Gas and Same-Sex Marriage

What? Seriously? What could gas and same-sex marriage possibly have in common? Well, I'll tell you if you can sit still for a minute (or 10). Tonight as I drove toward Mexican food, like a mosquito heading for light, I noticed the local gas station prices and narrowly avoided crunching the car in front of me while doing double takes. Hallelujah (!), I thought, but my elation was short-lived as I pondered the reason for the gas price plunge. With gas, we've won a battle, but the war against our failing economy is far from over. The declining gas prices are a symptom of a larger problem. With the economy taking hit after hit and consumerism at an all-time low, it's a given that prices (i.e. gas) will also fall. I tremble to think what the future holds for our economy and that, sadly, there might come a time when I won't even be able to afford gas at the price it stands now, in all its deflated glory. But, that's another conversation for someone else's blog.

This same sense of winning a skirmish then falling back to regroup applies to the same-sex marriage issue. The demand for legalized gay marriage is a symptom of a greater societal problem. With Proposition 8, we have won a battle, but it is ever-increasingly apparent that the war against moral relativism is really just beginning (or, if we're being honest, began with the 1960's Hippie movement). Regardless of when moral decline began, however, it is definitely rearing its ugly head with this homosexual movement that is threatening to redefine marriage and wreak havoc on the fundamental unit of society - the family.

["When you stop and think about it from a diabolically tactical point of view, fighting the family makes sense. When Satan wants to disrupt the work of the Lord, he doesn’t poison the world’s peanut butter supply, thus bringing the Church’s missionary system to its collective knees. He doesn’t send a plague of laryngitis to afflict the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. He doesn’t legislate against green Jell-O or casseroles. When Satan truly wants to disrupt the work of the Lord, he attempts to confuse gender and he attacks God’s plan for His children....That’s all it takes, because Satan knows that the surest and most effective way to disrupt the Lord’s work is to diminish the effectiveness of the family and the sanctity of the home....Lucifer is the enemy of the family!" -Elder M. Russell Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles]

The successful outcome of the Prop 8 vote on November 4th felt a mite bit empty as I ruminated on the slim margin of victory, evidence of a shifting cultural perception toward and acceptance of homosexuality in general. And the victory, quietly and humbly celebrated by good people all over the country, became even more bitter-sweet in the terrible, violent, anarchical backlash that followed from the opposition.

Now, ask any defender of traditional marriage what they think the future holds for same-sex marriage, and you may be surprised to discover how many readily admit that legalized same-sex marriage is not only likely, but inevitable. We are optimistic, not dumb. We won't soon forget how the interpretation of four judges overturned the will of millions. We aren't blind to the upcoming new voters - the MTV educated, A-list influenced, slogan screaming, automated, entitled young people of America. We won't soon forget the incredible sham of media bias and slant displayed during these 2008 elections - teaching us more about Gov. Sara Palin's clothing expenditures and personal life than we know about President-elect Obama's political platforms and plans. This same media is guilty twice over on the marriage front for first perpetuating lies such as Jack O'Connell's empty promises, then hiding behind a conspicuous silence as the world watches the gay community openly ferret out and attack one religion for the part its members played in a free and democratic process and vote. Religious bigotry has gone not only unimpeded, but largely unacknowledged by the mainstream media. More than shameful, it's alarming! We democratic people of the world are watching in shock as all three branches of the government here in California brazenly disregard the will of the people whom they claim to represent, urging instead the reversal of Proposition 8 and crying the acceptance of a destructive lifestyle in the name of equal rights and...wait for it...love.

Again I say, this war is far from over. It's a war that has come and gone in cycles since Adam and Eve were escorted out of the Garden of Eden. Trying to keep people from forgetting God in times of wealth and prosperity is like trying to herd cats. For some reason, money and God are like oil and water. Money tends to create and then influence the slinky little folk like pride and corruption and greed. We were doing great, we were feeling good, economy was thriving, then BAM, we're back at the bottom of the world economic food chain and begging the Lord to remember us when we've forgotten Him. This happened with 9/11, too - we remembered God in a very unified manner after those attacks, praying and mourning together. Then slowly, ever so slowly, we forgot Him again once we had moved beyond feeling threatened, once complacency and economic success replaced fear and re-engaged our consumer-driven, self-gratifying, greedy impulses.

Here's a little lesson from the scriptures (The Book of Mormon, Another Testament of Jesus Christ). Read Alma Chapter 1 and Helaman Chapter 4, in the Book of Mormon. It's like reading about this very situation we're experiencing right now. While some in the gay rights camp use the "history repeats itself" card against the Church and bring up Blacks and the Priesthood, Polygamy, etc., I say, historically more noteworthy is the repetition and effect of "altering" and "trampling" and "corrupting" the laws the Lord has commanded us to live by, and the denial of "the spirit of prophecy" and "the spirit of revelation." But don't take my word for it, read it yourself!

