The Church News<\/em> recently ran an op-ed<\/a> by Tad Callister, which has this as its opening paragraph:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you were asked, \u201cWhat is the greatest challenge facing our nation today?\u201d how would you respond? The economy, national security, immigration, gun control, poverty, racism, crime, pandemics, climate change? While each of these is a valid concern and deserves attention, I do not believe that any of them strikes at the heart of our greatest challenge \u2014 a return to family and moral values.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Anytime an essay starts off talking about the lack of family values, you know that as a queer, leftist, active Mormon, there are going to be some statements you\u2019re going to have an issue with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, here we go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Callister used to be a general authority, but was released in 2014. However, he immediately went on to serve as general Sunday school president, which he finished in 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, the first big thing that sticks out is a quote from William Barr, who served as US attorney general under the older George Bush, as well as under Donald Trump. At one point, he called for higher incarceration rates<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s the quote from Barr\u2019s 2019 address<\/a> to the Law School and the de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture at the University of Notre Dame:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cInstead of addressing the underlying cause, we have the state in the role of alleviator of bad consequences. So the reaction to growing illegitimacy is not sexual responsibility, but abortion. The reaction to drug addiction is safe injection sites. The solution to the breakdown of the family is for the state to set itself up as the ersatz husband for single mothers and the ersatz father to their children. The call comes for more and more social programs to deal with the wreckage. While we think we are solving problems, we are underwriting them.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Barr goes on in his remarks to opine about personal responsibility and what he calls an \u201cattack\u201d on religious freedom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The thing is that Barr doesn\u2019t provide solutions for the problems he lists in that quote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To be fair, he complains that abortion is the reaction to illegitimacy, but suggests that sexual responsibility should be instead. That being said, as long as contraceptives remain financially inaccessible to people and the right continues to fight against comprehensive sex education, it\u2019s going to be difficult for people to be fully responsible for the sex they have. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If someone has sex but doesn\u2019t realize that they can get pregnant from it\u2014or at least believes that they can\u2019t get pregnant right away\u2014can they truly be held responsible if they end up pregnant? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If someone wants to have sex but can\u2019t afford birth control, can they truly be held responsible if they end up pregnant? Only the well off are allowed to have sex? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If a woman is pressured into having unprotected sex\u2014whether emotionally, physically, or through deception\u2014and ends up pregnant, can she truly be held responsible for the pregnancy?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Outlawing abortions won\u2019t prevent abortions. People will still terminate pregnancies they never wanted. They\u2019d just do it illegally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Barr\u2019s framing of sexual choice\u2014and Callister\u2019s quoting of it\u2014is simplistic and completely ignores the complex set of factors behind every choice to have sex and ability to prevent pregnancy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the second point of addiction, supervised consumption sites don\u2019t \u201calleviate bad consequences\u201d. Well, unless Barr is suggesting that the bad consequence to addiction is death or disease and that the state shouldn\u2019t be mitigating risk of death and disease among those who use drugs. Is that what he\u2019s suggesting? People who are addicted to drugs deserve death or disease connected to that drug usage? Because if so, then yes, the state does alleviate death and disease among those who use drugs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Outlawing supervising consumption won\u2019t prevent addiction. People will still use, and they\u2019ll continue to die. The fact that a general authority who claims to be a follower of Christ is literally advocating for the reduction of practices that prevent death and disease is mind boggling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Regarding his third point\u2014the one on the breakdown of the family\u2014Barr suggests the state attempts to be a surrogate husband and father to single mothers and fatherless children. He never suggests an alternative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I find this wording interesting. Why does he seem concerned with only single mothers and fatherless children? Why does he not mention single fathers and motherless children?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And even so, it\u2019s odd that he complains about the reaction to broken families being the state providing support for those parents and children. Yet he never talks about the causes of breakdown of these families. He never mentions the overpolicing (and subsequent overincarceration) of poor people, particularly young men. He never mentions the role toxic masculinity and the patriarchy in convincing men they can abandon their families. He never mentions the influence capitalism has in creating broken families by forcing parents to spend more time making money (because 1 9\u2013to-5 minimum wage job isn\u2019t enough) than with their children. He never mentions how police violence literally creates widows. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

George Floyd\u2019s five children aren\u2019t fatherless because their family was broken; they\u2019re fatherless because cops murdered him. Eric Garner\u2019s two children aren\u2019t fatherless because their family was broken; they\u2019re fatherless because cops murdered him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Again, Barr\u2019s framing of these three issues is deeply problematic, trying to reduce every societal issue to a matter of personal choice and completely ignoring societal forces\u2014such as racism, classism, sexism, and greed\u2014that help perpetuate, if not create, the very problems he complains about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And Callister is being irresponsible in advancing this rhetoric when he once claimed to be a follower of Christ, whose 3-year ministry was spent advocating for and ministering to those who society rejected for lacking personal responsibility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Barr\u2019s quote wasn\u2019t the only issue with Callister\u2019s op-ed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How right he is. How often we choose worldly solutions that nurture rather than nullify existing issues of immorality. How often we adopt a new sin in an effort to cover or hide an existing one and in the process compound rather than resolve the problem at hand.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

