I support the traditional definition of marriage and the protection of the traditional family. I believe marriage exists to promote responsible procreation and superior child rearing. Therefore, according to this definition, a legal marriage can and should only occur between one man and one woman.
Marriage is a 3-way contract between the marriage couple and the community. (If the couple is religious, then marriage becomes a 4-way contract). The community in recognition of a marriage union bestows upon that union specific rights and privileges. Individuals in support of same-sex marriage argue that same-sex couples should have similar rights as married couples. I am in support of granting rights to same-sex couples with regard to checking accounts, medical-legal issues, tax laws, and inheritance laws, etc. I believe that granting these and other similar rights do NOT threaten the traditional definition of marriage and therefore should be supported
On the other hand, the right to rear children should be strictly reserved to traditional marriages alone. This right differentiates a legal marriage from a civil union. I believe it is a God-given and civil right of all children to be reared by both a mother and a father. Any laws that encourage children to be reared in non-traditional homes, without a mother and father, are in violation of the civil rights of children.
Single mothers and nontraditional families cannot rear children as well as traditional families. Traditional, two-parent households provide children with an educated mother who stays home to nurture the children as well as a father who provides for the temporal needs of the family. The argument that a single mother, who loves her children, can do a better job than a traditional family who abuses their children is a logical fallacy. The argument that there are more children needing adoption than traditional families willing to rear them is also a logical fallacy.
Supporting the traditional definition of marriage has an impact on same-sex couples or single women who are having children via sperm donors, in-vitro fertilization, and other advanced reproductive medical techniques. According to an NPR special on sperm-donor children, proponents argue that 1. having a child is a natural, good, ethical, God-given, self-evident right. 2. sperm-donor children are just as well adjusted as children born into traditional homes. 3. Family diversity makes our society stronger according to the laws of natural selection. 4. The traditional family is ideal but society and men have failed women. These women would be married if they could but men these days do not want to have children. 5. There are more unwanted children that need adoption than traditional families who are willing to adopt these children.
In rebuttal, the right to rear a child cannot violate the right of a child to be reared by a traditional family. Children have the right to be reared by a father and a mother who can serve as role models and instill in them the character and values of maleness and femaleness. There are many individual and societal consequences to children born to single-mothers and same-sex couples. Many children of sperm donors are angry, not knowing who they are, where they come from, and what genetic inheritance has been passed to them. The argument about Darwin and natural selection is outrageous. The disintegration of the traditional family is making our society less fit for survival, not more.
This issue demonstrates the current political trend to protect minority rights at the expense of our founding principles. This nation and the constitution were designed to protect both the ideals of society as well as minority rights. I recognize that the ideal is not attainable for everyone in every situation. The opposition argues that because the ideal is not attainable for all, laws that protect our ideals, engender bigotry and prejudice, and should therefore be tossed aside. This too is a logical fallacy. Laws should punish bigotry and prejudice while still protecting our founding principles. Concerning our founding principles, it has been said that our ideals are like the stars, although unattainable, can still serve to guide us individually and as a nation.
Again, I urge all citizens to support the protection of the traditional family, i.e. that a legal marriage is between one man and one woman. Children are a disenfranchised, vulnerable minority group. Children have no voice and few advocates in government. Protecting the traditional definition of the family protects the civil rights of children in America as well as the foundation principles on which our nation was built.
Wednesday, May 31, 2006
Monday, May 15, 2006
LDS on Emergency Preparedness
D&C 38:30 “If ye are prepared ye shall not fear”
D&C 19:35 “Pay the debt thou hast contracted with the printer. Release thyself from bondage”
D&C 78:14 That through my providence, notwithstanding the tribulation which shall descend upon you, that the church may stand independent above all other creatures beneath the celestial world;
D&C 87:8 "Wherefore, stand ye in holy places, and be not moved, until the day of the Lord come".
D&C 109:8 "Organize yourselves; prepare every needful thing"
2 Ne. 25: 23 “For we labor diligently to write, to persuade our children, and also our brethren, to believe in Christ, and to be reconciled to God; for we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do.”
Luke 6:46 “Why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?”