Alma 1:3-4 (Note: Nehor is an anti-Christ)

["And he {Nehor} had gone about among the people, preaching to them that which he termed to be the word of God, bearing down against the church...."

"And he also testified unto the people that all mankind should be saved at the last day, and that they need not fear nor tremble, but that they might lift up their heads and rejoice; for the Lord had created all men, and had also redeemed all men; and, in the end, all men should have eternal life."]

Alma 1:6

["And he began to be lifted up in the pride of his heart, and to wear very costly apparel, yea, and even began to establish a church* after the manner of his preaching."]

*Establishing the church of irreligion as described by syndicated columnist, M.J. Sobran:

["The Framers of the Constitution … forbade the Congress to make any law 'respecting' the establishment of religion, thus leaving the states free to do so (as several of them did); and they explicitly forbade the Congress to abridge 'the free exercise' of religion, thus giving actual religious observance a rhetorical emphasis that fully accords with the special concern we know they had for religion. It takes a special ingenuity to wring out of this a governmental indifference to religion, let alone an aggressive secularism. Yet there are those who insist that the First Amendment actually proscribes governmental partiality not only to any single religion, but to religion as such; so that tax exemption for churches is now thought to be unconstitutional. It is startling to consider that a clause clearly protecting religion can be construed as requiring that it be denied a status routinely granted to educational and charitable enterprises, which have no overt constitutional protection. Far from equalizing unbelief, secularism has succeeded in virtually establishing it."]

This new church of unbelief is also discussed by Elder Neal A. Maxwell, Member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in a 1978 discourse:

["This new irreligious imperialism seeks to disallow certain opinions simply because those opinions grow out of religious convictions. Resistance to abortion will be seen as primitive. Concern over the institution of the family will be viewed as untrendy and unenlightened."]

1978, people! This man, an apostle of the Lord, special witness of the Savior Jesus Christ, prophesied the moral decline of this nation. He knew the path we were walking down then would lead to where we are now. And people wonder why we put our faith in the leaders of this Church. There you have it - continuing revelation through the Lord's Prophets and Apostles. Okay, back to the scriptures....

Alma 1:7,9

["And it came to pass as he {Nehor} was going, to preach to those who believed on his word, he met a man who belonged to the church of God, yea, even one of their teachers; and he began to contend with him sharply, that he might lead away the people of the church; but the man withstood him, admonishing him with the words of God."

"Now, because Gideon withstood him with the words of God he was wroth with Gideon, and drew his sword and began to smite him.* Now Gideon being stricken with many years, therefore he was not able to withstand his blows, therefore he was slain by the sword."]

*Hm...now whose response does this remind us of? "I don't like what you're saying, so I'm going to draw my protest sword and climb the walls of your temples, vandalize your property, and spew slanderous and false accusations at you, intimidating you into giving me what I want or else...."

So, Nehor is sentenced to die according to the law Mosiah had established. But with his death, the spreading of priestcraft did not end. Those who enjoyed his teachings of "eat, drink, and be merry," continued to spread that false doctrine under the inaccurate pretense that their teachings were a system of "belief." Because, as it says in Alma 1:17

["...now the law could have no power on any man for his belief."]

But, it wasn't enough for these malcontents, members of the Church of Irreligion and Unbelief, to co-exist with the members of the true church of God.

Alma 1:19-20

["But it came to pass that whosoever did not belong to the church of God began to persecute those that did belong to the church of God, and had taken upon them the name of Christ."

"Yea, they did persecute them, and afflict them with all manner of words, and this because of their humility; because they were not proud in their own eyes, and because they did impart the word of God one with another, without money and without price."]

It's so interesting to me that many in the gay community are tossing around this "live and let live" bit, yet when you read something like this last passage, it becomes obvious that the irreligious are never satisfied with just co-existing. The ultimate goal (whether conscious or subconscious) is to bring down the religious, the humble, the moral. Now, let's switch gears and take a look at Helaman, Chapter 4, where the Nephite society suffers defeat after defeat (at the hands of the Lamanites) because of its own citizens' wickedness and failure to remember God.

Helaman 4:11-13, 21-23

["Now this great loss of the Nephites, and the great slaughter which was among them, would not have happened had it not been for their wickedness and their abomination which was among them; yea, and it was among those also who professed to belong to the church of God."

