The Mormon church has asked its members to support the California ballot initiative that would amend the state's constitution to define marriage as a relationship between one man and one woman. Specifically, according to the Associated Press:

"We ask that you do all you can to support the proposed constitutional amendment by donating of your means and time to ensure that marriage in California is legally defined as being between a man and a woman," church leaders say in the letter. "Our best efforts are required to preserve the sacred institution of marriage."

They should rethink that strategy and their own writings explain why: The LDS church claims, in a letter signed by the LDS president, that:

"The church's teachings and position on this moral issue are unequivocal. 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."

That is exactly true. The church's teachings are unequivocal. And the church should be allowed to keep its teachings free from interference by the state, which is a civil institution and which affords civil rights, not religious rights.

Likewise it is ill-served by efforts to interfere with the civil rights afforded by the state.

Put plainly, if it wins its misguided effort to enshrine its own religious principles in a state constitution it should be prepared for another religion to successfully replace those principles with new ones in the future.

Far better for churches to keep civil and religious rights separate. No matter how strongly they despise values that might be enshrined in civil law, civil law and religious law are separate, much to the benefit (for those who believe) of religious law. If civil law and religious law were too intimately connected, churches would be vulnerable not only to changes in secular beliefs but also to majority religious beliefs. Certainly the Mormons understand how this could be dangerous.

It is rare that I argue this, but certainly this is a case of religious institutions needing to look out for their own self interests. Imposing assimilation to their own values is not going to serve their needs in the long run.

(It is comforting that some churches seem to recognize this and have organized in support of basic civil rights, including the right to equal marriage. Those churches rightly recognize that without protection of basic civil rights their own rights are deeply threatened.)

Photos all licensed under creative commons licenses. Licenses and Attributions:

• Mormon Tabernacle by Travis S .
• Episcopal Diocese supporting marriage equality in MA by Philocrites
• Young Progressive Jews Support Equal Marraige by Jewish Women's Archive

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Elizabeth