The Salt Lake city-based, Mormon church-owned, Deseret News moderates their comments heavily. Well, not heavily. Completely. Every comment posted must be approved by the editorial staff before it will be displayed.
In practice, about 1 in 5 of my attempted comments there is denied. The reasons given are vague. The appeals process, nonexistent. I've sucked it up until now — it's their paper, their rules.
Today, I just wanted to vent. And to publish my comments somewhere the Deseret News editorial board doesn't reach.
My denied comment was in response to someone who mentioned the Mormon church's "The Family: A Proclamation To The World" as authoritative.
I'll try to explain below the Orange Squiggle of Clarification and Pontification.
Some Background
My family has more than it's share of Mormons. In my religious days, I found the church's ideas interesting and made it a hobby to familiarize myself with them, if just to be able to follow the conversation at family gatherings.
More recently, I've found it ironic (and humorous) that the church's stance on marriage equality is driving Utah to be at the forefront of the cases that are resulting in the establishment of marriage equality across the nation.
That fascination (like watching a car wreck and not being able to turn away) has led me to follow Utah's news, specifically in its two largest papers, the Salt Lake Tribune and the Deseret News.
The Salt Lake Tribune, the largest paper in Utah, is more left leaning. And certainly more critical of the church.
The Deseret News, established by the Mormon church, is the oldest and second largest paper in the state. It continues to be owned by the church and is definitely more conservative. "Its mission is to be a leading news brand for faith and family oriented audiences in Utah and around the world."
One of the hallmarks of the church is its hyper control of its message. Directives flow down from headquarters to the farthest reaches of the church. While there is no established mechanism for comments, criticism, suggestions to flow from the congregation up to the top.
This same control can be seen in the comment section at the Deseret News. As I said, every comment is moderated. Comments are limited to 200 words. And a commenter is limited to 4 comments per article. If you comment during the business day, it can take an hour or two for your comment to be approved and appear in the article. If you comment at night or on the weekend, it can take until the next day. If your comment is deemed controversial, it can be held for review by higher editors. Which can takes days or weeks. If your comment is denied you may receive and email with a less than helpful explanation or, more likely, your comment will just die in silence. There is no appeals process. You can edit your comment and re-submit it. Good luck with that.
This, of course, limits the discussion of articles at the Deseret News. For comparison:
This article, Sen. Orrin Hatch says gay marriage inevitable but religious rights being lost, published May 28 on the Deseret News currently has 124 comments.
While this article, Hatch concedes gay marriage will likely become legal in U.S., published the same day on the Salt Lake Tribune currently has 679 comments.
The comments I've had denied (or otherwise lost in the ether) have generally been critical of the Mormon church or of specific beliefs. Which brings us to ...
The Proclamation on the Family
For every article touching on LGBT "activism" (it's never "rights" or "equality") in the Deseret News at least one commenter will bring up the church's Proclamation on the Family. The general thrust of the comment is "statement by the church, therefore the discussion is over."
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, also known as the Mormon or LDS church, is run by The First Presidency consisting of the President of the church and two counselors and The Quorum of the Twelve Apostles consisting of 12 apostles. These 15 men (they must be men, and until 1978 they had to be white men and in reality they still are all white men), are considered to be "prophets, seers and revelators." Basically, they are considered to be like prophets of the Bible, who speak with and for God. Modern revelation, through living prophets, is considered by the Mormon faithful to supersede any revelation given in the past in the scriptures.
In 1995, the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles issued a statement entitled "The Family: A Proclamation To The World," often referred to simply as "The Proclamation on Family."
It's a pretty standard religious view of family: God created man and woman, the family is the basis of society, etc. It creates a black and white view of the world, conveniently ignoring other genders and gender identities as well as sexual orientations that don't fit their myopic world view.
It ends, as all good prophesy must, with dire warnings. First, to individuals who dare live lives differently:
WE WARN that individuals who violate covenants of chastity, who abuse spouse or offspring, or who fail to fulfill family responsibilities will one day stand accountable before God.
Violating "covenants of chastity," of course, includes being gay, or lesbian, or bi, or transgender, as well as sex out of wedlock (including masturbation).
Next comes the warning to governments:
Further, we warn that the disintegration of the family will bring upon individuals, communities, and nations the calamities foretold by ancient and modern prophets.
"Disintegration of the family" includes allowing LGBTs to form families, have kids, etc. Because if it's not a church approved family, it's destroying families (for some reason, yet to be fully explained).
And finally, a call to action:
WE CALL UPON responsible citizens and officers of government everywhere to promote those measures designed to maintain and strengthen the family as the fundamental unit of society.
Which is where I have a problem with the Mormon church. I fully support their right to believe whatever they want. Believe homosexuality is a sin. Knock yourself out. But when you go out of your way to encode your beliefs into law, that's where I draw the line. Whatever happened to your Eleventh
Article of Faith?
We claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience, and allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how, where, or what they may.
Where's that live and let live spirit, now?!?
