Utah has the highest teen suicide rate. But why? Isn't it forbidden by the bible? Well, no; Samson's suicide is generally held up as a laudable event. The bible even clearly states that god granted him superhuman strength during his final moments. Therefore, god approves of suicide (at least if you take out several thousand of his enemies simultaneously). By extension, the bible gives Christians no reasons to oppose suicide bombing.The tragedy behind Utah's youth suicide rate is quite simple once you learn that the majority of the state is Mormon. It is also profoundly and undeniably tragic. Under Mormon teachings, being gay is second only to murder under their collection of "sins." The threat of hell is certainly no match for the oppression, "reparative" therapies and condemnation from pulpits and parents alike. And yet the Mormon hierarchies aren't satisfied with tormenting those who were unfortunate enough to live in their state. They funded and supplied countless volunteers to pass Proposition 8 back in 2008. Needless to say, the pool of Mormon sheep blackmailed with excommunication amounted to tens of thousands of flyer-distributors, yellers and election-day "advisors." As anyone well-versed in political science is well aware, dedicated (or in this case, at least partially-coerced) volunteers can run circles around a smaller but more well-funded opposition.Families sacrificed their children's' college funds, retirement funds, and whatever else was demanded of them by comfortable, affluent and above all lazy clergy. And for what? For holding back social justice, compassion and understanding for a few years until the Judge Walker of California's district court declared it unconstitutional. Are the families going to receive aid from their conservative leaders who fleeced them of so much money? I highly doubt it. Utah will be profoundly dependent on the government teat (i.e. welfare) for the near future. So much for right-wing conservatism and personal responsibility. This was religious blackmail at its most pernicious.Or consider this - convicted mass murderers on death row and sex offenders can marry the person of their choice, but gays and lesbians cannot. That likens them to slaves in the Antebellum South, who were not allowed to marry. Like the emancipated African Americans before them, members of the LGBT community gathered in throngs to get married. To equate them to slaves and imply that they are worse than murderers is both profoundly callous and bigoted. Such discriminatory laws have no place in secular societies.By sticking its unwanted neck into the public sphere, the Mormon community unequivocably and unforgivably violated the first amendment of the US Constitution. There can be no freedom of religion without freedom FROM religion. The Mormons would no doubt throw childish hissy fits if their tax-exempt status was revoked and they were held accountable for their pernicious actions in shoving their baseless religious beliefs on the rest of California. Yet that would only be fair. There should be no governmental representation without taxation. This guiding axiom of democracy must work both ways for healthy societies to function and thrive.I am ecstatic that NOM is now under investigation for violating the US tax code. Justice for them, and the rest of society, is past its due date, but better late than never. Hiding financial figures and the names of one's donors is a clear sign of guilt (or at the least, a profound fear of embarrassment). As the recent 2012 referenda showed, it is only a matter of time before social justice spreads across the developed world. Religion cannot stop it, and their efforts to try only make things worse for us all (how many foster children could have been helped by the money thrown down the toilet on Proposition 8?).I would highly recommend Marriage On Trial's re-enactment of the Prop 8 Trial to see just how flimsy and unsupported the case against marriage equality is. Black, Cowan and Greenstreet deserve our respect and admiration for bringing these clandestine truths to light.

What a society we live in! It is unacceptable for a religious institution to take a stand on issues of morality in a democratic nation, but perfectly all right to slander said institution by omitting some facts, distorting others, and blatantly making others up. Yes, this waste of celluloid does all three in abundance. At first I was going to list all the examples here, but I would have gone far over the 1,000 word limit and lost peoples' interest. And now I see I can't include urls either. Dang. Well, just some legitimate research of your own will reveal that many of the claims made regarding LDS doctrine, actions, and quotes are distorted or, disturbingly often, outright false. The Foundation for Apologetic Information & Research has compiled an extensive list of these on its wiki, as well as many articles about the Church and homosexuality. Of course it's biased, but seeing as this "documentary" is not only biased but completely dishonest, anyone who has seen the one and is still interested in real facts should check out the other. The writers also failed to mention several pertinent details. Now, I don't expect anyone to discuss all the evidence that undermines their ideology, but there's a solid line between not doing that, and deliberately obscuring the truth to paint an inaccurate picture. In this case, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is portrayed as the big, bad villain stepping on a minority group's civil rights.Never mind that it has consistently supported employment and housing rights for those with same-sex attractions even when the Utah legislature itself has not. Never mind that the organization itself did not donate a penny (btw, the rumor that the Church is losing its tax-exempt status is a myth) and that the members acted of their own free will and not all chose to donate. Never mind that its effort was made as part of a coalition including Catholics, evangelicals, Protestants, Orthodox Jews, and Muslims, and that there were 10 million Catholics and Protestants (each) in California as opposed to 800,000 Mormons. (Is it acceptable in our society to slander those religions? I didn't think so. What makes the Mormons different?) Many more important facts have been omitted, which have been listed by Kevin Hamilton and included in a wonderful article by Orson Scott Card. TL,DR: This openly deceitful propaganda piece is a waste of your time, but if you must watch it, make sure to learn about reality's side of the story.

