California’s Proposition 8
This issue has been in the press a lot recently, and I found the following comment particularly noteworthy. If you agree/disagree, I’d love to hear your thoughts!
(Originally posted at randyparry.blogspot.com)
Get it straight
Public Forum Letter/SLTrib
Article Last Updated: 08/30/2008 06:41:31 PM MDT
Last Sunday, my Southern California LDS ward had a special Sunday School taught by a member of our stake presidency who said that last June’s statement by the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints regarding California’s Proposition 8, which would ban gay marriages, was a “call to arms.” We have been counseled that, except for tithing, Prop. 8 is the most important cause we can give our money to. We’ve been asked to meet on Saturdays to canvass neighborhoods and call registered voters.
The church claims that the doctrinal justification for this intense grass-roots initiative is the 1995 “The Family: A Proclamation to the World,” by the First Presidency and the Council of the Twelve.
Indeed, the proclamation solemnly proclaims that only marriage “between a man and a woman is ordained of God.” Yet a work of LDS scripture, the Doctrine and Covenants, allows for marriage between a man and several women.
LDS Church President Thomas Monson and the other church leaders need to cease lecturing the world on the definition of marriage until they can get their own definition straight. Anything less is hypocrisy and bigotry.
Clint A. Paulson
Torrance, Calif.
