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Friday, March 17, 2006

Did The Deseret News Edit The AP Story, About Mormon Buckley Jeppson, Being Threatened With Excommunication For Being Gay And Marrying His Partner?!!


Before I even get into the purpose of this post, that I've stated above, I want to very highly recommend to everyone that is interested in this subject, that is, the soon to be excommunication of Buckley Jeppson, to please listen to John Dehlin's 3 part podcast and interview with him. (Links just below these comments.) It is outstanding and most definitely worth a listen.

Buckley Jeppson describes what he is feeling, what he has felt and how he has been treated and what he has experienced through the years. John Dehlin does an outstanding job and is very thoughtful, considerate and compassionate, as always, while still asking Buckley Jeppson, some very difficult questions and just letting him tell his story. Great job John!! Keep up the great work!!


Buckley Jeppson, also describes how in the late 60's and 70's, some gay students at BYU, came to him, regarding the shock/porno therapy and vomit treatments, that was forced upon them, at BYU, to try to make them straight again. It is just awful!! I mean, come on, this is what the true Church of Jesus Christ did to gay people. My understanding is that it still goes on at Evergreen, or at least it did just a few years ago. When will the Church come clean on all of this and admit what they've done?

I found this interview to be fascinating and this is a good man that the Mormon Church should not be going after, with the goal of excommunicating him. Do they want to also put him through some of their famous shock therapy or force him to get very ill and vomit to overcome being gay? This is just another example of the horrible Mormon bigotry and it makes me sick.

This is a good man, and they want to excommunicate him for one reason; he's gay and wants to be with person that he loves, which in his case or any like his case, is strictly forbidden by the loving Mormon Church. He's still a human being, with feelings, but remember now, the Mormon Church looks at excommunication as an outpouring of love and a way to help people like Buckley Jeppson. Talk about twisted!!


I will be writing and saying a lot more about this matter in the very near future, as I have a lot to say. 10 months ago, I would have probably agreed that he should be excommunicated and that too, makes me sick. Thank God, I'm no longer the Bigot that I allowed the Mormon Church to help create. I'm sure that Boyd K. Packer, Mr. anti-gay himself, is having a huge input on this situation.

I hope that the Mormon Church is embarrassed from one end of the world to the other, for their blatant and evil bigotry and homophobia. This has not gone unnoticed by the national press and AP wire and will only spread more and more, all around the world.


So, Please, anyone reading this post, send it to as many people as you can, along with the links to John Dehlin's podcast. This needs to be known and heard by the masses. Let's expose and embarrass these bigots as much and as loudly as we can.

This situation, will result in two massive black eyes and a broken nose for the Church. I also hope that this is a wake up call for everyone out there that thinks that they belong to some warm and fuzzy, bosom burning, loving, gentle Church, that is all about love, Family togetherness and Jesus Christ. Yeah, Families can be together forever, unless you are gay, right? Maybe that should be their new and more appropriate, updated motto.

Anyway, here are the links below, to all three parts of the podcast and again, listen to this man, the hell and pain that he has gone through, and what has the Mormon Church done for him? Now they want to give him one final kick to the gut, by excommunicating him, to only add to his tremendous pain, suffering and anguish. Now that's Christlike love!! Go get those Gays Hinckley, it will make you and Packer feel like big men, won't it? What a disgusting, hate-filled, bigoted cult!!

Click here for episode 1
Click
here for episode 2
Click
here for episode 3

Here is a direct link, to John Dehlin's site.
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Now, onto the Newspaper article that I mentioned in the title of this post.

Well, it certainly appears that this article was heavily edited, taking out sentences, entire paragraphs, adding things that weren't in the original article and most importantly, changing all of the Mormon references to LDS or Latter-Day-Saints. Amazing isn't it? Well, not really, as I'm getting pretty used to this type of crap with Mormon Inc. Who did the editing hack job? Jennifer Dobner, completely rewrote her original article that went worldwide, or the Deseret News took great liberties with what she wrote, after they got a hold of her article? I think that we know that answer to that one. John Dehlin sent me an Email, inviting me to listen to his latest podcast with Buckley Jeppson, who the Church wants to excommunicate ASAP.

Anyway, he started out the podcast by reading from the AP article, which I had a copy of, from the Deseret News, and I was trying to follow along and I was like.....hmm.....that's strange, John said Mormon and here it says LDS, etc. It didn't take me long to figure out what was happening, considering the source I was using. So I then pulled up the AP article that he was reading from and yeah, it's quite different and most references that put the Church in a worse light, than they are already in, just for wanting to excommunicate someone for being gay and getting married, got cut out or changed.

What I've done, is post the original Deseret News version of the AP article below in black lettering. In red lettering, and parenthesis, I've put what the AP article actually said, before the Mormon Church/Deseret News hacked it up. In blue lettering, I'm putting what the Mormon Church/Deseret News added, that wasn't even in the original AP article. You don't have to take my word for it, but can click on the links that I just gave you and verify it for yourself. This should be a big eye opener for everyone out there reading this, that doesn't believe that the Mormon Church would do such a thing. By the way, the Mormon Church owns Deseret News, for those that didn't know.

This just proves once again, how they lie,deceive and cover-up to try to make themselves look better, with the ultimate goal, of always putting the Church in a better light, no matter what, in any situation. The Deseret news version of this AP article, is just that, the Deseret News' version, AKA Jesus' and the Mormon Hierarchies version. Boy, good thing Jesus Christ hired that PR firm to help his Church out, isn't it?

