Recently a BYU professor said that the LDS church, though unfairly targeted for its participation in the fight to restrict marriage rights to heterosexuals, reaped some benefits from the controversy: “The little-told story is how the church earned goodwill and built bridges with other religious groups.”

I called one of my contacts at the COB, and he sent me a memo he’d seen listing the top ten benefits the church received from the Prop 8 campaign.

10. At least people no longer think of polygamy first when they hear the word “Mormon.”

9. Our Evangelical friends think we’re now 5% less Satanic.

8. “No, we’re not here to rifle through your underwear drawer” has proven a highly effective door approach for missionaries.

7. People realize that we’re not just crazy people from Utah. We live in California, too!

6. We showed we can handle any kind of emergency, from a hurricane to two guys kissing.

5. Research shows a trend towards equilibrium between locks and keys.

4. Finally, we got some use out of our phone banks. Heaven knows nobody was calling in asking for free DVDs and scriptures.

3. It helped separate the wheat from the tares. After all, not every ward has a Will Schryver to sort them out.

2. It was the perfect set up for President Packer’s enlightening and inspired talk about in-born tendencies.

1. Persecution is the gift that keeps on giving.

Notice: For the benefit of the humor-impaired, this is a joke.

The injustice of prop 8 meant I couldn't stay closeted any more. I finally came out to a whole crew of my still Mormon friends when a couple of them made statements about how "those gays are unclean and gross" and "see how Satan is making it seem like there's nothing wrong with all that perverted gay behavior". I hadn't seen these ladies in quite awhile and had no idea several of them felt this way. I couldn't stay quiet after that and it turns out I'm the only out gay person most of them know. In this case, they've all become victims of the LDS propoganda machine and just been afraid of what they didn't know. They have a different perspective now and a few of them are seriously questioning other areas of the church as a result, and that's a good thing. The passing of prop 8 is a setback in our quest for equal rights, but I have confidence it will be overturned. It's only a matter of time.

I had not realized how much "silver lining" had come with the Prop 8 cloud. Thanks for pointing it out!

the unintended consequences may prove to be a real blessing in the long run.

The church is walking a fine line that may push them towards losing their tax exempt status, like excluding blacks did in the 70's. While never losing their tax exempt status, they learned from other denominations loss of status and decided that inclusion was less painful than paying taxes.

When our ward in IL gets the expected letter re opposing the new civil unions bill that is being introduced this year I will be sure to send a copy to my legislators with a letter of complaint.