I went on a full-time mission for my church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in southern California. I served there for two years. I also lived there after my mission and volunteered as a temple worker at the L.A. temple.
A Google search reveals the threats pouring out against the church. Those who want homosexual marriages are attacking my faith since we stand for traditional marriages. Fortunately, many good people and institutions feel the same way we do. For instance, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Sacramento released a statement which began:
Catholics stand in solidarity with our Mormon brothers and sisters in support of traditional marriage — the union of one man and one woman — that has been the major building block of Western Civilization for millennia.
We live in interesting times...
Picture: Los Angeles Police Department officers guarded the Los Angeles Mormon Temple during a "No on 8" protest this past Thursday.
3 comments:
Have we seen a better example of calling good evil and evil good? I think not. We have lived such a peaceful existence as members of the church for quite a few decades. I suspect many of us will have the opportunity to prove with whom we stand over the course of the next many years. This fight is not over and I think we will probably see persecutions again. I just pray that no more martyrs are required.
Lisa
right. we've been rioting in the streets. another lie from your ilk. all of the demostrations have been peaceful. a few angry words shouted from both sides. no windows shattered. no police cars overturned. just peaceful people marching for their rights. i guess in mormon-ese that stands for "riot."
Such a sad distortion. Your church funds the rebuking and revocation, the outright removal of legal human rights, and their protests are attacks against you?
How is a plea for equal rights an attack on your faith, my friend?
Is your faith so precious - so fragile - that it would be shaken and crumble if two people of the same sex, as in love as you are with your wife, were allowed to marry?
Or are your teachings so oppressive and hypocritical that you preach not of love, true love, but of selective love? Love that is reserved for you, your creator, and your kin, and all those who don't see eye-to-eye with you are condemned enemies of your faith.
Only 40 years ago, in the United States, this great country that you served and I love, interracial marriage was a crime. I'm certain you don't protest the overturning of those laws, but many of that time considered this an attack on tradition. They felt that love of that sort of wrong and was to be punished rather than embraced. Now, I'm sure, your pews are filled with people of all colors, hand in hand, shoulder to shoulder.
I beg you, for just a moment, abandon dogma, abandon the written letter, and turn instead to the spirit. Kneel in prayer and ask this of your divine. Close your eyes and ask this of yourself.
What is love? What of God's love? Are these people, who I may disagree with, not my brothers and sisters? Should I not love them too? Should their love be censured?
We live in interesting times indeed.
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