By: Mary Mostert, Analyst, Banner of Liberty (www.bannerofliberty.com)
January 11, 2003
Is harassing and taunting a newly married bride protected free speech under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution? Or, is illegal sexual harassment? The National Organization of Women (NOW) and the ACLU, who used the Rico statute aimed at racketeers to keep pro-life demonstrators 300 feet away from abortion clinics, sued Salt Lake City and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to force demonstrators to be allowed the “right” to scream at brides coming out of the Salt Lake Temple after their wedding.
The issue involves the Church’s purchase, at the request of the City, of a public street that separated Temple Square and other major downtown Church owned buildings, including the Joseph Smith Building and the 17 story Church office building.
The Church paid $8 million for surface rights and $2 more million for subsurface rights for the multi-level underground parking area serving the complex. Although the sales agreement allowed the city to have an easement for the public to cross the Plaza, it permitted the Church, to maintain standards for the ecclesiastical plaza, which included no smoking, swearing and or indecent behavior. However, the right to harass other people on the Church Plaza was taken to court by the ACLU for clients that included Salt Lake City’s First Unitarian Church, Utahans for Fairness, the Utah Chapter of the National Organization for Women and Craig Axford, then a Unitarian church board member and candidate for Congress, as clients. Many church groups including Catholic, Methodist, Baptist, Evangelical, Muslim and others supported the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints arguments in the court action.
In October 2002, a three-judge panel of the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the church's restrictions were unconstitutional because of the city’s easement over the Church’s property. Since that ruling, Church members and others who frequent the area have experienced harassment and in the case of brides coming out of the Salt Lake Temple to have their pictures taken, being confronted by some idiot with a bullhorn screaming at them.
Tom Goldsmith, minister of the First Unitarian Church who is one of the plaintiffs in the case, told Deseret News that this issue “is not about animosity against the Mormon Church.” He says, “First Amendment concerns are the issue.”
For most of my adult life I was a Unitarian. Goldsmith is not being entirely honest. I rather suspect that, if a group of Mormons decided one day to come onto a public sidewalk in front of HIS Church property and yell obscenities or nasty comments at someone he just married, he’d be calling the police.
Actually, the issue here is a clash between one side’s view of freedom of speech and the other side’s view of freedom of religion. During the nearly 30 years I was a Unitarian, denying other religious groups their right to practice their faith was not a Unitarian policy. Apparently some Salt Lake City Unitarians worried that homosexual couples might be forbidden from “walking across the plaza.” Undoubtedly, homosexuals have walked across the plaza many times. Perhaps they mean the LDS Church might oppose people walking across the plaza while making their sex life a public matter. And, it would, whether they were homosexual or heterosexual.
Those members of the LDS Church, and others seeking quiet and a spiritual moment in the beautiful gardens, fountains and walks in the Plaza, are being denied their right to exercise their religion by people who want to argue with, harass or taunt them from the city easement. I suggest that giving people with foghorns the “right” to ruin a bride’s happiness on her wedding day is not freedom of speech. That’s harassment at best and at worst a violation of her right to practice her religion in peace. And, many non-LDS religious leaders in Utah agree. Rabbi Josh Aaronson of Temple Har Shalom in Park City said while he's a strong believer in the First Amendment, "I don't think allowing the church to have an area of quiet would be problematic. There are plenty of areas now for people to protest and spread views publicly. There's something to be said for a spot of quiet contemplation in the city.”
Caru Das, leader of the Krishna temple in Spanish Fork, Utah, said it is "bad taste" by those who have staged protests and harassed LDS temple patrons. "Freedom of religion means just that . . . As someone who likes to practice religion seriously and respects the right of others to do so, I resent interlopers and blasphemers in that forum or environment." Strangely, those violating the rights of Mormons to practice their religion are not all atheists, agnostics and radical feminists. Organized groups claiming to be "Christians" are among the worst offenders at the site of some of the most beautiful art and sculpture in the entire world portraying the life of Jesus Christ. In fact, the LDS Church Plaza, like St. Peter’s Square in Rome, is a major attraction for tourists and is the cornerstone of the City of Salt Lake.
If, as the ACLU and the National Organization for Women claim, the anti-racketeering RICO statutes can be used to keep pro-life demonstrators 300 feet from abortion clinics, their claim that this is merely about free speech rings a bit hollow. This is all about people who want to prevent others from practicing their religion.
The solution is simple. The city simply needs to relinquish the easement and announce that the Church Plaza is off-limits to the loudmouths and if they are really worried about them not having a place to protest, the mayor could invite them to his place of work.
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