Talking American
Perhaps I'm just feeling a bit mortified by all the hoopla going on in California about Proposition 8 and all the angry people who are now protesting outside LDS Temples and chapels---people taunting, yelling, threatening and belittling LDS and some Catholic organizations. I usually don't verbalize my feelings about politics or religion but since I'm feeling this way, I thought I'd just vent.
Nearly 200 years ago, an angry mob killed Joseph and Hyrum Smith in Missouri and everywhere the LDS congregations went, mobs terrorized, tortured and murdered innocent followers of the LDS church which precipitated the mass exodus of the "Mormons" from Nauvoo to a stale and harsh desert which, after years of hard labour, they made to bloom like a rose. Throughout the history of the LDS church, there have been no recorded conduct of masses of LDS people protesting with such vile hatred against any group of people. Now we are being threatened with our lives and livelihood simply because of our beliefs. Once again, it is happening. And as the scriptures prophesy, many more events like this will occur before the great and terrible day of the Lord.
All Christians believe that this day will come--when Christ will come again--this time, in all His glory and all will know that Jesus, who walked the earth over 2,000 years ago, is the Messiah. But not before evil overcomes the earth and not before the earth itself groans and responds--which in our blindness we cannot even recognize.
No matter what is said, the basis and foundation of the American constitution and way of life has always been the belief that there is a God, that there is right and wrong. The framers of the Constitution, imperfect and flawed as they may be, had a moral compass. Laws are based on morality whether we care to admit it or not. And right or wrong simply cannot exist without a divine mandate: a higher power that imbues each person with a sense of right or wrong. It is choice and accountability that are divine gifts and when we choose to numb ourselves from doing what's morally correct, that part of our nature becomes callous and hard and thus, it becomes easier to walk far from the Divine.
In the coming days, when angry mobs decry and persecute those whose beliefs differ from theirs, I hope and pray that calmness and clarity will again return and we will all see that there are more things that unite us than divide us. "Mormons" as a whole, do not hate homosexuals. Our belief is that God loves ALL men and that our responsibility is to love all people. But we also have a responsibility to protect what we deem are important to us just as others have that right and duty. And while I have strong opinions about the laws and choosing the leaders who will uphold our beliefs, so do the others who differ. But rancor, threats, the movements to destroy the safety and well being of others simply because through the exercise of democracy, our desires have prevailed, are simply NOT products of civility.
I did not vote for Barack Obama. But now that he is president-elect, I respect him and am filled with hope that our nation will rise above such divisiveness. I see his strengths and am excited that he has the zeal to make changes and I pray that they will work. I have always been impressed by his comportment and his closeness to his family, his awesome accomplishments against all odds, his eloquence though there are many issues in his platform that concern me.
So off we go on another adventure and if the American people will just make wise choices individually---live within their means, raise responsible children, remain vigilant and most of all, pay more attention to their civic DUTIES than focusing so much on their 'rights', we may just witness a new light in the horizon.
It is so pathetic that most of us will not speak up for fear that we will offend or hurt others. That is what ills us. I mean, must we turn the other cheek all the time? Does being meek and humble involve only being quiet and letting others have their thunder while we wait and quietly let the world persecute those who believe in God? Is there a point where letting others have a go on our every 'cheek' becomes simply laziness and stupid ignorance?
It is so sad that Christians on the whole are not "cool"or hip. Why is the same 'code of conduct' not applicable to believers? While we quietly wait for them to hit the other cheek, why can others be militant and aggressive? Why can they be hate mongers and be "hip"? And if another pundit brings up the Inquisition, I am going to scream.
The fundamental obligations of government and the laws are to protect public health, provide safely and advance general welfare--pre-eminently to protect a person's fundamental rights and liberties. It must not usurp family or individual authority. What the constitution must protect are those things which are "self-evident"; the powers of humanness: our ability to reason, our basic freedoms, intelligent inquiry, aesthetic appreciation...etc. With what is going on outside our temples and chapels, we must adhere to the fundamental belief that civic order is based on the moral compass that is divinely given to each individual by a higher power. And if we negate this, we again go down the path of those who scoff at the 'stupidity' of those who believe in a right and a wrong, those who believe in good and evil. And my friends, there IS evil. And it really does exist. Those who believe in God also believe in Satan. Both are real though we all know who has the greater power.
LDS people cannot drink from the cooler that contains the kool-aid of moral relativism all the time. We must honor the truth and not underestimate people. Truth is luminous and powerful. We must have faith in that. As Christians, we do not make the argument OFTEN enough....or even worse, we do not make our arguments WELL enough. We are often stumped by statements that sound so absolute but are deceptively untrue. "Love makes a family" for example, sounds so good but is deceptively untrue. "We all have rights!" is a cry that is deceptively untrue---dropping the second part which states that with every right we have, we also have duties. Our rights are only valid if we also honor our duties. Such absolute statements that leave out part of the truth is, well, untrue.
Ok, I think I've vented enough. I believe in God. I believe in good and evil. I believe that Christ will come again. I want to be part of that great army that will, in the end, proclaim him Lord and King. And disciples of Christ cannot be complacent. I believe we can make our arguments be known without vileness or anger but with kindness and civility and hopefully, with firmness, vim and vigor. I hope that those angry mobs outside our Holy Temples will not deface what we believe is the House of the Lord. I hope they will not try to arm themselves with hatred and vileness against those who peacefully live their lives. I hope that they will embrace civility as they make their arguments...as so it should be.