1 Tim. 5:8 “But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.”
D&C 88:89–91 “For after your testimony cometh the testimony of earthquakes, that shall cause groanings in the midst of her, and men shall fall upon the ground and shall not be able to stand. And also cometh the testimony of the voice of thunderings, and the voice of lightnings, and the voice of tempests, and the voice of the waves of the sea heaving themselves beyond their bounds. And all things shall be in commotion; and surely, men's hearts shall fail them; for fear shall come upon all people"
F. Enzio Busche, “How Beautiful to Live in These Times and Be Prepared!” Ensign, June 1982, 16
"With a bottle of vegetable oil, one could acquire nearly every other desirable item."
"honey could be traded for three times as much as sugar"
"When a person is very hungry, the taste of food will change for him."
"Good people become better; they get close to one another; they learn to share and become united."
Vaughn J. Featherstone, “Food Storage,” Ensign, May 1976, 116
“Do I share with my neighbors who have not followed the counsel? And what about the nonmembers who do not have a year’s supply? Do we have to share with them?” No, we don’t have to share—we get to share! Let us not be concerned about silly thoughts of whether we would share or not. Of course we would share! What would Jesus do? I could not possibly eat food and see my neighbors starving. And if you starve to death after sharing, “greater love hath no man than this …” (John 15:13.)
Now what about those who would plunder and break in and take that which we have stored for our families’ needs? Don’t give this one more idle thought.
Victor L. Brown, “Prepare Every Needful Thing,” Ensign, Nov. 1980, 79
Earlier I indicated that these principles have been taught for forty years. As a matter of fact, as President Kimball said, they have been taught for a much longer period of time. President Brigham Young, in remarks given in the Mill Creek Ward on July 25, 1868, had this to say, among other things:. . . They do not know what to do. They have been told what to do, but they did not hearken to this counsel.” (In Journal of Discourses, 12:240–41.)
Ezra Taft Benson, “Prepare for the Days of Tribulation,” Ensign, Nov. 1980, 32
Vivid in my memory are the people who got on trains each morning with all kinds of bric-a-brac in their arms to go out to the countryside to trade their possessions for food. At evening time, the train station was filled with people with arms full of vegetables and fruits, and a menagerie of squealing pigs and chickens. You never heard such a commotion. These people were, of course, willing to barter practically anything for that commodity which sustains life—food.
“notwithstanding the tribulation which shall descend upon you, … the church may stand independent above all other creatures beneath the celestial world” (D&C 78:14).
President Brigham Young said, “If you are without bread, how much wisdom can you boast, and of what real utility are your talents, if you cannot procure for yourselves and save against a day of scarcity those substances designed to sustain your natural lives?” (In Journal of Discourses, 8:68.)
“There is more salvation and security in wheat,” said Orson Hyde years ago, “than in all the political schemes of the world” (in Journal of Discourses, 2:207).
Let every man who has a garden spot, garden it; every man who owns a farm, farm it.” (President J. Reuben Clark, Jr., in Conference Report, Apr. 1937, p. 26.)
first public announcement in 1936 and declared the prime purpose of Church welfare was “to help the people help themselves” (in Conference Report, Oct. 1936, p. 3).
Ezra Taft Benson, “Prepare Ye,” Ensign, Jan. 1974, 68
April 1937 general conference of the Church, President J. Reuben Clark, Jr., of the First Presidency, asked: “What may we as a people and as individuals do for ourselves to prepare to meet this oncoming disaster, which God in his wisdom may not turn aside from us?” President Clark then set forth these inspired basic principles of the Church welfare program:
“First, and above and beyond everything else, let us live righteously. …
“Let us avoid debt as we would avoid a plague; where we are now in debt, let us get out of debt; if not today, then tomorrow.
“Let us straitly and strictly live within our incomes, and save a little.
“Let every head of every household see to it that he has on hand enough food and clothing, and, where possible, fuel also, for at least a year ahead. You of small means put your money in foodstuffs and wearing apparel, not in stocks and bonds; you of large means will think you know how to care for yourselves, but I may venture to suggest that you do not speculate. Let every head of every household aim to own his own home, free from mortgage. Let every man who has a garden spot, garden it; every man who owns a farm, farm it.” (Conference Report, April 1937, p. 26.)
