The next few months are going to be a bit arduous I do believe. Yesterday at church during Priesthood meeting the bishop stood up and made an announcement about people supporting Proposition 8, and how the church has encouraged us to give of our time, talents and "means" to support the prop. Proposition 8 is the amendment to the California constitution, defining marriage as between man and woman - i.e. no gay marriage.
It appears that the area presidency requested that our stake donate $100,000 towards the cause. The bishop was pretty tactful in presenting the announcement, but unfortunately other people in the audience were not. Later on when the new people visiting that day were being introduced, one elderly gentleman stood up, introduced himself, and said, "I fully support what you guys are doing against this proposition. I was molested when I was 12 years old, and it devastated me." (or something like that)
Sigh. It bothers me that people still equate "gay" with "child molester". That's a big problem. And I think that's one of the reasons why so many people are against gay marriage - ignorance about what it really is.
Time to talk to the bishop and relay my concerns to him about the whole ordeal. I don't want church to turn into a gay bashing arena. If it does, I honestly won't be able to go.
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Thank you for being a "voice of reason" in this noise of ignorance. I admire you for being willing to discuss the issue calmly with your Bishop in hopes of introducing some sensitivity to the rhetoric.
For those of us who remain silent and on the sidelines, we deserve the treatment we get.
I'm sorry that that kind of crap is still going on. I do support Prop. 8 but obviously not for the reasons that you're ill-informed brother in your ward who seems to think that banning gay marriage will stop child molestation. That's the most ridiculous thing that I have ever heard.
In a way, I'm kind of glad that I am not in CA right now to witness this. I now my stake in CA had a stake-wide sacrament meeting to talk about why to support the amendment but I also heard that the Stake President emphasized that gay bashing is not in accordance with the Gospel. Hopefully, most of the congregations in CA will remind their members that these types of comments and attitudes are not in harmony with the Gospel of Jesus Christ and that no true Christian will speak about others in such a manner. I'm sorry that you had a bad experience.
Oh, man. That's one thing that absolutely gets me...most pedophiles aren't gay--they're straight...ask the pedophiles that went after my wife when she was a child.
I feel for you, Max, I really do. I hope your bishop is understanding. I hope that things don't become a "bash the gays"-fest at church.
You're welcome to come visit us to get some church in during the next few months. :)
A stake wide sacrament meeting devoted entirely to why members should support Prop 8?! This is what gets me all sorts of frustrated. I agree that we need to be calm and let our leaders know why this is offensive, but I also think that politics should be saved for the political arena and the Gospel of Jesus Christ should be taught at church!
When I think that $100,000 could house 10 poor families in my ward for a year, or buy a quarter million pounds or more of rice for starving people in South America, I sigh.
Most LDS people contributing their money don't even realize that ironically it will be spent on funding advertising with media outlets that either have a historic stance promoting gay rights (Viacom, Disney, Time Warner, General Electric (NBC)), or with ownership that has pronounced strong distaste for the LDS Church (Rupert Murdoch and FOX).
Found this on the Deseret News website about pedophilia:
"Though the popular image of pedophiles is that they are gay men, statistics indicate that up to 96 percent of pedophiles are heterosexual."
*sigh*
If you ever need a break from CA you can come visit me on the other side of the country. I have an extra bed and you can bring my hoodie.
I saw this on nine moons.
"We wholeheartedly agreed with the prop and already indicated we’d be happy to throw some money at it to help out. What we were dreading, though, was to be asked to make “get out the vote” calls or put up a sign on our lawn (the worst part about being asked by the Church to do something is you really can’t say no– and if you do, you just don’t get it). One of my wife’s best friends is a gay man (with a monogamous partner) with whom she already shared her feelings on same-sex marriage. Surprisingly he agreed, and even called the whole issue “ridiculous.”
As it turned out, when the SP sat down with us, it was actually about making a contribution– a rather sizable contribution. He already had a figure in mind. Interestingly, the Mrs. and I both heard the figure in our heads before he said it. I asked if all the members were being asked for the same figure, and he admitted they weren’t. We told him we’d talk about it and would let him know if we’d send it or an alternative amount. He agreed and left a donation form for ProtectMarriage.com which asks you to submit, among other things, your name, and the name of your ward and stake.
Different thoughts ran through our minds after the visit. My wife wanted to know how they came up with the customized figure and stewed over the notion that they probably reviewed our tithing records. The alternative would have been to pray over each family name, which seemed a painful, time-intensive exercise considering we were talking about the whole stake. Meanwhile, I didn’t like the idea of tallies being made for each ward. The SP said they’d be getting back lists of the donors and how much they paid. I didn’t like the idea of my faithfulness being gauged so. I also didn’t like contributing to a coalition of churches, many of which I suspect are Huckabee fan clubs. Plus, let’s face it, it was a huge chunk o’ change they were asking from us."
They made the donation...and within minutes they got the dream home they had been praying for through their realtor. They believe it is for their obedience to the Lord...? I want to vomit. This is disturbing on so many levels. So far they have received about 100 comments.
from nine-moons.com
Truth is, I think this issue makes most members very uncomfortable. I can't remember an issue in my lifetime where the Church came out and told us how to vote. It just isn't done.
I also agree that the Church should lose its tax-free status if it continues this operation. Now before you get angry about this, let me explain.
The Church's political dollar goes much further without having to pay taxes. Those people opposing Proposition 8 aren't tax free. So either those pro-gay organizations should be tax-exempt or the Church should lose its exempt status. It's only creating a level playing field.
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