Over the past few days, I've watched
the newsrooms and my social media feeds fill up with story after
story and post after post of opinions about marriage equality. I have
some very opinionated friends, who openly voice said opinions, and
the cognitive dissonance with each new opinion is giving me one
serious headache. Just so you have an idea of where I'm coming from,
I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I
believe that marriage should be between one man and one woman. I
believe and know a lot of things because of my spiritual studies. I
also believe I shouldn't force my beliefs on others, and that it's
not my place to pass judgement on the beliefs of others; that belief
comes directly from what I've learned at church.
While I am a believer in the sanctity
of marriage, I also believe in a God who allows us to choose for
ourselves. In fact, our agency is fundamental in His plan for us. In
the pre-existence, where all of us existed as spirits before coming
here to earth, our Heavenly Father presented a plan for us to obtain
physical bodies and learn proper spiritual and physical stewardship,
and that involved coming to earth with the freedom to make choices of
our own and learn from those choices, whether they be right or wrong,
and having a Savior and Redeemer who would help us return to our
Father. There would be great risks, but also great rewards. Lucifer,
or Satan, our spiritual brother (for God is the father of our spirits
and his) presented another plan which took away all risk, but also
took away all choice and all ability to learn. One-third (33%,
people!) of our spiritual brothers and sisters wanted to follow
Lucifer's plan, and were allowed to make the choice to follow
him. The other two-thirds of us chose our Heavenly Father's plan.
There was a great war, and who do you suppose won? Long story short,
we're here, and we are all, in one way or another, trying to force
others to make certain choices (myself included, I'm sure, though I
try not to).
If I truly believe in a loving Heavenly
Father who gave us everything we have, including a free and peaceful
land and the freedom and ability to choose both then and now, how can
I believe that every aspect of our lives should be controlled by
legislation? I don't think it's the government's place to define or
control marriage between human beings (within reason. Don't take this
to mean that I think we should be marrying off twelve year olds or
anything harmful or unhealthy, whether it be emotionally, physically,
or otherwise). Maybe some people will see my thinking as flawed, and
that's fine, but I just don't even think this decision should be up
to the government. Marriage is often very closely tied with a
person's spirituality and/or religion, and religion and government
often do not mix well. One of the best things about living in this
country is having the right to worship how, where, or what we may. If
one church allows same-sex marriage, does that mean all churches have
to? Just because someone else's definition of worship doesn't match
up with mine, should I want it to be made illegal? Each side has such
strong opinions about everything, but so many seem at odds with
themselves.
Lawmakers want to reform healthcare,
but they want to throw in other, unrelated legislation and make
themselves exempt from the whole process.
Leftists are perfectly okay with
murdering babies in utero, but they don't want people to have guns to
protect themselves from criminals who will get guns no matter what
the law is. That's why they're criminals: they're not afraid to do
illegal things.
Right wings want to be able to keep
their guns, but they think it's their business to define love. No one
has ever been able to truly define love in words; love is an action.
Love is a state of being. Love is different for everyone.
People want laws to control others, but
they don't want to be controlled.
What are we trying to do to ourselves?
I may not have all the answers, but I'm not convinced that passing
more laws and handing down more Supreme Court decisions is really
going to help.
