So I was reading something on someones site, and I was reminded of a long debate I had with a member of my Church who was torn up about the proposed Marriage Amendment. There are lots of LDS people (actually, lots of every people) who are troubled about the gay marriage issue because they are against homosexuality, but do not see how the government has a right to restrict marriage. Latter-day Saints are commanded to uphold the family unit in society and in government (see the Proclamation to the World), but many feel that in this land you can’t stop people from getting their rights. Well, the fact of the matter is marriage is a privilege, not a right.
The president in the U.S. Supreme Court is that the State has every right and obligation to control marriage. Our Church discovered that fact intimately with the polygamy issue. The government stomped down hard, saying that it was in society’s best interest to forbid marriage outside of one man and one woman. Right or wrong, they had the power to do it.
The government still has that power, and it has an obligation to the people to exercise it.
I am primarily against Gay Marriage because I am against homosexual adoption. If a man wants to partner up with another man, that’s his choice. But if a man wants to create a family with a man, well that’s a different issue (and maybe he’s watched too much Full House).
Choosing to enter a relationship with someone of the same sex has certain consequences (and yes, it is a choice to become partners with someone). Those divine consequences include: the loss of the ability to have children, the loss of marriage, and the loss of Church privileges. There are also legal consequences, like the loss of insurance benefits and tax benefits for families. When you legalize marriage, you take away those consequences.
It may seem like it is not a big deal to lose some of those consequences, but it is. The biggest deal is with children. I believe that homosexuality, like any sexuality, is psychological. Genetic or not, it is triggered after birth. A child raised with two parents of the same sex is not going to be raised in a healthy envirornment. It will teach the child to embrace a psychological condition as it is, without any motion to change it. And yes, it can be changed.
The loss of other consequences will hurt society as well. Taxes, for example. Lets pretend gay marriage is legalized completely. Lets say that there’s a single guy who doesn’t like to pay taxes, but isn’t getting married anytime soon. Lets say he meets another single guy. They could get married sheerly for tax benefit reasons, not for sexuality. I don’t like that idea.
Homosexuality can be overcome. Just like pedophilia, alcoholism, pornographic addictions, etc. It can be overcome, especially when there is incentive to do so. The biggest incentive is religious, but there is also social and legal encouragement too. Let’s not take away the incentive, the consequences of certain lifestyles. Let’s not rob the gays of the choices that they made.
If a homosexual wants a family, he/she has every right to get it. All he/she has to do is get some help, some counseling, start dating, and get married to someone of the opposite sex. The children part is really quite natural, and the results can last forever.
) Come On by Ben Jelen, Memory by Sugarcult . . . I’m also putting This Love, 100 Years, and When I Look to the Sky on the CD despite the radio’s tendency to over play them. Anyway . . . I’ll let you know about the retreat when I get back.
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