So we were having brunch with our friend this morning and he said, “We were at the library for the candlelight vigil for Mary Geequality last week…”.

I wondered who Mary was, how she had died and why he acted as if we should know her.

Then I realized what he had actually said.

I’m glad we have friends who support Marriage Equality

A bright and humorous group have created a parody website of Mormons and Gays website, which the LDS church launched this past week.

It is nicely titled Mormons and Negroes and turns the tables right where they should be turned.

I pasted the link on Facebook and a Brazilian LDS acquaintance from some 35 years ago quickly protested:

Not for Brazilians LDS , great part of brazilian population has some black blood, so we have no problem at all !!! We like everybody , black, white, yellow, straight, not straight, everybody !! We are all the same, aren’t we???

I responded, …”most LDS (and most people I know) feel as you do, but the point of this parody is to show that something that is immutable and that you did not choose (e.g. skin color, sexual orientation) cannot be considered a sin. Nothing more, nothing less. The LDS church’s new website (mormonsandgays.org) claims being homosexual is not a choice — but acting on it is a sin. You can’t have it both ways — hence my comment on a double-edged sword (faca de dois fumes).”

I expect to arrive in São Paulo tomorrow to a Facebook firestorm (and perhaps a few less Facebook friends).

A few days before the recent U.S. Presidential elections, my LDS cousin’s married, adult daughter posted the following on Facebook as a “call to arms”:

Tomorrow is a day of fasting and prayer for our faith. Whoever you are and whatever your beliefs, I invite you to join with our family in spending the day remembering God and this great nation and asking for His blessings on us this Tuesday.

After the election — when Mitt Romney, the LDS candidate she fasted and prayed for — did not win, I posted this:

Wow this stuff really works. My prayers WERE answered on Tuesday.

She retorted with a somewhat typical Mormon response that blamed my supposed iniquity as the root cause of why I would disagree with her political beliefs (not to mention the whole “fast and pray so Romney wins” mantra):

You can have your own need for all things immoral and inane validated by the Democratic Party and turn your back on what you once professed to be true but that doesn’t give you props for being a schmuck on my status.

Her father pulled something similar several years ago when he sent out a blast email exhorting people to give a good rating to his son’s newly-launched music album on Amazon and iTunes. My older brother questioned the propriety and honesty of this request in an email response back and this man proceeded to call my brother “an apostate and embittered ex-member” [of the LDS church] as a way of showing who was on the right side of god.

Interesting tactic.

In a conversation with a renowned LDS drama professor last week, it was mentioned that the presentation of  the mysteries in the ancient world evolved into the ceremonies in the temple and was for all intents and purposes, “the first theater”.

My honey — ever the skeptic — said, “Do they use smoke in the temple? Because I know they use mirrors.”

I performed my best acting to-date and kept a straight face, though I was dying to laugh aloud.

The professor seemed not to have understood and kept talking.

So a very pregnant co-worker squeezed down into a chair by me today and another co-worker mentioned how big she was.

She retorted, “Well, I’m still able to get twat-aerobics class twice a week”.

“What,” I asked, “Is twat-aerobics?” — as I envisioned some childbirth preparation course.

“Water aerobics,” she yelped, “Water aerobics!”

From The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs –

Hate-spewing “Christians” need to listen up

You may have heard that a bunch of born-again idiots tried to sneak a gay-hating app into our App Store, and we pulled it, and now the wingnuts are protesting. See coverage on Catholic News Agency and Newser and ABC. Katie says I should just say nothing and let the whole thing fade away, which is what we usually do whenever organizations try to use our popularity to stir up “controversy” and attract attention for their causes. (Yes, I’m talking to you, Greenpeace.) But this time I just can’t hold back. I’m sorry, but there are a few things I’ve been wanting to say for a long time now, and this trumped-up “spat” gives me a chance to say them.
(more…)