Proposition 8 hits home

SALT LAKE CITY 4 August 2010 – The LDS church released the following statement on the ruling by Judge Vaughn R. Walker of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in Perry et al v. Schwarzenegger et al:

“The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints regrets today’s decision.  California voters have twice been given the opportunity to vote on the definition of marriage in their state and both times have determined that marriage should be recognized as only between a man and a woman. We agree.  Marriage between a man and a woman is the bedrock of society. 
“We recognize that this decision represents only the opening of a vigorous debate in the courts over the rights of the people to define and protect this most fundamental institution—marriage.

“There is no doubt that today’s ruling will add to the marriage debate in this country, and we urge people on all sides of this issue to act in a spirit of mutual respect and civility toward those with a different opinion.”


Previous post from 5/25/09:

Proposition 8 survived the courts, but new lawsuits have already been filed that may find their way to the U.S. Supreme Court (FRC comments) where a potentially new “empathetic” judge could be waiting.

And the Homosexual agenda is being pushed in other states as well:

“New Hampshire lawmakers unexpectedly rejected a bill on [Wed May 20, 2009] that would have made the state the sixth in the United States to authorize gay marriage.

The state’s Democrat-controlled House of Representatives voted down the bill in a 188-186 vote, hours after its Senate approved the legislation 14-10 along party lines. An earlier version of the bill passed the lower chamber on March 26.”

– Thomson Reuters 2009

What ever happened to what I used to hear a decade or two ago; that they just wanted tolerance? It turned into a plea for so called “equal rights”, and is now ending up in a demand that we give them our blessing. It’s one thing to tolerate something you find contrary to your core beliefs while having empathy for those who struggle with it, but it’s quite different to be required to approve of the behavior.


NARTH released a comprehensive overview of 125 years of scientific literature on this topic: “The evidence overwhelmingly refutes the claims . . . that change is impossible, attempting change is damaging, and there is no reason to change anyway, because homosexuality is harmless.”


My previous comments on this issue:


The LDS Church just released a statement that It made no monitory contributions to the “ProtectMarriage.com Coalition”, but did file a report showing “in-kind donations totaling $189,903.58”.

I grew up in a less then idea family setting. My mother was sick, and wanted nothing to do with my father who wasted all of his savings and our livelihood to help her; only to later have no choice but to end the marriage. My brother and I were deeply affected by it. I went looking for love in all the wrong places, and my brother has had a great deal of struggles in his life; including his choice for a homosexual lifestyle. I can’t say for certain if his choice is directly linked to our troubled childhoods, but I can say that he, and I, have had many difficulties in our lives that likely could have been avoided, or at least lessened, if we had been raised in a better home environment.

I’ve never agreed with my brothers lifestyle choice, but I have always called him my brother, and always wished I could help him in some way. I’ve even at times wondered if my childish behaviors towards him, when we were younger, were to blame for some of his problems, but he once told me that they didn’t. I sometimes wonder if we fully understand how our childhood experiences might have affected us.
My brother has been part of a group that wants our commonly shared church to change its views on same-sex marriage; which is something our church would never do as the very idea goes against some deeply held church doctrines. It’s been one of the hardest things for my brother to deal with and certainly one of the biggest areas that we disagree with each other on.
More recently I found out that one of my cousins also struggles with homosexuality, but seems to me to be dealing with it better then my brother has been (not that it’s an easy thing for either of them to deal with). My cousin has an interesting statement about the issues surrounding California’s Proposition 8:
While I’m certainly a supporter of traditional marriage, I’ve often wondered what business government has in an institution that I believe should be purely religious in nature; however, I also feel that without the few laws we currently have protecting and supporting traditional families, we would be much worse off then we already are.
In the LDS Church’s publication “The Family:A Proclamation to the World” it also warns of problems that come to society when families are destoryed: “. . . we warn that the disintegration of the family will bring upon individuals, communities, and nations the calamities foretold by ancient and modern prophets.”
It’s understandable to me why so many in my own and other churches see homosexuality as a great threat to traditional families and society in general, but I also hope that we don’t get so caught up in any of the threats facing all of us today, that we loose sight of how important it is to have a Christ-like attitude towards our fellow men.

Was (s)he born that way? Was it environmental?
I don’t know, and I don’t believe focusing on those questions helps deal with the real issue. The truth is that we all have struggles in our lives; whether they are caused by environmental issues, physical traits, genetics, or even the personalities and desires of our spirits, we all have them (some more so then others).
I’ve heard of studies claiming to show that certain genetic traits “cause” people to be one way or another, but is that really an excuse for violent behaviors, serial killers, rapists, or even homosexual behaviors? Certainly it’s clear to most of us that these things are big problems to a society trying to promote peace, tranquility, and good family values; however, is homosexuality really a problem and/or detriment to society?
In a secular society that tells us to “do what feels good” to be free and open with our sexuality and express ourselves freely, homosexuality certainly isn’t going to be viewed as a problem, any more then fornication or “sleeping around” would be. So what’s the problem with all of this, if everyone involved is a consenting adult?
I could argue about how more and more of our younger and younger children are being forced into knowing more and more about sex and so called “safe-sex” practices as they are bombarded by the sexual innuendos of our society as it tell us to “do what feels good”, and I could talk about how pornography and disrespect for our bodies promotes many of the other socially destructive behaviors I mentioned before; however, I don’t believe these arguments even being to tell the real story of what all this does to destroy our spirituality.
How does homosexuality play into all this? We’ll any kind of sex out-side of marriage is called Fornication. It’s a sin spelled out in black and white in the bible (see: Exodus 20:14; 1 Corinthians 6:18–20. Also see: Alma 38:12; 3 Nephi 12:27–30, and look up Chastity). So would allowing same-sex marriage fix that aspect of homosexuality so it’s no longer a sin?
It might if it weren’t for one other very important thing: the nature of Marrage as ordained by God (see: Gen. 2: 24, Matt. 19:4-5, 1 Cor. 11: 11, Eph. 5:31, and D&C 131:2). Marriage is clearly stated through out the bible, and other scriptures, to be between a Man and a Woman, but it’s much more then that (or at least it should be). It is a convent that is also made with God. One that can lead to great happiness, not just in this life, but in the life to come. Two men together, or two women together, cannot obtain this level of exaltation. One must have a spouse of the opposite gender to truly enjoy the eternities. Why? Because this is the way families work. They will not endure the eternities in any other way.
In fact, when it really comes down it, it truly is all about family, and not just our families here on this earth, but our larger family that we are all a part of, resided over by our Father in Heaven. A family we were part of before this life as spirits, and one we will continue to be a part of after this life, if we chose so.
– We are not mere mortals trying to have spiritual experiences, rather we are spiritual beings having a mortal experience.

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