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CAROLINA - I copied and pasted the following paragraph from your website........ “ ‘We say again, as we have said many times before, that we believe that all men are the children of the same God, and that it is a moral evil for any person or group of persons to deny any human being the right to gainful employment, to full educational opportunity, and to every privilege of citizenship.
“ ‘There is in this Church no doctrine, belief, or practice that is intended to deny the enjoyment of full civil rights by any person regardless of race, color, or creed.
“ ‘We call upon all men, everywhere, both within and outside the Church, to commit themselves to the establishment of full civil equality for all of God’s children. Anything less than this defeats our high ideal of the brotherhood of man.’ (President Hugh B. Brown, 6 October 1963. Improvement Era, Dec. 1963, p. 1058.)
Wouldn't the churchs stance on proposition 8 contradict the statement above where every man/woman is entitled to 'full civil equality'
regardless of how we morally feel about the matter?
JOEL - Even though that statement was made in 1963, when noone could ever imagine that gay people would be allowed the right to marry each other, it is still true today. The Church will never deny the lawful right of gay people to marry each other if they want. However, as a private organization the Church does reserve the right to restrict members privilges within the church, of those who choose to disobey the doctrines of God. Homosexual behavior is against the doctrines of God.
For example, prostitution and gambling are legal in the state of Nevada. The Church does not interfere with a person's legal right to engage in those practices in that state if they want. However, any member of the church who is involved in such sinful things cannot expect to enjoy full active membership in the church.
The Church also encourages its members as citizens to take a stand on moral principles and do all they can to legally effect changes in laws that are of a moral nature. The Church's support for Prop 8 doesn't mean it wants to deny a person's legal rights; it only wants to legally change the law so that same sex marriage is no longer identified in the law as a legal right. Gays see it as taking away their civil rights; those against same gender marriage see it as correcting an interpretation of the law that should never have happened in the first place.
If prop 8 fails, same gender marriage will remain a legal right and the Church will accept that decision. If prop 8 wins, same gender marriage will no longer be legal and denying gays civil marriages will not be in violation of their civil rights. Of course a lot of this depends on how a person defines "civil rights".
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