For over 100 years we have been admonished to store up grain. “Remember the counsel that is given,” said Elder Orson Hyde, “ ‘… Store up all your grain,’ and take care of it! … And I tell you it is almost as necessary to have bread to sustain the body as it is to have food for the spirit; for the one is as necessary as the other to enable us to carry on the work of God upon the earth.” (Journal of Discourses, vol. 5, p. 17.) And he also said: “There is more salvation and security in wheat, than in all the political schemes of the world. …” (JD, vol. 2, p. 207.)
President Harold B. Lee has wisely counseled that “perhaps if we think not in terms of a year’s supply of what we ordinarily would use, and think more in terms of what it would take to keep us alive in case we didn’t have anything else to eat, that last would be very easy to put in storage for a year … just enough to keep us alive if we didn’t have anything else to eat. We wouldn’t get fat on it, but we would live; and if you think in terms of that kind of annual storage rather than a whole year’s supply of everything that you are accustomed to eat which, in most cases, is utterly impossible for the average family, I think we will come nearer to what President Clark advised us way back in 1937.” (Welfare conference address, October 1, 1966.)
“The day will come,” said President Wilford Woodruff, “when, as we have been told, we shall all see the necessity of making our own shoes and clothing and raising our own food. …” (Discourses of Wilford Woodruff, p. 166.)
In a message to the Saints in July of 1970, President Joseph Fielding Smith stated that the pioneers “were taught by their leaders to produce, as far as possible, all that they consumed … This is still excellent counsel.” (Improvement Era, vol. 73 [1970], p. 3.)
When will we learn these basic economic principles? However, “… when we really get into hard times,” said President Clark, “where food is scarce or there is none at all, and so with clothing and shelter, money may be no good for there may be nothing to buy, and you cannot eat money, you cannot get enough of it together to burn to keep warm, and you cannot wear it.” (Church News, November 21, 1953, p. 4.)
The strength of the Church welfare program lies in every family following the inspired direction of the Church leaders to be self-sustaining through adequate preparation. God intends for his Saints to so prepare themselves “that the church [as the Lord has said] may stand independent above all other creatures beneath the celestial world.” (D&C 78:14.)
“How on the face of the earth could a man enjoy his religion,” said Elder George A. Smith many years ago, “when he had been told by the Lord how to prepare for a day of famine, when, instead of doing so, he had fooled away that which would have sustained him and his family.” (JD, vol. 12, p. 142.)
And President Brigham Young said, “If you are without bread, how much wisdom can you boast, and of what real utility are your talents, if you cannot procure for yourselves and save against a day of scarcity those substances designed to sustain your natural lives? … If you cannot provide for your natural lives, how can you expect to have wisdom to obtain eternal lives?” (JD, vol. 8, p. 68.)
Let us not be dissuaded from preparing because of a seeming prosperity today, or a so-called peace. I have seen the ravages of inflation. I shall never forget Germany in the early 1920s. In December 1923 in Cologne, Germany, I paid six billion marks for breakfast. That was just 15 cents in American money. Today, the real inflation concern is in America and several other nations.
“The time is about ripe,” said President Lee, “for the demonstration of the power and efficacy of the Lord’s Plan which He designed as ‘a light to the world, and to be a standard for my people, and for the Gentiles to seek to it.’ ” (Deseret News, Church section, December 20, 1941, p. 7; see also D&C 45:9.)
L. Tom Perry, “The Need to Teach Personal and Family Preparedness,” Ensign, May 1981, 87
I like the story of the old man in nineteenth-century New Hampshire who treasured his independence and self-reliance above all else in his life. He accounted it true Christianity that he cared for his own and helped others, and fiercely resisted the notion that he ought to accept help from any other mortal. When his aged wife died, he buried her himself, then dug his own grave and laid in it his open, homemade coffin. “When my time is coming,” he said, “I’ll climb in the box and fold my arms over my chest. Won’t be no bother to no one. They can just nail down the lid and push in the dirt.”
