Our thoughts on Prop 8

I realize that everyone in CA who does a blog has posted about Prop 8 and you're probably all sick of reading about it, but I REALLY REALLY think this is worth reading so I hope hope hope you'll stick with me here.
The election is in a few days and today about 70 of our closet friends met on the corner of Sepulveda and National and waved our Yes on Prop 8 signs for two hours this morning. It was actually a fantastic experience and I got choked up at one point, but I couldn't figure out why I should be getting emotional about it... until I came home and read something Chris wrote this morning.

"Last night I read an article in a news magazine describing how the nation is closely watching the battle over Prop 8 here in California; it seems that California, being by far the most populous state, has become something of a social and political bellwether for the country as a whole. As I lay in bed pondering the profound implications of our fight, both in California and the nation, some thoughts came to mind. I'm sure that the "higher ups" have talked about it since the beginning and that many have already realized this, but for me, it was and epiphany. So if you have already thought about this, please forgive my being intellectually and spiritually slow.

We have been taught that the U.S. Constitution was inspired of God and that one of the most fundamental and vital rights guaranteed therein is our right to freedom of religion. However, more than a right guaranteed by the Constitution, freedom to worship as one desires is our country's raison d'être - most school children can tell us that the Pilgrims came to America seeking religious freedom. Most importantly, it was a necessary condition for the Restoration of the Gospel in the latter days. I do not think it a stretch to argue that our nation was founded for the purpose of providing a place where the Gospel could be restored.

Court rulings on same-sex marriage in Massachusetts, California, and other nations, as well as voter approved alterations to the traditional definition of marriage in some places have proven to conflict with this most essential right.

Nothing new or insightful there, just setting the stage for what I realized.

We have numerous prophecies regarding the Constitution beginning in July of 1840. Joseph Smith taught (using Doctrine & Covenants 101 as a text):
“Even this nation will be on the verge of crumbling to pieces and tumbling to the ground and when the Constitution is on the brink of ruin this people will be the staff upon which the nation shall lean and they shall bear the Constitution away from the very verge of destruction.”

In a BYU devotional from 1976, Elder L. Tom Perry cited the following prophecies:

"First from Brigham Young, second president of the Church: “Will the Constitution be destroyed? No: it will be held inviolate by this people; and, as Joseph Smith said, ‘The time will come when the destiny of this nation will hang upon a single thread. At that critical juncture, this people will step forth and save it from the threatened destruction.’ It will be so.” (Journal of Discourses, 7:15.)

"Now another witness, John Taylor, third president of the Church: “When the people shall have torn to shreds the Constitution of the United States, the elders of Israel will be found holding it up to the nations of the earth, and proclaiming liberty and equal rights to all men, and extending the hand of fellowship to the oppressed of all nations.” (The Gospel Kingdom, Deseret Book Co., 1943, p. 219.) This is part of the program.

"A final witness is from George Q. Cannon, former member of the First Presidency, who said that “the day will come when the Constitution and free government under it will be sustained and preserved by this people.” (JD, 23:104.)"

Elder Perry continues: "Now, I declare to you that if we are not in the beginning stages of the fulfillment of this prophecy, we are at least in the stages where we are preparing for its fulfillment." Again, saying this in 1976!

As we work today to defend this most fundamental aspect of the Constitution under the direction of Prophets and Apostles, we cannot help but realize that we are, in fact, taking part in the fulfillment of these prophecies.

John Adams, the second president of the United States declared: “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” Furthermore, we are warned in Mosiah 29:27, "And if the time comes that the voice of the people doth choose iniquity, then is the time that the judgments of God will come upon you; yea, then is the time he will visit you with great destruction even as he has hitherto visited this land." While the vote will take place in just a few days, our fight for what is right and ordained of God, whether the family or our right to worship as guaranteed by the Constitution, will continue and we are morally obligated to participate. That it is a weighty responsibility should never detract from the joy we feel in serving the Lord and the great honor that is ours to participate in the fulfilling of prophecy."

That's what I was feeling today. I will vote YES on Prop 8 because I've been asked to by a Prophet of God. I will vote YES on Prop 8 because I feel that the law currently violates my right to freedom of religion, I will vote YES on Prop 8 because I know that God ordained marriage between and man and a woman and that children have a right to be born into a family with both a mother and a father and I will vote YES on Prop 8 because it is my privilege and right to take part in the fulfillment of the prophesies of the latter days! I hope you too will vote...

VOTE YES ON 8!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!