Posted: August 2, 2012 at 8:08 pm

Single-Issue Crusader Wants Free of Your Freedoms

A Mormon seminary teacher and anti-cannabis crusader David Lewis says he just wants to live in a place where he can be free of your freedoms. He’s the Republican candidate for Rep. Margie MacDonald’s (D) house seat in Billings, HD 54.

His philosophy is simple, if not constitutional. Lewis shared his views with the independent news magazine In These Times:

“while others are entitled to their freedoms, those who do not wish to be exposed to the freedoms of others are entitled to be free of those freedoms.”

To explain his vision, Lewis told a story about his seminary class:

Lewis asked his students at the Mormon seminary what laws they would pass if they were starting a city. One young lady said that she would outlaw cursing, says Lewis. “And a young man kind of immediately jumped on that one with both feet and said, ‘Ah, that’s against the right of free speech.’ “

But the champion of Lewis’ tale is the student who disregards the constitution in favor of Mormon doctrine:

“The point is, at the end of the class, one young lady piped up … ‘I don’t know if it’s legal or not to outlaw cursing,’ she said. ‘But I’d want to live there.’ “

So would Lewis it seems. While voters are focused on jobs and the economy, Lewis’ sole focus is a single issue: the evils of medical marijuana. It’s the only issue he’s spoken about at the Billings City Council, where he was the most vocal proponent of a ban on medical marijuana storefronts.

Lewis best known as the treasurer of “Safe Communities Safe Kids,” the recently-formed Billings group that decided the only aspect of safety it need focus on was medical marijuana, which Lewis describes as a “rope-a-dope” conspiracy to hook kids on drugs.

Speaking before the Billings City Council, Lewis said Montana is turning into “Gomorrah.” He claimed that:

“at least three medical marijuana facilities sprouting up around ‘nearly every single institution of elementary learning’ in Billings.”

Lewis says this was “intentional.”

Creating a society where he can be free from your freedoms is theme Lewis has drawn on before. He was a vociferous participant in the comments section of a KULR-8 story on the failed signature gathering effort Lewis lead to overturn the voter-passed medical marijuana ballot initiative. Late into the night, Lewis typed that he doesn’t want to keep ”those who want ‘Pot’ in their lives from having it.” He just wants to live “someplace where they don’t want to live because of the Laws against it,” which makes perfect sense. Here’s the screenshot.

In another comment on the same story, he calls on others to join his crusade and “take your place as the Creators of a Nation.” Screenshot here. I hope he’s not talking about seceding already. Typically, GOP-ers find it wise to wait until they are elected to start waving that flag.

Posted: April 25, 2012 at 7:42 am

Heavenly Polygamy

A few right-wingers came out with predictable fake outrage last week, when Brian Schweitzer suggested that Mitt Romney might be squeamish about talking openly about his Mexican heritage due to the presence of polygamists in his line of ancestors.

The talking point fashioned by Montana Republicans is that Schweitzer was being bigoted. Schweitzer has said he was simply stating a political reality, which is that Romney will stay away from the topic.

The line goes “You can’t choose your ancestors.” This is true, which is why Romney should not shy away from talking openly about having polygamist ancestors, just as Obama has spoken, and written, extensively on his own ancestors including his polygamous father.

But Romney will probably shy away from it, and will thus prove Schweitzer’s point.

And alas, the Mormon church is not entirely clean on this subject of polygamy. For though the Church forbids polygamy on earth, polygamy is still permitted, and encouraged, in heaven.

The LDS church teaches that in heaven, a polygamous existence is awaiting all men who were married multiple times on earth. So let’s say a widower gets married upon the death of his first wife. When this man and his second wife are all dead, there is a threesome awaiting him in heaven. He will be married, in the afterlife, to both wives, forever.

Do women get the same “sweet” deal? Heavens no. Heavenly Mormon Polygamy is reserved only for men.

So, this is a small but crucial example of a Mormon tenet that is both sexist and supportive of polygamy. To be sure, all of the major religions, or portions of them, have sexism which needs to be rooted out. Catholic priests are a male-only club, and the Catholic church condemns women who want to decide for themselves when and whether to have children. Certain branches of Judaism likewise forbid women from becoming rabbis, and also force women to sit in the back of the synagogue in a walled-off room during services. And Islam treats women as inferior in many respects, including the practice of “honor killings” of female relatives who disgrace the family by having premarital sex. These practices aren’t relegated to some tiny tribal sects either: 90 perent of women in modern Egypt were victims of genital mutilation.

So it’s not like Mormonism is breaking any new ground in these matters. But, it is a small but pertinent fact: When it outlawed polygamy on earth, the LDS Church kept it legal in heaven.