www.sltrib.com

Mike Lee #wingnut #elitist #mammon sltrib.com

On the other hand, Sen. Mike Lee has loudly defended Thomas from criticism, calling the Justice a “hero” and saying he has done nothing wrong.

Lee is now attempting to fundraise off the Thomas scandal. Last week, Lee sent a fundraising email titled “Stand with Clarence Thomas.”

“The hypocritical woke Left is at it once again with their latest smear attacks against Justice Clarence Thomas,” the email reads.

The email accuses Thomas’ critics of targeting him because he stands in the way of “advancing their radical agenda” before making his fundraising pitch about protecting the Supreme Court.

“The need to retake the Senate majority and protect the Court from being manipulated, warped, and taken over by radical leftists is greater than ever,” the message says. The email then directs recipients to a landing page where they can show their support for Thomas by providing their cellphone number and email to the Lee campaign. After signing up, users are asked to donate to Lee’s campaign.

Both Lee and [Mitt] Romney have taken campaign donations from Crow. The Texan gave Lee $16,800 for his 2016 and 2022 reelection bids. He kicked in $5,400 to Romney’s 2018 Senate campaign. For his 2012 presidential run, Crow donated $5,000 directly to Romney’s campaign and gave $2.3 million to super PACs that supported his White House bid.

Utah republicans #transphobia sltrib.com

Utah step closer to banning gender-affirming care for transgender minors

A bill to prevent doctors from providing gender-affirming care to transgender youth has cruised through the state Senate and now goes to the Utah House for debate.

The Utah Senate gave final passage to a bill aiming to crack down on the ability of doctors to prescribe hormone therapy for minors who are transgender. The legislation, Senate Bill 16, would also enact an outright ban on body-altering surgeries, such as mastectomies, for transgender youth.

The bill has cruised through the Senate quickly during the first week of the 2023 general session.

State Sen. Mike Kennedy, R-Alpine, a physician by trade and the bill’s sponsor, said he understands some of his colleagues may disagree with his legislation.

“We all approach this with compassion, kindness and consideration. But we come to different conclusions. That’s the nature of different opinions, and it’s the nature of the political process,” Kennedy said.

In 2021, Kennedy wrote a letter to the editor published in The Salt Lake Tribune pushing back against COVID restrictions and vaccinations. In the letter, Kennedy argued that the government should not “usurp the power of parents” when deciding the best course of action for their children.

When asked about the 2021 letter during a news conference after the vote, Kennedy says his stances on parental rights and COVID restrictions are consistent with his policy goals contained in this year’s Transgender Medical Treatments and Procedures Amendments bill.

“When it comes to that, I do trust parents and taking care of their children. But there is no regulation right now in this area of transgender health care, and this bill does a great job bringing a regulatory framework so that our children are cared for in the safest, most effective fashion,” Kennedy said.

[...]

Samuel Bateman #fundie sltrib.com

Samuel Bateman first said he felt prompted to take his own teenage daughter as his wife, his family later told investigators, in early 2019

Soon after, his wife and daughter left his home in Colorado City, according to the FBI, where Bateman had been raised as a member of the polygamous Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

But the next spring, Bateman began gathering young women, and then girls, and then the adult wives of his male followers as his own wives. He later directed and participated in group sex acts with them, according to accounts detailed in a federal court document filed Friday
Some of the descriptions are from Bateman, the document said, drawn from recordings made by a Colorado City woman who helps members of the polygamy community and her husband, who was filming a documentary[…]
Bateman told the couple that Heavenly Father had instructed him in early November 2021 to “give the most precious thing he has, his girls’ virtue,” to three of his adult male followers while he watched[…]
Bateman said the girls had “sacrificed their virtue for the Lord,” [Special Agent Dawn A. ] Martin said, noting one of the three girls he described was 12 years old at the time

“God will fix their bodies and put the membrane back in their body. I’ve never had more confidence in doing his will. It’s all out of love”[…]
Bateman “began to proclaim he was a prophet” in 2019, Martin said in her affidavit. In his small offshoot of the FLDS faith, he has “approximately 50 followers and more than 20 wives, many of whom are minors, mostly under the age of 15”[…]
The eight girls recovered in Spokane are listed in the affidavit as wives of Bateman. The young woman who was with them when they were found — Moretta Rose Johnson — also became a wife of Bateman when she was under age 18

Brad Wilcox #racist #fundie sltrib.com

In a rare move, a high-level Latter-day Saint leader and Brigham Young University religion professor has apologized for remarks he made Sunday about Black members and the church’s former priesthood/temple ban
[…]
At a fireside for Latter-day Saint congregations in Alpine, Wilcox said he gets questions from members who wonder why Black males didn’t get the priesthood until 1978, when the prohibition was lifted

Was Brigham Young, the faith’s second president, “a jerk?” he said they ask, or were early Latter-day Saints “prejudiced”?

