California, Arizona and Florida have all done well in banning gay marriage. Traditional marriage between a man and a woman is a sacred institution that is essential to our culture. One group in particular, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, deserves recognition for the hard work and financial support they gave to the cause of defining marriage unambiguously between a man and a woman.

Unfortunately, the gay marriage bans do not go far enough. After the filthy sodomites, Mormons pose the next greatest threat to the sanctity of marriage, and it is every American’s duty to support explicitly defining marriage as between a non-Mormon and another non-Mormon.

Like gay marriage, Mormon marriage is untraditional. Mormons were never meant to be able to marry in this country. The Founding Fathers make no reference to Mormon marriage in any of the founding documents of this country, and there is no evidence that any of them approved of Mormons being permitted to marry. No one had even heard of Mormon marriage prior to the 19th century. It is difficult to see how such a thing could possibly be traditional.

Like gay marriage, Mormon marriage is unnatural. No other organism in any of the kingdoms of life exhibits the unusual phenomenon of Mormon marriage, proving that Mormonism, and Mormon marriage in particular, simply does not provide the tools a species needs to survive.

Like gay marriage, Mormon marriage is unbiblical. The Bible, upon which the entire moral foundation of the United States rests, makes no mention of Mormonism. God’s word implicitly sanctifies marriage between only a Christian and another Christian, or a Jew and another Jew. Many Mormons will claim to be Christians, but since every Christian knows that Mormon doctrine is filled with unbiblical and blasphemous notions, this cannot be true.

Like gay marriage, the ultimate goal of Mormon unions is the destruction of the entire institution of marriage as we know it. They begin by undermining the notion of monogamy. Prophet John Taylor once warned that monogamy “”degenerates the human family””; Prophet Brigham Young cautioned that the one-wife system causes “”prostitution and whoredom”” and has rooted marriage in “”rottenness and decay””; Elder Orson Pratt described polygamy as part of the “”celestial or patriarchal order of marriage.””

Modern Mormons will claim that their church does not uphold polygamy anymore, but the words of the prophets and elders do not magically disappear. How can a religion that reveres people who make such hateful claims about monogamy claim to support traditional marriage?

Finally, like gay marriage, Mormon marriage is harmful to children and society. There is no shortage of stories of children raised in Mormon households who develop remarkably unhealthy views on sex and marriage; some even marry young solely to be able to have sex (this, itself, is another assault on traditional marriage).

Moreover, Mormonism has historically been linked to racism against blacks and, in some cases, incest and pedophilia. Continuing to recognize Mormon marriage lends legitimacy to these harmful views; with legal Mormon marriage in place, a slippery slope exists, and it’s only a matter of time before extremists start crawling out of the woodwork, demanding even more rights.

While the homosexuals failed in their plot to game the courts and take advantage of ultra-liberal judges in order to destroy marriage, the Mormons have succeeded in this. In order to have their unions recognized, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints has had to take advantage of legal vacuums that do not do a good job of explicitly specifying who is and is not allowed to marry. In doing so, they have completely bypassed the will of the people.

But Mormon marriage does not have to be a fact of life. We are truly blessed by God to live in a society where, through the democratic process, the majority may take away rights from a minority with whose lifestyle they disagree. We should take advantage of this to prevent Mormons from destroying marriage the same way the homosexuals tried to. There ought to be a ballot initiative so that, in 2010, we can say “”Yes!”” to keep marriage simple and clear: One non-Mormon, one other non-Mormon.

Tune in next week, and I’ll continue my explanation of why everyone who is not a white, straight Protestant should be banned from tainting the sacred institution of marriage.

– Taylor Kessinger is a senior majoring in ecology and evolutionary biology, math and physics. He can be reached at letters@wildcat.arizona.edu.