President Marion G. Romney has said so often: “No self-respecting Church member will voluntarily shift the responsibility for his own maintenance to another. Furthermore, a man not only has the responsibility to care for himself; he also has the responsibility to care for his family.” (The Basics of Church Welfare, address to the Priesthood Board, 6 Mar. 1974, p. 2.)
Spencer W. Kimball, Apr. 1976
“We encourage you to grow all the food that you feasibly can on your own property. Berry bushes, grapevines, fruit trees—plant them if your climate is right for their growth. Grow vegetables and eat them from your own yard. Even those residing in apartments or condominiums can generally grow a little food in pots and planters. Study the best methods of providing your own foods.”
“Wherever possible, produce your nonfood necessities of life. Improve your sewing skills; sew and mend clothing for your family . . . Develop handicraft skills as the sisters have told us, and make or build needed items.”
“this is a gospel of action and whatever we learn we should put into action.“
Gordon B. Hinckley, Oct. 1998
“time has come to get our houses in order.”
“there is a portent of stormy weather ahead to which we had better give heed.”
“I urge you, brethren, to look to the condition of your finances. I urge you to be modest in your expenditures; discipline yourselves in your purchases to avoid debt to the extent possible. Pay off debt as quickly as you can, and free yourselves from bondage.”
Gordon B. Hinckley, Oct. 2005
“The best storehouse is the family storeroom.”
“Our people for three-quarters of a century have been counseled and encouraged to make such preparation as will assure survival should a calamity come.”
“We can set aside some water, basic food, medicine, and clothing to keep us warm. We ought to have a little money laid aside in case of a rainy day.”
“We can so live that we can call upon the Lord for His protection and guidance. . . . We cannot expect His help if we are unwilling to keep His commandments.”
D&C 19:35 “Pay the debt thou hast contracted with the printer. Release thyself from bondage”
D&C 78:14 That through my providence, notwithstanding the tribulation which shall descend upon you, that the church may stand independent above all other creatures beneath the celestial world;
D&C 87:8 "Wherefore, stand ye in holy places, and be not moved, until the day of the Lord come".
D&C 109:8 "Organize yourselves; prepare every needful thing"
2 Ne. 25: 23 “For we labor diligently to write, to persuade our children, and also our brethren, to believe in Christ, and to be reconciled to God; for we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do.”
Luke 6:46 “Why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?”
1 Tim. 5:8 “But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.”
D&C 88:89–91 “For after your testimony cometh the testimony of earthquakes, that shall cause groanings in the midst of her, and men shall fall upon the ground and shall not be able to stand. And also cometh the testimony of the voice of thunderings, and the voice of lightnings, and the voice of tempests, and the voice of the waves of the sea heaving themselves beyond their bounds. And all things shall be in commotion; and surely, men's hearts shall fail them; for fear shall come upon all people"
F. Enzio Busche, “How Beautiful to Live in These Times and Be Prepared!” Ensign, June 1982, 16
"With a bottle of vegetable oil, one could acquire nearly every other desirable item."
"honey could be traded for three times as much as sugar"
"When a person is very hungry, the taste of food will change for him."
"Good people become better; they get close to one another; they learn to share and become united."
Vaughn J. Featherstone, “Food Storage,” Ensign, May 1976, 116
“Do I share with my neighbors who have not followed the counsel? And what about the nonmembers who do not have a year’s supply? Do we have to share with them?” No, we don’t have to share—we get to share! Let us not be concerned about silly thoughts of whether we would share or not. Of course we would share! What would Jesus do? I could not possibly eat food and see my neighbors starving. And if you starve to death after sharing, “greater love hath no man than this …” (John 15:13.)
Now what about those who would plunder and break in and take that which we have stored for our families’ needs? Don’t give this one more idle thought.
Victor L. Brown, “Prepare Every Needful Thing,” Ensign, Nov. 1980, 79
Earlier I indicated that these principles have been taught for forty years. As a matter of fact, as President Kimball said, they have been taught for a much longer period of time. President Brigham Young, in remarks given in the Mill Creek Ward on July 25, 1868, had this to say, among other things:. . . They do not know what to do. They have been told what to do, but they did not hearken to this counsel.” (In Journal of Discourses, 12:240–41.)
