Todd Whitaker, the Mormon who bravely spoke out against LDS bigtory inside the church and had uploaded his speech to YouTube, added some background to the story in the comments section to my post. He said:
Todd here…WOW What a Great Thread this is, I Guess speaking the truth in my ward seems to have caught on to many other wards here in california. The church is trying to Silence what is happening just as they tried to silence me but I have had several phone calls in reference to My testimony and how it has inspired so many to think outside the box and see how wrong this church was in participating in a political election. So Many are waking up Now to LDS Policy and are having their names removed from all church records by the Hundreds, As a 7th Generation Pioneer Heritage Mormon with family that died at the hands of Indians settling in southern Utah under the direction Of brigham Young in a Ghost town called “Grafton” My Family has shed Its Own Blood for this Church, Im Very Glad To have brought So Much Truth and uncovered an Evil Act Towards Minority groups in America, as I have stated on several other posts, I Only video Taped this event so that My Father who is Very Old and Ill, could witness this event as he is so very proud of his children for Not allowing Bigotry into their lives…This WAS an Honest Testimony and With my tithe dollars and fast offerings They Still shut off the Mic…Im glad the world has a chance to see the REAL MORMON CHURCH in action for a change’….Todd Whitaker
Once again Todd, you have my respect for taking a stance against this bigotry. With a family background such as this, I’m sure it was a difficult thing to go through, but hopefully it will give other Mormons the courage to follow in your footsteps. Sure – most will stick their head in the sand and just repeat their mantras over and over to justify their actions. But history has taught us that it only takes a relatively small number of people who have the courage to speak out against intolerance to start the snowball rolling. Hopefully you’ve started something.
I saw the video and I am glad that the bishop did pull the plug. Testimony meeting is not the time or place to bring up those type of issues. How does Todd know that hundreds have quit the church all because of his posting?
Usually when people quit the church it’s a series of events that lead to them quitting. Todd knew the rules of the lds church, and he should know our stance on marriage. Just because the church won’t let s marry doesn’t mean that they should start bending the law to allow it. Christanity has always taught that this is an evil practice, and as far as christanity is concerned not too many churches allow same marriage.
Rules are rules Todd you can’t abide by them then go find another church, and spend less time in trying to destroy the church. Do what’s right as Jesus would say!!!!
Ruth, it’s interesting to hear you say “Do what’s right as Jesus would say”. Do you think Jesus would go around spending massive sums of money trying to overturn the rights of decent human beings? Is that what you think he stood for?
I do know that Jesus did overturn the temple because people were violating things. I do know that Jesus tells us to repent, and correct our ways. I do know that Jesus rebuked smart men when they needed to be rebuked.
I believe he would support the unity of marriage and the rights of this movement yes, he taught that this is sin, so yes I believe he would!!
Prop 8 is about exercising our rights to freedom of speech, and freedom of religion. Every person has a right to vote and exercise that right, and a church has the right to protect those rights of the family by telling it’s members to vote yes and contribute to the cause! Did you also know that mormons in california only make up 2% of the vote!!!! I believe we need to fight for the rights of our religion and keep it as god intended it to be!!!
I have to agree with Ruth on this on, Christ loved the sinner but hated the sin! He did rebuke people, and in anger overthrow the temple. I can’t help but think that Christ also might support those in trying to keep marriage between man and woman, something he taught the people about! Why wouldn’t he support that?? He taught it!!
What a fun topic this has been! I think that religion isn’t for a lot of people, and those that don’t want religion shouldn’t force those beliefs on others. Prop 8 was voted on by the people, and a church has EVERY right to spend money, or tell it’s members to vote a certain way ESPICIALLY if that means protecting their belief system.
The wonderful thing about America is we have freedom to vote and freedom of religion rights. The people speak up as a whole and vote. If same sex marriage is meant to be the people will speak up! From what I have read the LDS church in California only makes up 2% of the population, so as you can very well see the people outside of the church made a HUGE difference in the votes!!!
Same Sex people never enjoyed the rights of marriage so what was taken away?? Everything was done according to law! And the LDS church was found not guilty of any violations in some of the actions taken against them. Why doensn’t same sex couples rally and do what the church did? Not enough people are my thoughts,, but who knows?
Chris, you’re wrong. Same sex couples were allowed to marry in California until the LDS church campaigned to have the law reversed.
Doug, would you mind explaining to me why you, Greg, Randal, Emily, Steph, Randy, Crandal, Randy and Chris ALL HAVE THE SAME IP ADDRESS?
Is it perhaps, Doug, that you are making up all of these names to make it look like other people support your argument for bigotry?
Shame on you, Doug, shame on you. It’s bad enough that you’re a bigot, but now you’ve also demonstrated that you are a liar and a fraud.
I’m sure that isn’t a commentary on the kind of people who belong to the Mormon church though. I’m sure most members aren’t complete liars and frauds, they are just mislead.
HAHAHAHAHA!!! SO MANY PEOPLE HAVE QUIT THE CHURCH BECAUSE OF THIS? I call BULLsh@#!!!! How would you know have they personally told you so? You can’t handle the fact that you can’t get married into christanity churches.
All that the church do was follow their freedom to vote, freedom of religion, and freedom of speech rights, they did nothing wrong here, and why is it wrong for a church to stick up for their own beliefs? I would tell the members to vote yes also if I was in charge of some big church!! Preserve and protect the rules my friend!!
Also California has a small membership to me that only represented a fraction of people that voted yes! You got shot down by the majority of people my friend. Next election rally others to vote no! What a great country we live in, and we are free to vote!!!
What an interesting subject this is. I have read and listened to Todd’s testimony, and after reading the many posts I have found that there is a seperation between religion and politics and people’s wants. Religion has their set of laws that are established, and with what I know Todd couldn’t abide by the law so he threw a fit in church and got shut down by their leader.
I think the bishop had every right to do that under his jurisdiction. Like many others have said if you can’t follow the law than leave the church. Christanity has always said that marriage is between man and woman, and Todd wants to change that and cry bigotry against the mormon church. Sin is defined in religion’s and man shouldn’t change these laws. Society and the pressures of the world want to change christanity for their benefit. God has spoken against this evil practice and if Todd doesn’t like this he can leave and join a church that will accept this practice. Church isn’t for everyone!
Good for you TODD!! You stood up in a TESTIMONY meeting and got shut down!! Gees I wonder why TODD?? That puzzles me that a bishop would of done that!! Dude get a life and post something else!! Of cource he did that, it’s a testimony meeting!! Read and know the guidelines!!!!!
Relgion is just that rules and laws you don’t like them please feel free to leave. Why should the church ignore what god has said and spoken throughout our beliefs and throughout any christian church just because you want them to ignore this christanity rule and make it a rule for you!! Wouldn’t that defeat christanity and relgion and gods laws? My advice to you is find a religion that lets same sex individuals have those rights, and quit tearing down other’s beliefs!!!
Steph – “religion is rules and laws”…. really? That’s strange – I always thought Christianity supposedly had something to do with “love thy neighbour”.