There are some days when it's really discouraging for me to get on Facebook. This week has had a few of those days which have been marked by the increase in conflict and propaganda. This week, it's about the constitutionality of gay marriage.
My first grief is for the conflict and strife that such sensitive topics engender. I'm tired of the war of words and philosophies that inundates such platforms for social interaction. It seems like there's no way to contribute without raising one's voice, or without getting messy from all the mud-slinging that goes on. No one seems interested in changing their own mind, or in understanding the other person's perspective. Involvement in (or observation of) this just doesn't feel right; it makes my heart queasy inside.
My next grief is specific to this issue, and is hard to articulate.
If I were like many of my classmates growing up, I might be mildly religious, but mostly bathed in the religion of acceptance and tolerance for everybody, no matter who they are and what they believe, without thinking much about God unless things go wrong. I see some of my friends who zealously and lovingly call out for marriage equality for everyone, and I firmly believe that God loves these people, His children, and appreciates their compassionate hearts that reach out to extend to others the same happiness and fulfillment that they feel. They have good, beautiful, wonderfully loving hearts, and that is Godlike.
Those values do resonate with me, and I would join with them except for a couple important differences in my beliefs. The most important one is that I believe that my church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, is headed by Jesus Christ, and that He directs His church by revelation given to church authorities. The church leaders have been clear for years that marriage is ordained of God and is an exclusive union between one man and one woman, and that marriages are about creating a loving family unit, and that children need and deserve both a father and a mother. These leaders and authorities have left no ambiguity about their stance on legalizing gay marriage, and when they speak in harmony, they speak for God. Sometimes their counsel doesn't make sense when it is first given, but clarity often comes with later, confirming experience. Even if that clarity doesn't come while I'm alive on earth, I will still do my best to stick close to the counsel of the prophets, even when it doesn't always make sense. It both confuses and saddens me when I see fellow Latter-Day Saints go in direct opposition to what God's representatives have passed on from Him; it just doesn't make sense to me when the church has been so clear on what the right answer is.
I'm just a young, newly-married, middle-class, college-educated, dessert-loving, Latter-Day Saint, Midwestern-American woman with limited experience in the wide variety of life there is in the world. There's just too much of it for one mortal person to experience and comprehend. I don't pretend to know everything there is to know about life. That's why I have to rely on faith, because there are so many things that I don't understand. When I decide what to have faith in, God's prophet seems like a pretty reliable source of information. I can directly pray to God Himself to get revelation as well, and use that to guide me. It seems like a lot of this life is about recognizing how little we can do by ourselves.
Anyway, that's my take on the legalization of gay marriage. Take it how you will. My point in sharing this is to hopefully promote understanding of one viewpoint, and maybe introduce you if it's one you hadn't considered.
On a related note, I'm really tired of "wiser, more enlightened folk" saying that because I'm religious, I therefore don't have a brain and cannot be trusted to make correct, informed choices for myself, unless those choices include "liberation" from my religion and aligning my views with theirs. Good grief, what kind of "tolerance" are they promoting? What hypocrites they are for their narrow-minded prejudice against religious faith! This kind of bigotry and disenfranchisement shouldn't be acceptable to our "enlightened," modern society. End of rant.