Maybe they are asking the wrong questions, Wilcox suggested. “Maybe instead of asking why the Blacks had to wait until 1978 to get the priesthood, we should be asking why did the whites and other races have to wait until 1829”
[…]
Wilcox, second counselor in the faith’s Young Men general presidency, issued an apology late Monday, saying, “I made a serious mistake last night, and I am truly sorry”

Wilcox went on to say, “The illustration I attempted to use about the timing of the revelation on the priesthood for Black members was wrong. I’ve reviewed what I said and I recognize that what I hoped to express about trusting God’s timing did NOT come through as I intended”
[…]
To those he offended, “especially my dear Black friends, I offer my sincere apologies, and ask for your forgiveness,” he said. “I am committed to do better”

various religious leaders #fundie sltrib.com

Fundies object to being caught redefining words . . .

In the tug of war between religious freedom and nondiscrimination rights, the weight seems to be pulling toward the latter.

At least that's the view of 17 religious leaders — including LDS Church Presiding Bishop Gérald Caussé — who addressed their concerns with the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights' recent report in an Oct. 7 letter to President Barack Obama, House Speaker Paul Ryan and Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch.

The report, titled "Peaceful Coexistence: Reconciling Nondiscrimination Principles With Civil Liberties," comes down squarely on the side of civil liberties for individuals, the letter says, and "stigmatizes tens of millions of religious Americans, their communities, and their faith-based institutions, and threatens the religious freedom of all our citizens.


At issue, wrote the signers representing Catholic, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, black church and other institutions, are religious views on marriage, the family, contraception, abortion and "the source of human dignity."

Their letter cited as an example a statement by Commission Chairman Martin Castro, who wrote: "The phrases 'religious liberty' and 'religious freedom' will stand for nothing except hypocrisy so long as they remain code words for discrimination, intolerance, racism, sexism, homophobia, Islamophobia, Christian supremacy or any form of intolerance."

"No American citizen or institution [should] be labeled by their government as bigoted because of their religious views, and dismissed from the political life of our nation for holding those views," the letter declared. "And yet that is precisely what the Civil Rights Commission report does."

"The report adopts a stunted and distorted version of religious liberty, suggesting that claims of religious conscience are little more than a cloak for bigotry and hatred," Hatch said. "I reject the false picture of religious liberty presented."

guest #fundie sltrib.com

It seems that organized religion, the largest purveyor of LGBT bias, has little to offer that would not be considered a scam or fraud. One only has to look at most marriages to find a dead end.

Deborah Peterson #fundie sltrib.com

[Letter to the Editor in the Salt Lake Tribune after LDS Church leaders instructed members in California to vote for a constitutional amendment supporting "traditional" marriage.]

Letter: Strengthen families
Public Forum Letter
Article Last Updated: 06/27/2008 10:50:00 AM MDT

I am so grateful that the leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are weighing in on the proposal to amend California's constitution to prohibit gay marriage. These men are quiet about so much, but there comes a time when we all must take a stand, and it's time for me to follow their lead.
As I think about the gay marriage battle, I can't help but realize how ridiculous it is. Marriages in this country are ending faster than they begin, and it only seems to be getting worse. With marriage rates at an all-time low, do we really want to allow even more people to get married? Why not legalize marriage for 14-year-olds while we're at it?
California, and every state for that matter, needs to focus on legislation designed to strengthen existing family units rather than creating more family units, which seem destined to fail. If we could all focus our energy on building lasting marriages, we could create change rather than controversy. Maybe then, when more people are staying married than getting divorced, we could think about extending marriage rights!

Deborah Peterson
Provo

Utah State Senator Chris Buttars #fundie sltrib.com

Sen. Chris Buttars wants Utah's Legislature to declare its opposition to the "war on Christmas."

The West Jordan Republican is sponsoring a resolution encouraging retailers to embrace Christmas in their promotions rather than the generic "holidays."