Ezra Taft Benson, “Prepare for the Days of Tribulation,” Ensign, Nov. 1980, 32
Vivid in my memory are the people who got on trains each morning with all kinds of bric-a-brac in their arms to go out to the countryside to trade their possessions for food. At evening time, the train station was filled with people with arms full of vegetables and fruits, and a menagerie of squealing pigs and chickens. You never heard such a commotion. These people were, of course, willing to barter practically anything for that commodity which sustains life—food.
“notwithstanding the tribulation which shall descend upon you, … the church may stand independent above all other creatures beneath the celestial world” (D&C 78:14).
President Brigham Young said, “If you are without bread, how much wisdom can you boast, and of what real utility are your talents, if you cannot procure for yourselves and save against a day of scarcity those substances designed to sustain your natural lives?” (In Journal of Discourses, 8:68.)
“There is more salvation and security in wheat,” said Orson Hyde years ago, “than in all the political schemes of the world” (in Journal of Discourses, 2:207).
Let every man who has a garden spot, garden it; every man who owns a farm, farm it.” (President J. Reuben Clark, Jr., in Conference Report, Apr. 1937, p. 26.)
first public announcement in 1936 and declared the prime purpose of Church welfare was “to help the people help themselves” (in Conference Report, Oct. 1936, p. 3).
Ezra Taft Benson, “Prepare Ye,” Ensign, Jan. 1974, 68
April 1937 general conference of the Church, President J. Reuben Clark, Jr., of the First Presidency, asked: “What may we as a people and as individuals do for ourselves to prepare to meet this oncoming disaster, which God in his wisdom may not turn aside from us?” President Clark then set forth these inspired basic principles of the Church welfare program:
“First, and above and beyond everything else, let us live righteously. …
“Let us avoid debt as we would avoid a plague; where we are now in debt, let us get out of debt; if not today, then tomorrow.
“Let us straitly and strictly live within our incomes, and save a little.
“Let every head of every household see to it that he has on hand enough food and clothing, and, where possible, fuel also, for at least a year ahead. You of small means put your money in foodstuffs and wearing apparel, not in stocks and bonds; you of large means will think you know how to care for yourselves, but I may venture to suggest that you do not speculate. Let every head of every household aim to own his own home, free from mortgage. Let every man who has a garden spot, garden it; every man who owns a farm, farm it.” (Conference Report, April 1937, p. 26.)
For over 100 years we have been admonished to store up grain. “Remember the counsel that is given,” said Elder Orson Hyde, “ ‘… Store up all your grain,’ and take care of it! … And I tell you it is almost as necessary to have bread to sustain the body as it is to have food for the spirit; for the one is as necessary as the other to enable us to carry on the work of God upon the earth.” (Journal of Discourses, vol. 5, p. 17.) And he also said: “There is more salvation and security in wheat, than in all the political schemes of the world. …” (JD, vol. 2, p. 207.)
President Harold B. Lee has wisely counseled that “perhaps if we think not in terms of a year’s supply of what we ordinarily would use, and think more in terms of what it would take to keep us alive in case we didn’t have anything else to eat, that last would be very easy to put in storage for a year … just enough to keep us alive if we didn’t have anything else to eat. We wouldn’t get fat on it, but we would live; and if you think in terms of that kind of annual storage rather than a whole year’s supply of everything that you are accustomed to eat which, in most cases, is utterly impossible for the average family, I think we will come nearer to what President Clark advised us way back in 1937.” (Welfare conference address, October 1, 1966.)
“The day will come,” said President Wilford Woodruff, “when, as we have been told, we shall all see the necessity of making our own shoes and clothing and raising our own food. …” (Discourses of Wilford Woodruff, p. 166.)
In a message to the Saints in July of 1970, President Joseph Fielding Smith stated that the pioneers “were taught by their leaders to produce, as far as possible, all that they consumed … This is still excellent counsel.” (Improvement Era, vol. 73 [1970], p. 3.)