"And it was because of the pride of their hearts, because of their exceeding riches, yea, it was because of their oppression to the poor, withholding their food from the hungry, withholding their clothing from the naked, and smiting their humble brethren upon the cheek, making a mock of that which was sacred, denying the spirit of prophecy and of revelation, murdering, plundering, lying, stealing, committing adultery, rising up in great contentions, and deserting away in the the land of Nephi, among the Lamanites--"

"And because of this their great wickedness, and their boastings in their own strength, they were left in their own strength; therefore they did not prosper, but were afflicted and smitten, and driven before the Lamanites, until they had lost possession of almost all their lands."

"Yea, they began to remember the prophecies of Alma, and also the words of Mosiah; and they saw that they had been a stiffnecked people, and that they had set at naught the commandments of God;"

"And that they had altered and trampled under their feet the laws of Mosiah, or that which the Lord commanded him to give unto the people; and they saw that their laws had become corrupted, and that they had become a wicked people, insomuch that they were wicked even like unto the Lamanites."

"And because of their iniquity the church had begun to dwindle; and they began to disbelieve in the spirit of prophecy and in the spirit of revelation; and the judgments of God did stare them in the face."]

So, gas and same-sex marriage. I promise this all ties back together somewhere here. In essence the gist of this super long post is that we are waging a war here, one of epic proportions the likes of which you'd see in, oh, Lord of the Rings. Despite all the demands for facts and proof and philosophical debates on the relative merits of the homosexual lifestyle, this war is truly a simple one. It is classic Good vs. Evil. Heterosexual love vs. Homosexual love. Now before you walk away in disgust (that is, if you haven't already, my nemesis readers), hear me out. I am not calling gays evil. Let's clear that up right now. I am calling homosexual love/sex evil. I don't believe that homosexuals are "born with it" insomuch that they are left without choice. That would be Satan's plan and we all know that Satan didn't win in the pre-existence. I believe that homosexuals are born with strong feelings of attraction for the same sex, feelings that can and should be denied and, in some cases, can even be overcome and replaced with appropriate attractions for the opposite gender. Satan, however, being his usual cunning and wily self, has placed into the hearts of men a thought, simple yet powerful in its ability to cut the traditional family structure to the core. "Why?" That's it. "Why should I deny my feelings?" By planting the seed of entitlement to self-gratification in these individuals' hearts and minds, Satan is effectively working toward the destruction of that which he desires above all, but can never have - to be a father and have a family. If all people began to demand concessions based on self-gratification, government would disintegrate and anarchy would rule the day. Black is still black and white is still white, people, and even if the entire population of the world were to scream that black is acceptable, that evil is good, it would still be untrue. Good is the family as the Lord has outlined it to His Prophets and Apostles in The Family: A Proclamation to the World. Evil is any other definition of the family, including same-sex marriages. It's truly as simple as that. So, for now, a battle is won, but the war wages on. And for the members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I would plead that we all make a special effort to stay close to the spirit and follow the chosen and anointed Prophet of the Lord, for therein lies safety and truth.

To wrap this all up nicely, I am including my own father's powerful testimony and a prophetic quote below.

["I bore my testimony to my students today. Those who claim that 'prophets ought to keep their noses out of politics' have never read the Old Testament! Think about Moses, and Elijah, and Isaiah, and Amos, and others; they went directly to their respective political leaders and told them what the Lord wanted them to do, what course to pursue. (Can we limit what God can say about anything?)"

"I testified that the First Presidency and the Council of the Twelve Apostles is the wisest group of leaders on earth (!), and not just from their cumulative intellectual prowess (world-class heart surgeon, nuclear physicist, judge and legal mind, etc., etc.) but because of their direct connection with Heaven, and living by the Spirit every day. I testified that the sifting has begun. And I encouraged them to remember that we’re on the winning team – the Lord’s Team. In all other dispensations the truth has been lost; there has always been an apostasy; but not anymore. The truth is restored to stay. It will never again be lost or taken away from this sphere. This great Cause, in the end, will triumph. So, I warned them, don’t ever quit the Team! In the future, stay with this wisest group on earth – whatever the issue."]

["President Marion G. Romney tells of this incident which happened to him: I remember years ago when I was a Bishop I had President [Heber J.] Grant talk to our ward. After the meeting I drove him home. . . .Standing by me, he put his arm over my shoulder and said: 'My boy, you always keep your eye on the President of the Church, and if he ever tells you to do anything, and it is wrong, and you do it, the Lord will bless you for it.' Then with a twinkle in his eye, he said, 'But you don’t need to worry. The Lord will never let his mouthpiece lead the people astray.'" [In Conference Report, October 1960, 78]]