You want to know what \u201ccompounds the problem at hand\u201d? Ignoring the problem. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You don\u2019t want to unwanted pregnancies? Then advocate for free birth control and comprehensive sex education instead of saying, \u201cY\u2019all just need to be virgins\u201d. You don\u2019t want to drug addiction? Then advocate for better education programmes and healthcare options instead of pretending you\u2019re Barbara Bush. You don\u2019t want broken families? Then abolish capitalism, defund the police, and topple the patriarchy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[Satan\u2019s] plan is in direct opposition to the family proclamation. It is an insidious attempt to destroy the nuclear family and God\u2019s moral values. He disguises his plan of attack with alluring labels such as \u201cpro-choice\u201d for abortion, \u201clove and compassion\u201d for endorsement of same-sex marriage, and \u201cenvironmental emergency\u201d for promotion of a zero-growth population agenda. Each of these proposals, however, constitutes a frontal attack on the family unit and its survival.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Okay. I\u2019ll give him the zero-growth population agenda one. I mean, that won\u2019t destroy my own family or any other existing families, but it\u2019ll result in fewer families in general over time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Except Callister\u2019s problem isn\u2019t with families in general being destroyed, but one type of family in particular: the nuclear family\u2014one mum, one dad, and some kids, all living in the same house.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPro-choice\u201d isn\u2019t a disguise for abortion; it\u2019s not a synonym of it. \u201cPro-choice\u201d means that it\u2019s up to a woman when she gets pregnant, if at all. She gets to choose when she gets pregnant. It\u2019s not up to her partner. It\u2019s not up to her parents. It\u2019s not up to her church. And it\u2019s not up to the state. People who are pro-choice are in favour of women being able to make that choice, not have others make it for them, whether that\u2019s allowing them to embrace, prevent, or terminate pregnancy. It\u2019s unethical to force a woman to continue a pregnancy she doesn\u2019t want to take.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Creating an environment that promotes and encourages full autonomy of women over their reproductive health would mean fewer<\/em> unwanted children, not more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fact that he thinks \u201clove and compassion\u201d are alluring labels of disguise for \u201cendorsing\u201d marriage equality just blows my mind. How does he think we should refer to the endorsement of marriage equality? We shouldn\u2019t love people who want to marry someone of the same sex? We shouldn\u2019t have compassion for their desire to marry that person?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, \u201clove and compassion\u201d aren\u2019t the only reason to support marriage equality. A desire for equality of civil rights purely on grounds of embracing liberty is another reason. All people should enjoy the same freedoms. Allowing more people to marry doesn\u2019t mean that people currently allowed to marry no longer can marry. More rights for the oppressed doesn\u2019t result fewer rights for the already privileged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also, marriage equality is neither a frontal attack on the family unit nor on its survival. Allowing more people to marry creates more potential family units within which children can be born and nurtured, being raised in stable, loving homes. Marriage equality strengthens<\/em> the family unit and prolongs<\/em> its survival.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even so, you want to know something that is actually destroying families? Homophobic rhetoric within the church. Language over the pulpit and in common discourse encourages members to reject their queer children, through being emotionally distant as parents or even literally throwing them out of the house.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The church\u2019s rhetoric around queer issues harms more families than allowing gay people to get married does. I mean, the church literally said in November 2015 that people children of gay parents couldn\u2019t get baptized unless they disavowed their parents\u2019 marriage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One cannot circumvent God\u2019s commands and expect to escape the divine consequences, regardless of how decorated the package may be or how cosmetically appealing the language may sound.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s the thing though. Gays marrying doesn\u2019t circumvent God\u2019s commands, because there is literally zero scriptural support for the idea that gay people can\u2019t marry. Same goes for abortion, supervised consumption sites, and state welfare for the husbandless and fatherless. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, there is literally a scripture that states taking care of the widows and fatherless is actually pure religion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.<\/p>James 1:27<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

If you want to talk about who\u2019s trying to circumvent God\u2019s commands, maybe look at those saying we shouldn\u2019t be taking care of the widows and fatherless, that we should just leave them to the natural consequences of personal responsibility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If our prime focus is to promote family and moral values, then we will experience the consequences that flow from such efforts \u2014 less crime and drug abuse, less fraud and abuse, fewer divorces and lawsuits, fewer babies born out of wedlock, more ethical employees and employers, a reduction in welfare cases, less contention and hate, and a resurgence of faith in God. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Dude, if you eat the rich, you\u2019d get rid of nearly every one of those \u201cconsequences\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inequality is at the root of our social ills\u2014capitalism, racism, sexism, colonialism. Telling people to pray and read their scriptures more won\u2019t change any of that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you want to change society, we need to follow the example of Jesus. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jesus never protested a gay marriage or an abortion clinic. He never threw widows onto the street. He never dismissed people with vices. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead, Jesus fed the poor, healed the sick, and whipped a few bankers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tad Callister recently wrote a Church News op-ed, complaining about an attack on the family. However, it\u2019s just a bunch of right-wing talking points disguised as gospel principles. Continue reading Tad Callister is trying to repackage the gospel of Jesus as right-wing politics<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4105,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[200,42,10],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\n