I felt I had to say something. This guy is a dear friend of mine from New Mexico, who I met when he served a mission up here 30 years ago. We still keep in touch, and he's no idea that I've resigned from the Church.

He just sent me this:

"PLEASE pass it on to all your email folks!!!!

Jim Neugent - A Coach In Mena , Arkansas

Writes To ABC Network
Jim Writes:

My name is Jim Neugent. I wrote to ABC (on-line) concerning a program called
'THE PRACTICE.' In last nights episode, one of the lawyer's mothers decided she
is gay and wanted her son to go to court and help her get a marriage license so
she could marry her 'partner.' I sent the following letter to ABC yesterday and
really did not expect a reply, but I did get one.

My original message was:

ABC is obsessed with the subject of homosexuality. I will no longer watch any of
your attempts to convince the world that homosexuality is OK. ' THE PRACTICE'
can be a fairly good show, but last night's program was so typical of your
agenda. You picked the 'dufus' of the office to be the one who was against the
idea of his mother being gay, and made him look like a whiner because he had
convictions. This type of mentality calls people like me a 'gay basher.'

Read the first chapter of Romans (that's in the BIBLE); and see what the apostle
Paul had to say about it..... He, GOD and JESUS were all 'gay bashers'. What if
she'd fallen in love with her cocker spaniel? Is that an alternative life style?
(By the way, the Bible speaks against that, too.)
--Jim Neugent

Here is ABC's reply from the ABC on-line webmaster:

How about getting your nose out of the BIBLE (which is ONLY a book of stories
compiled by MANY different writers hundreds of years ago) and read the
declaration of independence (what our nation is built on), where it says 'All
Men are Created equal,' and try treating them that way for a change!

Or better yet, try thinking for yourself and stop using an archaic book of
stories as your lame crutch for your existence. You are in the minority in this
country, and your boycott will not affect us at ABC or our freedom of statement.

Jim Neugent's second response to ABC:

Thanks for your reply. From your harsh reply, evidently I hit a nerve. I will
share it with all with whom I come in contact. Hopefully, the Arkansas Democrat
Newspaper will include it in one of their columns and I will be praying for you.

Note: Wouldn't Satan just love it if people stopped using the BIBLE for a crutch?
Please resend this to everyone in your mailbox.

Jim Neugent"


This was my reply to him:

"I’m not gay, but I do have a few gay friends. In Canada, they have the same civil rights as anyone else – to be able to marry the consenting adult of their choice.

I’ve never actually run into a gay married couple. The Church has not been forced to marry anyone they don’t want to. Churches are protected from such things. Only the civil courts must uphold the law. Nothing has fallen apart. No heterosexual couple has been harmed, nor inconvenienced because of it.

What will happen though, is that gays will stop marrying heterosexuals because they’re encouraged to do so in church. Instead, they’ll be able to marry the person of their choice. Not in church, but in a civil court. I have two dear friends whose lives were shattered because the Church encouraged their gay boyfriends to marry them anyway. Years later, after several children, the marriages fell apart because the men could no longer deny who they were.

Crazy people are yelling, “And what’s next? Marrying children? Marrying animals.” Well, duh! Of course not. Children are protected under the law because they are not of the age of consent. Neither can an animal consent to such a union. I’m so sick of all the fear-mongering going on.

I formally resigned from the Mormon Church 2 years ago because of their political involvement with Proposition 8 and have been quite outspoken about it. The Church has always said that they would not be involved in politics. They lied. In Article of Faith 11, they claim the right to worship as they please, and state that they allow all men that same privilege. Again a lie.

I was taught that agency is a sacred thing, and there they were, interfering in the civil rights of people who had nothing whatsoever to do with them. I was shocked, appalled and horrified, and want nothing to do with such a bigoted organization. I will not be counted amongst them. Let the people vote on their marriages now, and see how they like it. Let the people pass a law that Mormons can no longer have more than 2 children and see how that goes over. It’s so easy to fight against something, when you’re not the one hurt by it, isn’t it?

If this Jim guy doesn’t like a TV show, then he doesn’t have to watch it. It’s pretty easy to change a channel these days. It goes *click*. Not all of us believes in the Bible, nor care what it has to say about such things.

I have many Mormon friends that I love dearly. Actually, almost every friend I have is Mormon, because I’d been a member of that Church since I was a teenager. I love my friends, and always will. I just hate their church. I’ve lost several friends because of that. It hasn’t been my choice. It has been theirs. I’ve always intended to simply carry on with my friendships as usual, but some can’t handle my strong feelings. For those friends who’ve stood by me, we simply don’t bring up the Church. We agree to disagree on that one. I don’t talk about my feelings about the Church, if they don’t want me to. But throw a subject at me that I feel passionate about, and I do tend to speak out.

I’ve known you for 30 years, consider you to be a cherished friend, and always will. I just thought maybe I’d better warn you where my head is, so you’ll know that maybe issues like this are better left alone. LOL *hugs* "

Excellent response, Greyfort. Most excellent.