"It would encourage the use of 'Merry Christmas,'" Buttars said of the non-binding statement that is still being drafted. "I'm sick of the Christmas wars -- we're a Christian nation and ought to use the word."

Several fellow lawmakers he wouldn't yet name support his effort, added Buttars, who has a long history of championing the socially conservative agenda of the Utah Eagle Forum.

Johnny #racist sltrib.com

(Comment on article "Utah baseball team’s ex communication director says he raised concerns with 'Caucasian Heritage Night")

What's the big deal? Some of us have to contend with black history month... and no one loses a job over that!

Rob Bishop #racist sltrib.com

“For many people who live in the West, but also in rural and urban areas, the ideas behind the Green New Deal are tantamount to genocide,” Bishop said.

Asked about his likening of a proposal to fix climate change to genocide, Bishop said the plan would kill him.
"I’m an ethnic. I’m a Westerner,” he said, according to E&E News. “Killing would be positive if you implement everything the Green New Deal actually wants to.”

Jon McNaughton #fundie sltrib.com

"When Operation Underground Railroad founder Tim Ballard looks at the latest artwork by conservative political painter Jon McNaughton, he gets emotional.

"Painted into The Underground Railroad are Ballard and his wife, depicted carrying children they helped rescue from sex trafficking.

"Ballard, a former U.S. Homeland Security special agent, appreciates the symbolism of the artwork’s historical figures, including Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln. They are flanked by figures whom the painter refers to as 'contemporary abolitionists' or 'slave stealers': Ballard’s friends and supporters, ranging from Tony Robbins and Glenn Beck to Utah Rep. Mia Love."

[Emphases added]

Joseph Buchman #conspiracy sltrib.com

He called on Congress to revoke any secrecy oaths the government has forced on military personnel or private contractors so they can talk openly about what they've seen with regard to extraterrestrial activity. And he wants Congress to hold open hearings on the subject matter.

Many of the speakers at the news conference agreed with Buchman. And they also agreed that the mass media was ignoring the signs of extraterrestrial life and that the feds were keeping all the details hidden deep in a dark basement. A place "where Mulder and Scully would have to go with their little pen lights," added host Stephen Bassett, a one-time congressional candidate in Maryland, referencing the X Files stars.

Buchman adds there are other things in his platform for Congress as well; He is not solely running on the UFO-conspiracy phenomenon.

Paul Sharp #fundie sltrib.com

A great many of the world's greatest scientists believe in an intelligent creator. God's "laboratory" is the universe, not the limited environment of the science lab.
I am not worried about leaders who believe in intelligent design, God, or biblical creationism. The narrow-minded who can observe the wonder all around us (including ourselves) and come to the absurd conclusion that this all happened randomly, and who then wish to drastically alter our way of life, business, government, birth rates, and survival as a result - now those are scary people I don't want leading this or any other nation.

Rep. Jerry Anderson #fundie sltrib.com

Arguing that we need more carbon dioxide, not less, in the atmosphere, Rep. Jerry Anderson, R-Price, has proposed legislation that would limit the state’s ability to regulate emissions of the greenhouse gas.

HB229 narrows the definition of the term "air contaminants," clarifying that "natural components of the atmosphere," including nitrogen, oxygen and other stable, or noble gases, are not pollution.

Anderson’s bill would prevent the establishment of state standards for carbon dioxide below atmospheric concentrations of 500 parts per million. This is a level far above what is currently in the atmosphere, already padded with carbon thanks to two centuries of fossil-fuel burning.

"We are short of carbon dioxide for the needs of the plants," Anderson, a retired science teacher, told the committee overseeing environmental programs in the the state on Tuesday. "Concentrations reached 600 parts per million at the time of the dinosaurs and they did quite well. I think we could double the carbon dioxide and not have any adverse effects."

State Senator Don Ipson, (UT-R) #psycho sltrib.com

State lawmakers are looking at codifying best practices for police dog teams after a Salt Lake City audit uncovered a pattern of abuse in the way its law enforcement agency has been using canines to catch suspects.

A legislative committee voted unanimously Tuesday to explore a bill on the issue, although one state senator made clear he has little patience for complaints about police dogs.

“I don’t have a lot of sympathy,” Sen. Don Ipson told his colleagues on the law enforcement and criminal justice committee. “We don’t want to harm the public. But if they don’t want to get bit, stay home.”