Prop 8 in CA and Prop 102 in AZ

Now, I know this has been in the news a lot lately, but I wanted everyone to maybe put down there thoughts and ideas regarding the marriage amendment.

Here are some of my thoughts:

1) I understand that the church is kind of secretive about supporting the bills. They have their tax exempt status to keep. I am an accountant - I understand the tax laws and what needs to be kept in place for this benefit to remain. The church will do everything necessary to keep that. It saves the church hundreds of millions per year. This is a no brainer. Be smart with the Lord's money.

That being said - I don't understand how members can say or think "How dare the church tell me how to vote or get involved in politics!" I personally think such a statement is ignorant and foolish. Obviously they dont understand the history of the church and gospel. Have they ever read the Old Testament? Have they read Church History? Of course the church should get involved. The gospel is everything to us. It is our lives. Depending on how we live here determines how we will live in eternity. This is the Lord's kingdom. He can tell us whatever he wants. There is nothing that he is exempt from. He knows best. We should put our trust in him, and follow him in everything that he tells us. The phrase everything's politics should be rephrased to everything's spiritual.

2) The church did not donate money to this cause. The sacred tithing funds or fast offering or other funds were NOT used (at least to my knowledge and please correct me if I am wrong.) The church strongly encouraged it's members to support the bill through monetary donations. I dont think that there was any punishment if someone did not support the bill. They could still take the sacrament and go to the temple. This is fine. Members can spend their money how they want. That is their decision. The church should encourage worthy objectives.

3) As sad as it is, I think this will eventually be overturned and it is only a matter of time before homosexual marriages are legal. I think we fought a good fight and should continue to fight, but it is ok where this ends up because the world knows where we stand and we have been a light set up on a hill.

4) We hate the sin but love the sinner. This is hard to do. I have a hard time separating this. I personally think that defining marriage is strictly a political move. It is only for the Government. It will always be wrong to the church. But once the Government accepts it, it will be hard for the church to speak up against it. Right now the church is against immorality. We are against people living together and having sex if they are not married. We can say this and it currently encompases both sides. But once homosexuals are legally able to get married, we need to speak against immorality but also against this marriage union. It just gets messier. There should be no difference in our mind right now that whether 2 men or a man/woman living together is a major sin against the law of Chastity. The sin is the same.

5) As far as I can tell, the main consequence of this is teaching homosexual marriages equal to marriage between a man and woman. Once this is recognized as main stream - we are ripe for destruction - just like Soddom and Gomhorrah.

6) The news is so liberal and biased. The media is horrible. But, I think all this attention is good. Those conservative with traditional values will see the church as a good thing. We need some persecution. The church has been too comfortable for too long. If Satan and wickedness is not fighting hard against us, we are probably doing something wrong anyway.

Any thoughts? Thanks for reading my rantings and ravings.