A rather presumptuous analogy from a church that taught that black people have dark skin because God is punishing their entire race for being evil. A church that, for this reason, didn’t permit full membership to blacks until 1978, and only then after a national campaign beat the crap out of the Mormons for their racism. Now we’re to believe that Mormon is the new black.

The anti-Mormon backlash after California voters overturned gay marriage last fall is similar to the intimidation of Southern blacks during the civil rights movement, a high-ranking Mormon says in a speech to be delivered Tuesday. Elder Dallin H. Oaks refers to gay marriage as an “alleged civil right” in remarks prepared for delivery at Brigham Young University- Idaho, a speech church officials describe as a significant commentary on current threats to religious freedom. In an advance copy provided to The Associated Press, Oaks suggests that atheists and others are seeking to intimidate people of faith and silence their voices in the public square.

The Mormons might have something in common with one group of people during the civil rights era. But it’s not the minority that was oppressed by people who tried to impose their own small-minded views on a group of people they didn’t like.

And by the way, does this accusation, that anyone who disagrees with the Mormon church’s jihad against civil rights is akin to the southern segregationists, apply to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid as well? After all, earlier today we learned that Senator Reid blasted his own church for their involvement in Prop 8. Is Harry Reid now an anti-Mormon bigot too?

If the Mormons can’t handle the repercussions from their own actions, if they can’t face the consequences from their involvement in Prop 8, their campaign to rip civil rights from gay people, and their ongoing efforts to force Americans to live according to the rules in the Book of Mormon – if Americans are becoming a little bit queasy about the fact that they don’t like being told how to live their lives by someone else – then perhaps the Mormons should stop sticking their nose where it doesn’t belong.

It really is the height of arrogance, and rather un-American to boot, for the Mormons to spend their money freely, in state after state, in an effort to force Americans to live under Mormon law, and then suggest that no one in America is permitted to even disagree with what the Mormons are doing, lest we oppress their efforts to oppress.

Last time I checked, the Mormons hadn’t yet succeeded in repealing the US Constitution.