And then I see movies like this.If there is ever a good argument about why the silly notion of letting Churches have tax exempt status should be put by the wayside, this is it.The Church of Latter Day Saints spent 70% of the money supporting Proposition 8, yet hid behind front groups and other useful idiots to promote their agenda of hate.The delicious irony is that the courts have not only struck down 8, but if they appeal to the Supreme Court, they may well make it legal for the whole country. That would almost restore my faith in a God.

Hey, did you hear the good news? Jesus Christ did in fact return to life and was here in these very United States! Also, this guy, Joseph Smith said he found some tablets in the forest or something like that, but nobody ever actually saw them other than Mr. Smith, and now he can have as many wives as he wants! Oh, you didn't hear this? Well, then you're either a logical human being or, more likely, simply not a member of the Mormon church.So God said that one guy making out with another guy is wrong, so it HAS to be an absolute truth, right? Well, in that case once my daughter hits a certain age I'll be sure to pimp her out, that is if she doesn't mouth off to me and I stone her to death, two things that are promoted in the Bible as God's word; and lets not forget that wonderful concept of man's domination of all on earth leading to such marvelous things as species extinction and global warming (but that's just made up, right? Sort of like an all powerful being; IRONY ALERT.) In case you couldn't get the hint, I am an Atheist, have been for about 10 years now. It wasn't particularly hard work to realize that there is, was nor will there ever be a god in any sense. Sure, some of the mythology from some religions are interesting from a purely story telling aspect, loves me some Norse mythology, but to read a book and take every word written as factual truth is just beyond ridiculous and, obviously, dangerous to the rights of human beings.Watching the documentary, and seeing the Morons, I'm sorry, Mormons go from door to door surveying people one can't help but recall the treacherous and manipulative methods of the Ku Klux Klan in the early 1900s; they would go from door to door and ask people vague questions; do you love your country? do you love god? do you love your children? etc, etc. Well if you do, SIGN THIS AND JOIN OUR CLUB! and, unfortunately, a ton of people fell for this scheme. It's all about misinformation and fear, really; control the fearful and you have power absolute. Tell them that their children are in grave danger if a man is allowed to marry a man and, unfortunately, 8 times out of 10 they'll vote for whatever you're pushing. This idea that if homosexual couples are allowed to marry will bring about the demise of the United States and all it stands for, you know...the whole every man born equal thing, is so unbelievably absurd that it's making Camus role over in his grave.I'm not a Stalinist Atheist. I don't feel that if you eliminate religion from the world it would make it a better place (I don't have enough faith in the human condition to be so naive.), you can believe whatever you want, you can preach whatever you feel to be your seriously hilarious truth (like not allowing blacks into your religion until 1978) but once you take your beliefs and use them to manipulate the public into voting for something that is in your best interest then you're a problem through and through. Really, though, it's, again, all a matter of controlling the fearful. I believe in an afterlife because I'm scared to death of...well, death; what happens after we die? Oh, nothing? Total darkness and no more? Well, that's too bleak, so I'll just believe that when I die I'll get all the tang I could ever want; hell, I'll even become a GOD after I die, but in order to get to this point that somebody made up 100 or so years ago I have to be a slave to a group of megalomaniacs.Seriously? The documentary didn't tell me anything I didn't already know from reading noted science fiction author Orson Scott Card's appalling essay railing against homosexual rights; the fact that these people think that sexuality is a choice that can be reversed just goes to show how intensely they're living in their own little worlds, if this is the case, if something born into a human being is actually a choice....well, in that case you better start rounding up the blind, the deaf, the autistic and, gosh golly, why not the horizontally impaired? Yes, the Mormon church, proponents of eugenics: fantastic.Oh well, no matter if the church was involved or not the people of California VOTED for the proposition to be put into play; yeah, and Hitler was elected in a democratic system.