Greyfort,

Obviously you're not thinking this through clearly. If we allow gays to marry, then we might have to legalize other alternative lifestyles like polygamy or.... oops wait, bad example. OK, well what if then we have to legalize messed up crap like marrying 14 year-olds and.... oh wait, bad example again. Um. Nevermind.

/sarcasm



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/10/2011 08:13PM by mobegone.

LOL mobegone. Yep. You may have hit the nail on the head as to why the LDS Church is so upset about gay marriage.

http://www.snopes.com/politics/religion/practice.asp

And while it is listed as "True", ABC sent Mr. Neugent a formal apology.

Also, this one has been making the rounds on the 'net for years now. Your friend can't even keep current on his outrage!

The Practice went off the air in 2004.

ROFL!

Yup... my urban legend detector was going off at this FPBS.
Even when it's true, the letter is always exaggerated and tweaked somehow.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/10/2011 10:30PM by itzpapalotl.

LOL I never watched the show, so I wasn't even aware of that. But apparently the e-mail is still making the rounds, as I just got it tonight.

Well, the Mormon Church as always been behind the times. hehe

Phew. Friendship is intact. He answered quickly. He said:

"OOPS... didn't mean to offend anyone...
thanks for putting me straight...no pun intended...
hope everything is going great with you..."

Maybe I've managed to make him think a little though. One can always hope.

A true friend reacts that way.

Letter writer says:

"What if she'd fallen in love with her cocker spaniel? Is that an alternative life style?"

Why is there an instant default to dogs with these people? How do they possibly equate human relationships amongst GLBT people with bestiality? As if it's the next step in the sex lives of GLBT folks? As if it's inevitable? As if it's a logical or valid argument? As if it makes any sense?

Why do their minds go right there? It's ridiculous, a stupid argument, and embarrassing for the one who parrots that point, although they don't seem to realize that.

Bringing in the Bible to such a stupid debate embarrasses Christians who still do have a few functioning brain cells, despite assurances to the contrary by some.

I admit I don't want to be in the same camp as the Christians who continue to say such stupid things and continue to uphold bigotry and exclusion and prejudice and equal rights from fellow humans.

Fortunately, there's more than one camp.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/10/2011 08:42PM by Nightingale.

The dog can neither sign his/her name on the marriage certificate, nor can he/she give informed consent to having sex with a human.

fuck him if he can't take a joke.

you have done well, Greyfort.

You know the state motto of Arkansas? "Thank God for Mississippi."

Meaning that if it twern't for MS, they would be dead last in every metric for measuring quality of anything.

btw, from MS here.

I hope you don't lose his friendship, but he needs honest friends like you, who will tell him things as they really are.

I go on these mormon/ex- mormon boards quite freq. the reason is I've attended a church of lds. 5 out of last 6 wks. (missionaries have been coming since 1st of Dec. 2010) so warm, caring, compassionate, etc. I'm 49 and have committed to baptism. I want to find out everything there is to know. I'm presbyterian and have been all of my life. I don't see where there's lots of difference in services. (maybe some in beliefs)all religions do worship the same god. I've committed once and post-poned and now i've committed to 19th of march. If there is so much anomosity, then why. tks. for your comments/time.

Thought this deserved a reply.

??

deb 49, you might want to start a new thread (new topic button at the top of the page) if you want to get any replies to your post.

It is getting lost in this thread.

tks. much abigail.(still investigating)

That "apostle paul" the guy is quoting, was a real person (unlike most of the characters in the bible.)

And here is the "rest of the story," Paul was a self loathing gay man.

So no thanks, I will not listen to what Paul, Larry Craig, Ted Haggard or any other batshit crazy needs to come out of the closet self loathing gay man has to say about homsexuality.

Buh-bye.

Deb, they're warm and compassionate because they're salesmen. But I applaud you for looking at both sides of the story.

No one would make a large purchase from the Shopping Network without checking out the reviews, and taking a look at the competition. You wouldn't just take the salesman's word for it. And yet the Mormon Church would have you look at only their materials.

My advice would be to read everything you can get your hands on. If you still want to be a part of the Church, then at least you'll go into it being fully educated on the real history of the Church - stuff the missionaries won't tell you, or would simply pass off as lies.

You could check out a site like www.mormonthink.com and read everything you can. All of the issues are laid out very well and both sides are presented.

I wish you the best of luck. For myself, I spent 30 years in the Church, and then couldn't get out fast enough once I learned the hidden truths. But if it's what would truly make you happy, I wouldn't tell you not to follow your heart. Only do it because you really want to and not just because the missionaries are nice. Once you were baptized, they'd be off and after their next targets.

Hi Grey. Tks. so much for the tips/info. yes, i'm aware they do move on and what i gather is they are somewhat under some pressure to get baptism committments. i will pull up the site b/c part of me loves the idea and the other part is not 100 percent certain. I've wondered why there is so much scrutiny b/c when you pull up pres., southern baptists, etc. there is not all of this scrutiny. i will check it out. If i do decide to postpone once more the miss. will probably move on as well. again tks. much.

He's talking about my friend's reaction to what I wrote to him. Gratefully, he took it well.

after researching somewhat, i do know there have been some back out @ last minute. i assume if i did decide to do this(have to do more research) that they'd move on anyways.

tks. much for your input.