In the Tribune today is an article about Bruce Bastian donating in the fight against Proposition 8, here.Get this: Mr. Bastian made this donation back in June! The tribune did a story on it way back then, so why pull it up and print it again? Why make this old donation seem like new news? Why print "Ex-Mormon donates $1M to kill LDS-backed California marriage proposition"? And why would Mr. Bastian want to murder a proposition?
I fear the motivation here is not good. The new article basically points out how little LDS Utahns have given to Prop 8, while the church told them to do all they can. It describes Bastian as a rich "upset" openly gay ex-Mormon, negating the giving of Utah Mormons "in one fell swoop." That's scary. In some LDS families, the kids believe openly gay ex-Mormons live in their closets as domestic partners of bogymen.
Also, the article uses probably one of the worst quotes they could have taken from Bastian (if you ever talk to the press, though, expect that).
In the article a site to which readers can go and donate to help annul our marriages is given multiple times. Not once is a url given for a pro-marriage site. The author of the article has the owner of mormonsfor8.com (That's mormonsfor8.com) describe it as "informational and neutral on Prop 8". Sure, they don't openly take sides, but if it's used to track which LDS are following the church's directions, they should know for which side mormonsfor8.com is best used.
The story ends like a church talk with the last paragraph being the quote:
"Marriage between a man and a woman is ordained of God, and the formation of families is central to the creator's plan for his children."
As if such a religious belief can reasonably be imposed on your neighbor's family, a family that does not share your faith. The people who are working to keep entrenched such a precedence should be aware that times change and different faiths take hold. From personal experience I can tell you that you do not want to be on the business end of this weapon decades later, as the LDS were many years ago.
Sadly, this article seems to basically be a pro-prop 8 commercial, using a months old story to prod Utah LDS into donating more. If I'm right, shame on the author, and whoever went along with it up there at the Trib.
As always I hope to be told I'm wrong here, though
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FWIW, I didn't feel that much of a push to support California's Prop 8--I know LDS folks in California have, and I've heard some doozies of requests for support out there, from Max Power's blog, I believe.
Regardless, it's shocking to see the Trib run such a PRO-LDS article, when the Trib and the Dez News were exchanging journalistic trench warfare.
Doesn't strike me as very careful reporting. Are you sure it wasn't some Opinion/Editorial piece?
I'm glad I'm not just seeing things.
But no, not an editorial; this was front page A1 news. Or "news"?
Yeah, this extremely fishy, and seems out of character for the Tribune in it's pro-lds language.
very much "news".
The MormonsFor8 website has been advertised on various ex-Mormon and No-on-8 websites as being a good way to track the nice-seeming but miscreant Mormon neighbors and friends who are contributing to the Yes on 8 campaign. I've turned a couple of acquaintances in as Mormon to the site myself. So despite the name I'm not sure I'd characterize it as being a for-Prop-8 website.
"So despite the name I'm not sure I'd characterize it as being a for-Prop-8 website."
Okay, thanks Jer. I'm wrong to assume it has one pro-8 purpose. The name and article's description of the owner as a LDS member from California threw me off. I'd think it may be used by the pro-8 side as well.
Man, though, would I want to know if a person I loved did such a thing?
I actually talked to a rep of Equality Utah today on other business and brought up this article; they seemed as troubled by the article and confused by the reprinting of the Bastian story as front page news. Strange.
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