Hello everyone. We haven't been very good at consistently writing on this blog spot which is too bad. I always have great ideas to write about or experiences to tell people about but I never seem to find the time to actually write. Sorry about that. Just to let everyone know, Britta and I are doing great. We are very busy some days with work at Costco. The holiday season is just starting to pick up which means that we both will be working like crazy for the next couple months. I am also very busy with school. I have 18 credit hours right now but none of my classes are too hard for me. I have A's or B+'s right now in all of them which is nice. I am trying to pull my GPA up before I get into the hard classes (i.e. Organic Chemistry, Molecular Biology, etc.).
So I am writing today because there are some things that I want to get off my chest. It is 6:30 in the morning right now and I have a Stake Priesthood meeting that starts at 7, so that is why I am up so early. As I was getting ready for the meeting this morning, I was thinking about our country and what has happened over just the past week. I don't feel that the election was "historic" because we elected a black man as President. I feel that the more charismatic candidate won. Now, I don't agree with President-elect Obama on lots of issues. I think that his economic plan is the worst I have ever seen. I believe in the right to own a gun. And I don't believe in "spreading the wealth" with those people who live and thrive off of welfare and other government programs. If they want money then they should get a job. "But the economy is horrible right now and there are no jobs to be found" right? WRONG! I see tons of jobs available in the newspapers here in Utah County which, by the way, is home to thousands of high school kids and thousands of college people like myself. Most of us are searching for jobs and yet there are still positions to be filled. Granted, these positions include flipping burgers at the local fast food shop, but a job is a job. "Spreading the wealth" is counterproductive in that it rewards a lot of people who don't work as hard as others and who haven't applied themselves to college and university studies which enable people to gain higher wages. Should we not reward the people who put in the long years of school and hard work to get where they are today? As you can all see, I differ in opinion from that of Mr. Obama but now that he is our soon to be President I do believe that we must all pray for him. It is a hard job to be President of the United States (it is hard to be the President of any nation for that matter) and even if we don't support the President in his ideas we can still pray that he will do what is right for this country and for the people. We are all born with the light of Christ which helps us in choosing good over evil and yes even Mr. Obama has this gift. Let us all pray for him that he will have the courage and strength necessary to uphold the constitution and lead this nation. And I would like to finish this part by saying: may the next election come really quick!!
The election of President is really not what has been bothering me. Whats bothering me is California's proposition 8 and the immediate fallout of the amendment's passage. I really don't even know where to begin with this. So prop. 8 is an amendment to the California constitution that would basically outlaw the marriage of gay and lesbian individuals. The vote was really close and I believe that it passed with only 52% of people. On a ironic note, this election brought thousands of supposedly disenfranchised black voters to the booth and over 70% of black voters in California actually voted to pass prop. 8. Kind of ironic since most of them voted for a far left president. Anyways, the official results were not released until the 5th of November and after they were released the gay and lesbian communities were in an uproar. No longer could they be married to one another. Almost immediately, many filed lawsuits against the amendment in an attempt to overturn the voice of the people. Protests irrupted in LA and San Fransisco and thousands of people were blaming the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for the ban on gay marriage.
Why? Well the leaders in the Church have asked all members in California to do whatever they can and donate all that they can to make sure that prop. 8 was passed. Gays and lesbians see this as not having a separation of church and state. Is our Church alone in the efforts? Heck no! Thousands of evangelicals and Catholics were also asked to support prop. 8. So why are we alone in the blame so far? Well, shouldn't we stand alone and accept the blame? Do we not believe that the Church is God's Kingdom here on earth? Do we think that Satan will just leave us alone and not put it into the hearts of men to single us out? The only reasonable answer to me is that it totally makes sense why we, and almost we alone, are accused for restricting marriage to only be between a man and woman. This is Heavenly Father's Church. We must know that we will have to suffer for this and it is a trial that might be hard for some of us to overcome.
Why would the Church want to restrict the rights and equality of any person? I have heard this question asked by too many of my friends and co-workers in and out of the Church. I have seen angry protesters with signs saying that this is a fight for gay and lesbian "rights". This is a matter of "equality". I sometimes can't believe that members in the Church would go against the words of our leaders and vote against this issue.
This is a photo of some protesters in front of the LA Temple. Their sign begs the question, Is this really about "equality"? Why would the Church wish to make people unequal or did they actually do so? In my opinion, I don't think that this is a "equality" issue. I believe that in the name of tolerance and love, Satan is fighting this struggle to ruin the holiness and sanctity of marriage. Are all humans equal? Well, yes and no. We are all spirit children of our God who has created us. We are all made in his image and in his likeness. That is where equality ends. Are we all equal in this life? No. Do we each have equal opportunities in life? NO. Are we all equally good and equally bad? NO! I believe that it is doctrine in our Church that the more we sin and go against God, the more unequal we become with God. God cannot look upon sin with the least degree of acceptance. If we sin, how can we be counted his equal or how can we think that one day we can become like him. We can't. Now all of us sin but that is why we have a Savior. Only when we rely on His merits are we able to hope to be like Him and Heavenly Father. Even after we die we are not all equal with one another. The scriptures teach that some of us will be Priests and Kings in God's Kingdom while others will only be able to be ministering angels. And yet others will differ in glory as the stars differ in glory and brightness. Does this sound equal to anyone? We are not all equal and marriage is not an "equality" subject. Do we as LDS members believe that our temple sealings are equal to the marriages of people outside the Church? I sure don't and I don't think that Heavenly Father sees them as being equal either. We learn from the words of Prophets that marriage is holy and sacred and should only be entered upon by a man and a woman. I don't believe that this leaves any room for gay and lesbian "equality". I have heard some friends that think by voting for prop. 8 we are trying to force our Church's views on others and that this is not right. This is true. We shouldn't force our views on others but we should stick up for what we believe in. Are the gays and lesbians any different from us in that they are trying to force their idea of marriage onto me? Don't tell me that this is a fight for equal rights! I would only tell you how ignorant you are. I don't believe that we should persecute the gay and lesbian community. They are our brothers and sisters but they are wrong. I think that it is time that we as members of the Church show our overwhelming support for our Prophet and leaders by prayerfully accepting their call to protect marriage as God would have it. Just a question for everyone to think about...Do we think that God would allow gay and lesbian marriage in the afterlife (Spirit World and Kingdoms of Glory)? Marriage is not equal!!
What would have happened if the amendment did not pass and same sex marriage was legal? I don't think any of us knows for sure but I think that the demands of "equality" would not have stopped there. Let just say that gay marriage was allowed and prop. 8 was voted down and marriage "equality" was gained. What about polygamist? Why don't they have equality? Why aren't their marriages allowed? Why can't I marry my sister (I love you Rhiannon but definetely not in that way) or any of my close family? Can a gay man be allowed to marry more than just one partner? What kind of sick, twisted and degrading things would have come from this? I know that gays/lesbians and the people aren't asking for this but wouldn't it be a matter of time before stuff like this would be fought for on the basis of "equality". Just 50 years ago or more the population thought that the practice of gays and lesbians was degrading and twisted. Now it is accepted as natural and, to some, beautiful. What will we think 50 years from now? This is just the first step that could plummit our society and nation in to chaos. We keep drawing the line of marriage closer and closer to the edge of a cliff of which we will eventually fall off. I have heard some say that they fear if same sex marriage is allowed that the people will want the right to marry in the temple. I think that this is rather far fetched because the temples are private property and the church has sole say over who can or cannot enter. Then again, you never know what will happen down the road. Another fear is that because the church spoke so openly against same sex marraige, people are threatening to get the church's tax exempt statis revoked. I think that this is more likely to happen then the former fear. I honestly don't know what the back lash will be for our support of prop. 8 but I do know that it isn't going to get better from here. I am sure that we will have another vote and sooner or later same sex marriage will be allowed. That doesn't mean that we shouldn't let our voices be heard.
I thought these two articles are really cool. The first link is an official response to the protestors from the LDS Church. The second is a link to a release from the Catholic Diocese in Sacramento.
1. http://newsroom.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/eng/news-releases-stories/church-issues-statement-on-proposition-8-protest
2. http://newsroom.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/eng/news-releases-stories/catholic-bishop-decries-religious-bigotry-against-mormons
I guess you could just copy and paste the site to view the articles. I recommend it. Lastly I just want to say "Thank You" to those members who went to the LA Temple and got rid of those dumb signs that protestors were putting onto the wall around the temple. It looked like a lot of the members who showed up to the temple were islanders...I guess know body would really want to mess with a dude who is 250+ lbs. and can crush their skull. Its going to be a heated battle to the end. The only thing that we can do is just stick up for what we know is right and pray for support to get through our trials. I am sure that ya'll can tell that this subject can get my blood boiling. I hope that this gets some of us thinking about where we stand. I welcome comments and disagreements.
