July, 1999

So we have a situation here. One group of people wants to limit the civil rights of another for "moral" reasons. What's wrong with that? Isn't it just for them to do this under the circumstances? Don't we have an obligation as a religious people to try and make this country better—more moral?

It seems that whenever you talk about sex (quick, cover the ears of the children!) people get a little anxious. Perhaps a story that takes the sexual element out of the picture would help illustrate:

The Chocolate Chip Cookie Dilemma

Let's say I like chocolate chip cookies. In fact I really love chocolate chip cookies. Sometimes I even add chopped up bits of pecans and that drives my taste buds crazy.

Let's also say that you and most other people also love chocolate chip cookies. We love their moistness, combined with their chewiness, and the sweet taste of delicious chocolate chips.

Now, keeping in mind that we both live in the United States (although this would work in most countries), where we all have civil rights and a constitution, would it be fair for a group of people to get together for religious reasons and make laws that give only themselves the right to eat chocolate chip cookies?

What if some of us used chocolate chips for religious ceremonies and thought that all chocolate chip cookies should be reserved only for us? Would it be right for our church to try to create laws that made it illegal for anyone outside our religion to also enjoy their sweet chocolate flavor?

What if there was a change in global weather and all the fields of chocolate chip plants began to die? A global chocolate chip shortage! What a disaster! Now the religious groups really need every chocolate chip cookie they can get, or they may have problems practicing their religion. Would it be alright then for them to create laws that stopped anyone outside their religion from eating chocolate chip cookies?

What if our society's love for chocolate chip cookies began to wane? What if the majority of people began to lose interest in chocolate chip cookies and stopped eating them? What if they chose to eat oatmeal cookies instead? Would it be morally right for the majority to write laws into effect to stop everyone from eating chocolate chip cookies because they thought that chocolate chip cookies were an evil, sick choice, and since they were a majority, they could?

What if the chocolate chip cookie lovers yelled "ridiculous!" and started asking: "what is the harm in letting those who like chocolate chip cookies enjoy them? Does it stop you from eating whatever kind of cookie you prefer? How does my cookie preference stop you from enjoying yours?"

What if the majority began to despise those who ate chocolate chip cookies and started blaming all of society's problems on the people who ate chocolate chip cookies, would it be right then? "We, for moral reasons, find it necessary to stop you from eating chocolate chip cookies." Everyone knows deep down that eating chocolate chip cookies is not an evil choice, but we need a scapegoat to blame society's problems on, so why not the chocolate chip cookie eaters, after all, we don't like the cookies so it's no loss to us. "Our inability to stomach a chocolate chip cookie means that you should not be able to eat them either!"

What if the remaining few who liked chocolate chip cookies said: "we have the same rights you do, this is not a religious matter to me, I just like chocolate chip cookies and because I am a citizen of this country, I have the right to eat them. Your trying to create laws to stop me is unjust!" What then?

What does all this mean?

No matter which argument or approach you use, it seems unjust for one group of people to try and deny another group of people their civil rights. Religious reasons have no place in the argument because, once again, we are talking about civil rights. If it's legal for some, it should be legal for everyone. Trying to blame someone else for your problems because of their choices seems a little wacko too. And it doesn't matter whether you're talking about cookies or same-sex marriage, everyone should be treated as equals in America. We all pay the same taxes, we all contribute to society, we all live and work side by side.

In this country we have freedom of religion. We also have freedom from religion and religious persecution (at least in theory). That's why our founders came here, to escape religious persecution. This is one of the foundational issues for establishing this country. There are some countries where a religious body makes all the rules. In these countries you could be killed for actions we "commit" every day in this country. Freedoms we take for granted are only dreamed of by people under some of these religiously dominated systems. To try and impose laws that grant certain rights to select groups of people for religious reasons is very un-American. It is the religious moralists who are making un-American choices here. Any denigrating of our society and American way of life is being committed by those who would try to create these kind of unjust laws—laws that grant special privileges to a select group of people. Who is it really that wants these "special rights" we hear so much about?!

In our own religion we are taught that one of the reasons we came to this earth was to learn from our choices, both the right ones and the wrong ones. We knew that we would make mistakes, but they would be ours. We are taught that this "Freedom to Choose" plan was proposed by Jesus and most of us chose to follow him.

We also have been taught that another plan was proposed before the world was created where everyone would be forced to make only certain choices—limiting choices—that would guarantee that everyone would make it back to Heaven. No one would enjoy freedom to choose. This plan was rejected by all of us who come to earth.

When we examine our religious attempt to limit civil rights to only us, only those we deem worthy, only those who fit our mold, it seems more to resemble the latter plan, not the former. Where does this desire to make the world a better place by limiting peoples freedoms to only a select group come from? Who is doing the inspiring? It seems to go against our foundational religious principles to try to stop people through laws from violating our religious beliefs.

Un-American? Un-Mormon? Unintelligent? You bet! But that doesn't seem to weigh too heavily on the minds of our religious leaders. We can only guess as to why they would act this way: hate, fear, revenge, jealousy, desperation...who knows. One thing we can know for sure is that they are not being led by God in this matter. Their inspiration is not being given by Jesus. The Holy Ghost is not confirming their irrational choices.

So what's so "moral" about taking these kinds of actions? In short: nothing. It goes against everything our religion and country stands for. So if you know what's good for you, don't even think about touching my chocolate chip cookies!