Here is the article:

Deseret Morning News, Thursday, March 16, 2006

Gay man faces LDS excommunication over marriage
(Mormon in Legal Gay Marriage Faces Cutoff)

By Jennifer Dobner
Associated Press

SALT LAKE CITY — A gay man who is a lifetime member of the LDS(Mormon) Church could be facing disciplinary action and excommunication after legally marrying his partner in Canada.

Buckley Jeppson, 57, said he's been informed verbally(by a senior church leader) that his life is incompatible with the doctrine of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and that a disciplinary council will address the matter.

Jeppson, of Washington, D.C., married Mike Kessler in Toronto on Aug. 27, 2004.


It is believed that if Jeppson is excommunicated, it would be the first time a Latter-day Saint(Mormon) in a legal same-sex marriage would be punished by the church, said Olin Thomas, executive director of Affirmation, an advocacy and education group for gay Latter-day Saints.(Mormons)


Jeppson said that over the past five months Nolan Archibald, the senior leader(-or President-) over a group(of a group) of LDS(Mormon) congregations in the Washington, (D.C.), area, has encouraged him(Jeppson) to resign his church membership, which would avoid disciplinary action.


Jeppson is not willing(unwilling) to do that.


"It's not going to be my choice to deny my heritage and my faith," Jeppson said in a telephone interview from his home.


Contacted by The Associated Press, Archibald declined specific comment, saying he has a sacred duty to keep matters involving church members confidential.


"I would like to say, it's a total misrepresentation of the conversation we had," Archibald said.


The LDS(Mormon) church only recognizes marriage between a man and a woman, Salt Lake City-based church spokeswoman Kim Farah said. Where other forms of marriage are legal, only those in heterosexual marriages could be members of the church, she said.


Baptized church members promise to live the principles of the gospel, Farah said.


"If the person later decides to reject these core principles, they have the right and freedom to do so," she said. "However, they cannot reasonably expect to reject the most fundamental teachings of the church and still wrap themselves in the cloak of church membership. Of course, they would be welcome to continue to attend church services."


(Thomas believes this issue is an important one for the church to address.)


(Thomas said, "The church's position has been that they really didn't have anything against gays, although everyone had to obey church rules to not have sex outside of marriage. But now many countries are allowing legal same-sex marriage. What are they going to do in all of those countries where they are sending missionaries?")

(In the Mormon church, disciplinary action is taken when church leaders believe a person's behavior or actions are incompatible with church teachings and threaten to damage the church.

In the past, members have been excommunicated for reasons ranging from criminal acts to scholarly works in history and theology that contradicted church claims. Excommunication means that a person is removed from church rolls and can no longer take the sacrament, teach or preach in church or go inside church temples.

Copies of letters written by Jeppson to Archibald, which Jeppson gave to the AP, indicate the men have been discussing Jeppson's choice — resignation or disciplinary action — since November.

Jeppson does not expect to prevail in any disciplinary action, nor does he expect the church to accept same-sex marriage. Given the choice, Jeppson said his preference would be for the church to ignore him.

"I'm not attending in a dress or wearing a boa or anything," Jeppson said. "I show up in my suit and white shirt and split after sacrament meeting. I just want to participate and I want to worship quietly in a safe place.")

Isn't this just amazing? The guy just wants to go to Church, be left alone, doesn't flaunt to the world that he is gay but the Church just won't stand for it. This just shows once again, how out of touch with reality and how cruel the Mormon Church really is. Of course, it wasn't Buckley Jeppson that wanted to shout to the world that he was gay and married to another man, it was the Mormon Church that forced him to go public, by bringing it up in the first place and threatening him with excommunication. What a complete disgrace!!

Please listen to that 3 part interview and spread the word to as many people as you can, that the Mormon Church is homophobic and bigoted. It's about time that everyone could see a modern example of what lies at the core of the Mormon Hierarchy and their teachings.

Samuel the Utahnite

3 comments:

  1. "The guy just wants to go to Church, be left alone, doesn't flaunt to the world that he is gay but the Church just won't stand for it." Who went to the press? Doesn't sound like a guy who isn't flaunting it.

    And why does a person who believes in same-sex marriage want to belong to a church that teaches it is wrong? He doesn't accept the church doctrine therefore he doesn't accept the church and shouldn't belong. Let him start is own church if he feels so strongly.

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  2. I find it humorous, "Samuel the Utahnite," that you are so outraged by the fact that this AP story has been edited. As a newspaper professional, I am here to tell you that AP stories rarely run as written. The Associated Press is a subscription service designed to aid newspapers in covering news for which they do not have the resources to gather themselves. It is common for a reporter to use AP articles as a source, lift a few paragraphs to drop into their own story or do a little additional reporting to insert more facts into the original text. It is not unethical. It is not a conspiracy. It is what the service is designed for.

    Also, each newspaper has a style book that dictates how things like city names, titles and numbers will be written. The Associated Press style book calls members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints "Mormons." The Deseret News Style book refers to church members as "LDS." Once again, it is not a conspiracy.

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  3. So, you're saying that if a Buddhist decided he didn't want to be reincarnated or a Catholic decided Christ was a farce, they should just look past that and pretend nothing's wrong? These are in direct conflict with their beliefs, and so is same-gender attraction to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

    ReplyDelete