This excerpt from the Church's web site I find to be analogous to something one of the Brethren, Elder Mark E. Petersen, said at BYU before a group of seminary and institute teachers in 1954.
First the current excerpt statement over Prop 8:
"The Church’s opposition to same-sex marriage neither constitutes nor condones any kind of hostility toward gays and lesbians. Even more, the Church does not object to rights for same-sex couples regarding hospitalization and medical care, fair housing and employment rights, or probate rights, so long as these do not infringe on the integrity of the traditional family or the constitutional rights of churches."
Now Elder Petersen's comment about segregation:
“Now we are generous with the negro. We are willing that the Negro have the highest kind of education. I would be willing to let every Negro drive a cadillac if they could afford it. I would be willing that they have all the advantages they can get out of life in the world. But let them enjoy these things among themselves, I think the Lord segregated the Negro and who is man to change that segregation? It reminds me of the scripture on marriage, 'what God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.' Only here we have the reverse of the thing— WHAT GOD HATH SEPARATED, LET NOT MAN BRING TOGETHER AGAIN.”
Maybe in fifty more years or so we will be willing to offer Gay couples more than Cadillacs.
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My Zen teacher gave a very beautiful talk yesterday on the subject of human diversity and his observations from officiating at several gay and lesbian weddings last month. I have a hard copy of it and will try to scan it so it can be easily shared. One point he made that I had not considered is that no one can deny something to other people and still keep it for themselves. If what is sacred in one's marriage is contingent denying that opportunity to others, amen to the sanctity of that marriage. This makes Tuesday a pretty bleak day not just for gay marriage but for all marriages. It wasn't just an offense to gay people and their families, it was an offense to straight people.
Anyway, I'll try to send it along sometime.
The demographics I saw for the vote in CA for Prop 8 said a vast majority of those who voted for it were fifty years old and above while those against it were new voters and younger. The CNN analyst concluded in a decade it could go the other way. I guess he was saying it was a generational thing. Civil rights for Blacks in my thinking and observations has been that way in America. Here we lived for nearly two hundred year denying civil rights to a Black minority and for a 130 years we denied them equal status with regard to the priesthood. I guess this makes Barack Obama's election very special for so many of us. Regrettably, who can say how many decades more must pass before marriage is granted to all.
That is a striking juxtaposition Dad. Thanks. It is almost a little twilight-zone-ish that the two quotes are so similar.
I like those thoughts Emily. I'm going to adopt that even on a more general level as a question/mantra: Is what is sacred to me contingent on denying it to others?
Regarding the outcome, there are some interesting if yet unfortunate ideas floating around. If you haven't heard, something like 70% of African American voters voted for prop 8, and they turned out in record numbers for Obama.
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