When will we learn these basic economic principles? However, “… when we really get into hard times,” said President Clark, “where food is scarce or there is none at all, and so with clothing and shelter, money may be no good for there may be nothing to buy, and you cannot eat money, you cannot get enough of it together to burn to keep warm, and you cannot wear it.” (Church News, November 21, 1953, p. 4.)
The strength of the Church welfare program lies in every family following the inspired direction of the Church leaders to be self-sustaining through adequate preparation. God intends for his Saints to so prepare themselves “that the church [as the Lord has said] may stand independent above all other creatures beneath the celestial world.” (D&C 78:14.)
“How on the face of the earth could a man enjoy his religion,” said Elder George A. Smith many years ago, “when he had been told by the Lord how to prepare for a day of famine, when, instead of doing so, he had fooled away that which would have sustained him and his family.” (JD, vol. 12, p. 142.)
And President Brigham Young said, “If you are without bread, how much wisdom can you boast, and of what real utility are your talents, if you cannot procure for yourselves and save against a day of scarcity those substances designed to sustain your natural lives? … If you cannot provide for your natural lives, how can you expect to have wisdom to obtain eternal lives?” (JD, vol. 8, p. 68.)
Let us not be dissuaded from preparing because of a seeming prosperity today, or a so-called peace. I have seen the ravages of inflation. I shall never forget Germany in the early 1920s. In December 1923 in Cologne, Germany, I paid six billion marks for breakfast. That was just 15 cents in American money. Today, the real inflation concern is in America and several other nations.
“The time is about ripe,” said President Lee, “for the demonstration of the power and efficacy of the Lord’s Plan which He designed as ‘a light to the world, and to be a standard for my people, and for the Gentiles to seek to it.’ ” (Deseret News, Church section, December 20, 1941, p. 7; see also D&C 45:9.)
L. Tom Perry, “The Need to Teach Personal and Family Preparedness,” Ensign, May 1981, 87
I like the story of the old man in nineteenth-century New Hampshire who treasured his independence and self-reliance above all else in his life. He accounted it true Christianity that he cared for his own and helped others, and fiercely resisted the notion that he ought to accept help from any other mortal. When his aged wife died, he buried her himself, then dug his own grave and laid in it his open, homemade coffin. “When my time is coming,” he said, “I’ll climb in the box and fold my arms over my chest. Won’t be no bother to no one. They can just nail down the lid and push in the dirt.”
President Marion G. Romney has said so often: “No self-respecting Church member will voluntarily shift the responsibility for his own maintenance to another. Furthermore, a man not only has the responsibility to care for himself; he also has the responsibility to care for his family.” (The Basics of Church Welfare, address to the Priesthood Board, 6 Mar. 1974, p. 2.)
Spencer W. Kimball, Apr. 1976
“We encourage you to grow all the food that you feasibly can on your own property. Berry bushes, grapevines, fruit trees—plant them if your climate is right for their growth. Grow vegetables and eat them from your own yard. Even those residing in apartments or condominiums can generally grow a little food in pots and planters. Study the best methods of providing your own foods.”
“Wherever possible, produce your nonfood necessities of life. Improve your sewing skills; sew and mend clothing for your family . . . Develop handicraft skills as the sisters have told us, and make or build needed items.”
“this is a gospel of action and whatever we learn we should put into action.“
Gordon B. Hinckley, Oct. 1998
“time has come to get our houses in order.”
“there is a portent of stormy weather ahead to which we had better give heed.”
“I urge you, brethren, to look to the condition of your finances. I urge you to be modest in your expenditures; discipline yourselves in your purchases to avoid debt to the extent possible. Pay off debt as quickly as you can, and free yourselves from bondage.”
Gordon B. Hinckley, Oct. 2005
“The best storehouse is the family storeroom.”
“Our people for three-quarters of a century have been counseled and encouraged to make such preparation as will assure survival should a calamity come.”
“We can set aside some water, basic food, medicine, and clothing to keep us warm. We ought to have a little money laid aside in case of a rainy day.”
“We can so live that we can call upon the Lord for His protection and guidance. . . . We cannot expect His help if we are unwilling to keep His commandments.”
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