I don’t usually share my political opinions on this blog, I reserve it for spiritual concerns. However, I am going to make an exception in this case. Perhaps it is not really an exception at all, because this topic strikes at the heart of eternal pursuits, the topic of this blog.
Let me state here that these are solely my opinions; they do the represent the church’s views, or the views of any political group.
For those of you outside of California, let me inform you, the fight is on! The fight for what we politely call “Traditional Marriage.” For clarity, what it really is over is if the state will issue marriage licenses to same sex couples and force third parties to honor those marriages. Something is wrong about this whole paradigm, people can sense it, but not put their finger on it.
First, homosexuality is sin (
Rom. 1:27). And while that sin may have some more exotic twists, it will get a person to hell about at the same speed as straight fornication, and a list of other bad behaviors. Gender is a part of us from the preexistence and is central to our eternal progression. Gender confusion, is one of the wounds of mortality that must be healed to receive our full spiritual inheritance (
Healing).
All people are children of God. We are all born with certain unalienable rights (
Declaration of Independence,
D&C 134). Rights are some of the rules we are given to play by. Without rights, there is no objective right and wrong; we are ultimately just spiders eating one another with no moral consequence. In LDS theology we believe the Light of Christ will tell us if something is right or wrong.
As individuals or nations, we have no right to stop anyone from having sex with anyone they want. We all have agency, and as long as we do not interfere with anyone else’s agency and rights, what we do is not rightfully subject to control by anyone else. God still says it is sin, and prophets and ministers can still call it sin, but the perpetrators of the sin can choose to hear or not hear the calls of repentance. [1]
Another right we have is to believe what we want is sin and choose to associate or not associate with whomever we want, or to limit our associations in whatever way we want. This is called freedom. A thing found less and less in our growing socialist state.
One of the rights we were born with is the right to marry. If it is a right, we don’t need to ask for permission (license) from government or anyone else. And when the government started licensing marriage this fight was lost. If something is rightfully licensed, it is not a right. Joseph Smith nor Brigham Young ever got a marriage license, they refused to do so.
In a fair and just society, people can marry by what means they desire. They could marry in the Holy Temple, or by jumping the broom. They could choose to record those marriages for public notice, like a deed. And people would be free to accept or reject those marriages as they choose (plural marriage included). If people wish not to rent a house to an LDS couple because they reject a temple marriage, so be it. The house is the landlord’s to do with as he pleases, and he should be free to refuse to rent to those he deems as living in sin. Agency is central to the plan of salvation.
Truly, my view is we should not interfere with homosexuals marrying, except to preach repentance to them. The problem is that the state is granting a license that should not be given to anyone. By giving these licenses to homosexuals, they force the rest of us to honor these marriages, which is an infringement of our rights. This infringement will grow in society in un-imagined ways.
In a socialist state you may as well take the free cheese, you paid for it to begin with. Meaning, we need to deal with the real situation we are in. We need to fight the fight where we are, not where we would like the fight to be. If I had my rathers we would be joining ranks with homosexuals to defeat marriage licenses altogether.
We have a sick society; government does grant licenses to heterosexual couples, which is bad enough. If proposition 8 does not pass, homosexual marriage will sweep the land. Further rights will be taken from the rest of us exponentially, and we will look back on this as a milestone of the destruction of the family and of America.
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YesOnProposition8.com[1] “We warn that individuals who violate covenants of chastity, who abuse spouse or offspring, or who fail to fulfill family responsibilities will one day stand accountable before God. Further, we warn that the disintegration of the family will bring upon individuals, communities, and nations the calamities foretold by ancient and modern prophets.” [
The Family: A Proclamation to the World
