Thursday, November 20, 2008

Something to ponder

I am still plugging away at organizing--
but nothing new to report about it--
plus i want to write about something else-
something that i have been thinking about-
something that i have been pondering-

Since the election things have been a bit crazy-
My girlfriend and i were talking about this the other night.....
and then I have been reading about this as well.
(this is a very interesting article from a LA police officer who is a member of my church)
and hearing about people who are rather upset
at the way a proposition regarding marriage turned out.
I have seen pictures of protests outside our temples--

It seems that in the name of tolerance your views are tolerated ONLY
if the coincide with what someone else believes.
I have heard of people losing their jobs because of the way they voted.
I have heard of people having their cars and homes vandalized over this.

We have not hid our beliefs on the sanctity we feel for marriage.
This country was founded on religious freedom,
and yet here we are fighting for our right to use our constitutional right to vote
to protect our religious freedoms..

I can't help but wonder why this is not viewed by the police as HATE crimes.
If we were Jewish and this was our synagogue would they allow people to write on it?

--to openly vandalize it?
This picture tears me up--I hate vandalism and graffiti
I don't even let my children write on their bodies in pen
because i believe the body is a temple--
and here someone is openly defacing part of our church grounds.

We are being singled out for what we believe--
The sad thing is this is not the first time this has happened.
In the early years of our church we were chased out of Missouri and had an extermination order placed upon us. They took everything away from us--in order to be rid of us.
They even killed our prophet in hopes of disbanding our church--
All of this because of what we believed.

Now we are being persecuted
for wanting to keep the sanctity of marriage intact.

I feel for those people who are up front in this battle.
I wonder how i would handle it--
if i was challenged at every turn to stand up for my faith--
Would I?

My prayer is that I would be strong enough--
and that those that are being challenged will be also.
It is not an easy thing to be singled out for what you believe.
I find it interesting that the bill passed with 52% in CA
and yet the state is NOT 52% Mormon--
HMMM who else is being targeted for their beliefs?
I love what Paul Bishop who is an LDS cop in CA said about this

"Tolerance is not agreement
and should not be a one way street.
However,
we must still remain tolerant of those
who are intolerant of us.
Recognize the adversary at work here
– making good seem bad
and evil seem good."

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