I've not been a fan of Kirby due to his folksy beating around the "awe shucks" bush with the brethren. But in this column, he really takes a solid stance on doing what is right, regardless of the pressure from the church. Good on him!
A friend said Kirby said the current LGBT suicides of is this generation is our "Mountain Meadows massacre at Sunstone, if he did say that I can see a court of love coming his way soon.
John Hunstman recently bought the SLC Tribune and seems to be an open minded LDS,so Kirby shouldn't worry too much for his job getting squeezed from anyone in the COB.
If Robert get called on the carpet, he'll use the situation for more poking of the beast and might join his wife as an exmom.
Paul Huntsman, not John, is the new owner of the Trib. John Jr is much more liberal in his views than Paul is, from what I have heard. Time will tell what that means for the paper.
Wondering how Paul is related to John? As a former journalist I think there is a special place in heaven for those who enable and spread the message of change agents like Kirby.
This is one of his best. And he's had some damn good ones.
One of my pet peeves is people who say "you left the church because it was too hard." NO. It's not hard to be in the church and be a mindless sheep. It's damn easy. You don't have to think. You don't have to make any decisions for yourself. All you have to do is follow. What is hard is when you have to try to decide what is REALLY best for you and your family.
That hard shit drives me crazy. "Do Hard Things" was a little sign on our bishop's desk. So stupid. Is it harder to leave than it is to stay? Both pretty tough in my book once you realize Mormonism is total bullshit.
He's getting bolder. I bet it's not long before he faces a court of love.
This whole idea of being responsible for others' actions really bugs me about the Mormon culture. I witnessed an example with my own family this weekend.
We were doing a lip-sync battle, and during one of the songs, my mom and her sister were hitting each other playfully with scarves. No pain. Mostly fun. Maybe a little passive aggressive anger letting.
But when they were finished, my brother-in-law piped up and said "Well, now how am I supposed to teach my kids that hitting is wrong?"
And I thought "WTF??????"
So grandma modeled playful hitting. Now your kids are going to be abusive heathens????? Excuse me???? How about this idea of free agency that mormonism touts? Do your kids now have no agency? Are they bound to hit because grandma displayed a bad example?
Not only is this a mind-control tactic ---- everyone in the cult has to model perfect behavior because everyone else is watching, and a bad example could cause others to go astray (because, hello, they CAN'T choose after seeing ONE bad example)......
But it's also really lazy parenting, which I feel Mo-ism propagates. Let's just let the collective of brainwashed people model what "should" be done - instead of having productive conversations with our children about how to purposefully choose what fits with their moral compass.
"Oh, you saw grandma hitting someone? How did that make you feel? Do you think that's nice or not nice? How would you treat others in that situation? Did you think she was playing or did she really mean it? Why do you think that was okay/not okay?"
Geez, Louise! Way to go, Kirby, for calling out this bulls**t.
"If your creator gave you a brain and a heart, shouldn't you use them to figure out the best course of action for yourself instead of always assuming the collective is right?"
"In the end, we can't rely on what our best intentions were at the time. Rather, we have to rely on the results, and then learn from them when we realize that we got it wrong.
If we don't, I wouldn't worry. We can all scream together at the Judgment Bar."
When I get to the Judgment Bar, I'm going to order a Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster.