What kind of world are we building? Proposition 8

Saturday, November 15, 2008

It's been nearly 2 weeks since the people of California voted against proposition 8. Yet attacks against the LDS church for it's role in supporting the proposition continue. Protests and picketing have happened at several temples. Church buildings continue to be vandalized - some just with paint and broken windows…others with fire, and hate attacks such as burning book of mormons and placing them on the front steps of the churches. Today 2 temples and a catholic organization had to call terrorist prevention squads out to test white powder that had been mailed to them.

What kind of world are we creating when we as a people tolerate (and encourage) illegal retribution against those who have used their right of free speech to support a proposition which is supported by a majority of people in the state?

I guess the message we are getting from the 'kinder friendlier Gay Coalition" is that you better not mess with us, or you'll be treated with such harshness and hatred as to cause you to fear us and fear our cause. I guess the thing that hasn't entered the minds of those who are attacking our people and our buildings is that the Mormons could only have accounted for 5%-7% of the 6 million people who voted for proposition 8. We just don't have that many LDS people in California. So, Gay Coalition advocates, give some credit to the other 95% of the people in your state who opposed you. Perhaps you can visit their churches with burning Bibles, Talmuds, or Koran, or picket their sacred places of worship too. Maybe a burning effigy of the Virgin Mary would be effective. Or defacing the Budda would win people to your cause.

Of course Mormons are easy targets. Always have been. From the time they were driven from their homes in Ohio, Missiouri and Illionois, they've taken mob violence, they absorb the abuse and move on. They try and love their enemies and so rather than stand and fight them, they move on. Perhaps Mormons have run out of places to move to. And so they are standing up to fight in their own communities.

Perhaps they are just tired of living in a culture where immoral behavior becomes more base and more flagrant year after year. What's next? Do we legalize Incest? Do we legalize beastiality? As long as the children are not being forced? As long as the animals are owned by the pet abuser? Is it hate-mongering to require, by law, that people uphold some kind moral lifestyle in their community? I can hear the gasps now! How can this man dare suggest that we as a community would ever uphold child or animal sex? It's because we've seen moral decadence upheld over and over. It's just a matter of time. There will always be an element of the public that want's something more than what is currently legally acceptable. They like pressing against the boundary and seeing 'what new thrill' is out there that people have been afraid to try. And then when they have done it, they want to drive people to follow their example. They operate on the principle that people at first Abhor, then we Endure, then we Embrace. Thirty years ago, we were at the Abhor phase of Homosexuality, then we passed through Endurance. We are now at the point of history where we have to decide if we will Embrace. When do we as a people stand up to stop letting the boundary of decadence from flowing over us and our families. If we let the boundary continue to slip farther and farther, then I have no doubt that sexual abusers to children and pets, will be seeking legalized access to their believed 'rights' as well. All it takes apparently is to call those who oppose you, hate-mongerers, discriminators, prejudiced, etc. And show in media programming how happy, funny, sexy and traditional are those who live these lifestyles.

I think the second message we're getting, is that the hate mongering that exists in this contest is not with the Mormons. Mormon's have NEVER attacked homosexuals physically, nor condoned anything but love and support of their gay friends and neighbors. They don't teach homophobia. Instead they have setup support groups for those seeking to overcome the homosexual lifestyle. But in no way have they ever attacked homosexuals. "What?" you ask. "Mormons oppose our lifestyle". "They kick out of their church those who live the gay lifestyle." True. Mormons consider the homosexual lifestyle to be out of tune with the lifestyle that God planned for his children. And so they discipline members of the faith who live the lifestyle. But, this is not just something we do for those living the gay lifestyle. Mormon's consider the adulterous lifestyle, and the have-sex-before-marriage-lifestyle to be out of tune with the lifestyle God planned for his children. And these sinful lifestyles have a much broader appeal than that of the Homosexual lifestyle. And so we find ourselves disciplining those who adopt these extreme lifestyles way more often than we do for those who have adopted the gay lifestyle. But in none of these cases do you see us personally attacking any of these. These are councils of love, trying to bring them back to a lifestyle which is more in tune with God's plan for his children. We have endured it and we have sought to show a better way.

Why do you mormon's then seek for legal means to protect marriage? Why not let gay marriage stand side by side with traditional marriage? It doesn't hurt you. Or does it? In our case, it's got to do with our view of marriage. We view marriage as a requirement for exaltation in the next life. Even if man changed the definition of marriage to include gay couples, that wouldn't change God's definition of what is required for exaltation. It's like saying, let's make a law that allows jaywalkers to walk across the street anywhere they want. Just because the law gives jaywalkers the right-of-way, it doesn't mean that a car will always stop for them. You may be given the right to step out in front of a moving car, but you'll still be dead. In a Mormon's mind, you may give gay's the right to marry, but it will still be a sin which keeps you from the highest degree of happiness eternally. It's that paradox that Mormon's want to have to avoid teaching their children. Which brings us to probably the biggest reason for the activism to protect marriage. By making gay marriage equal to traditional marriage in the eyes of the law, then the law is obliged to make gay marriage equal to traditional marriage in the eyes of all its citizens. Those who teach that traditional marriage is better, or more acceptable to God will be operating outside of the law and will have to deal with legal consequences - including losing their right to teach what they believe to be true. It's this legal entanglement that the Mormon's and every other Christian, and non-christian religion is opposing. It's the gay agenda forcing religion to teach something they don't believe. It's the legal prejudice against religion that we are trying to oppose.

I've been good friends and have worked for some wonderful gay people, both men and women. We work together. They manage my work, and I manage theirs. I have never been taught by my church to hate them, or to discriminate against them. In fact it is always the opposite. To have tolerance and love for all God's children for in reality, God loves all his Children equally. He seeks their happiness, even when they seek happiness where it cannot be found. But even in love, sometimes God disciplines his Chidlren. We must always remember that it is this same God who destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, to whom he would owe a big apology, if he just let go what is happening in California (esp in West Beverly Hills and San Francisco) go unnoticed.

So let us all agree to live in peace. Let's focus on all the things we have in common. The good of Sports. Entertainment. Education. Religon. Democracy. Okay - maybe we've got a ways to go to agree on anything at all. But at least let's respect the process and honor the outcomes.