Comment Submitted
Which brings us to Thursday, two days ago. I was reading the comments on this article, Sen. Mike Lee won't speculate on gay marriage becoming legal, in the Deseret News when I came to this comment:
rw123
Sandy, UT
I know some of you say you do not accept the LDS churches’ Proclamation on the Family. That essentially it has no value because it is not legally binding. To you I say, you ought to read it and give it great value if you want to avoid the “calamities foretold by ancient and modern prophets.” I am fully aware you do not believe it and scoff at it. You ought to reconsider. Ignorance of the law is no excuse. Just because it is not binding by man’s laws does not mean it is not binding in the eternities.
And it just rubbed me the wrong way. Mostly because, on the Deseret News, people are quite welcome to use (the right) religion to bash opponents and declare they are hell bound. But any response to religious based "arguments" is generally denied.
Knowing the chances of publication were slim, I fired off my reply:
Concerning the "Proclamation on the Family," I remember well when the Church promised us that enacting Civil Rights and allowing Interracial Marriage would bring the "end of Western civilization."
Today, they can't seem to remember where those ideas came from.
I can't really credit the "Proclamation on the Family" unless and until they are able to display a better track record.
I thought it brief and to the point. I'll get to my rejection email in a minute, but first...
The Mormon Church vs. Civil Rights
To understand my comment, you have to understand the Mormon church's earlier war against Civil Rights.
It was basically the same as today: a group of influential white men telling their flocks what to think and backing it up with their supposed authority from God.
Those were the days before the Internet, and much of what passed for preaching the will of God happened in churches and conferences that weren't recorded. But some documents survive. Governor George Romney was an outspoken supporter of civil rights. As a prominent Mormon, he gained the attention of the church. Among his official documents, preserved by the state, is a letter he received from Delbert L. Stapley, one of the church's Apostles at the time. The whole letter is educational, but I'll focus on a paragraph near the end (emphasis added):
Now, don't think I am against the Negro people, because I have several in my employ. We must understand and recognize their status and then, accordingly, provide for them. I just don't think we can get around the Lord's position in relation to the Negro without punishment for our acts; going contrary to that which He has revealed. The Lord will not permit His purposes to be frustrated by man.
It was common for Mormon church leaders to portend that civil rights, and interracial marriage specifically, would lead to the "end of western civilization."
Today, the church denies that these messages were from God:
Over time, Church leaders and members advanced many theories to explain the priesthood and temple restrictions [against blacks]. None of these explanations is accepted today as the official doctrine of the Church.
Yet, at the time,
they were clear about it:
The attitude of the Church with reference to Negroes remains as it has always stood. It is not a matter of the declaration of a policy but of direct commandment from the Lord...
Back to the Present
Which brings us back to my response, submitted to the Deseret News:
Concerning the "Proclamation on the Family," I remember well when the Church promised us that enacting Civil Rights and allowing Interracial Marriage would bring the "end of Western civilization."
Today, they can't seem to remember where those ideas came from.
I can't really credit the "Proclamation on the Family" unless and until they are able to display a better track record.
Basically, the Mormon church made dire predictions about civil rights and interracial marriage, those predictions didn't come true, why should I believe their current dire predictions?
Seemed like a reasonable response to me.
"Comment Denied"
I submitted the response above, waited a day or so, and received the following email:
Deseret News comment denied
Dear Kos Eighty,
Thank you for commenting on Sen. Mike Lee won't speculate on gay marriage becoming legal on DeseretNews.com.
Unfortunately, your comment was not approved for the following reason:
* Comment included ALL-CAPS shouting, overuse of punctuation, extreme length or violated other formatting rules.
From our comment policy:
No ALL CAPS shouting, overuse of punctuation or short “ditto” comments.
We invite you to edit and resubmit your comment using the following guidelines:
* Comments should be thoughtful and helpful to your fellow readers with additional insight or counterpoints to the article.
* Avoid personal attacks and other inappropriate responses to fellow readers.
* Treat other readers as you would if you were speaking to them from a microphone, looking them in the eyes, then passing the microphone cordially to the next contributor.
If you would like to revise the following comment to comply with DeseretNews.com policy you may resubmit it by logging in and commenting directly from the story again.
*******
Concerning the "Proclamation on the Family," I remember well when the Church promised us that enacting Civil Rights and allowing Interracial Marriage would bring the "end of Western civilization."
Today, they can't seem to remember where those ideas came from.
I can't really credit the "Proclamation on the Family" unless and until they are able to display a better track record.
*******
If you have further questions about comment moderation, please visit our Comments Policy at http://www.deseretnews.com/....
If you have further questions about comment moderation, please visit our Comments Policy at http://www.deseretnews.com/....
See you in the comments,
DeseretNews.com Comment Moderators
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Maybe I'm biased, but I'm not seeing anything in the above that pertains to my comment. I tried to tone down my comment and resubmitted with the following:
Concerning appeals to the "Proclamation on the Family," many of us believe the Church lacks the track record to inspire confidence in any dire predictions it may make.
Respect must be earned.
How did that fair? "Comment denied."
Open for Comments
So, what do you think? about censorship, the Deseret News, the Proclamation on Family, whatever. Do you have any censorship stories to share?
All comments welcome. None will be denied. :o)