mormons.

One audience member, Andrew Evans, talked about his friend, a Gay Mormon, who killed himself last year:

"You’ve gone on record that the church does not give apologies. Does religious freedom absolve you from responsibility in the gay Mormon suicide crisis?” 

Oaks replied:

"I can't answer that beyond what's already been said. ... I will be accountable to higher authority for that. That’s the way I look on that. Nobody is sadder about a case like that than I am."

Seriously? No one is sadder about the suicide of a young gay Mormon than the Church Elder who is upholding the belief, perpetuating the belief, that gay is less than, that gay people be renounced for their sexual orientation; that gay people be shunned and excommunicated if they decide to live an openly gay life.

He’s kind of right, though, in one sense of the word, because I cannot think of anyone sadder, more pathetic, more hateful, more able to use religion to perpetuate hate, than Dallin Oaks.

And God will judge him for that.

NCRM