Rickety

Mostly about Utah

Proposition 8 and the LDS Church

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Yes on 8 yardsign.

A Challenge

The latest challenge to traditional marriage is from Jonathan Lewis, a political activist and entrepreneur from Ohio, who has challenged Hollywood to donate to fight Proposition 8. Lewis said in a statement:

With Election Day five weeks away, we are concerned that the entertainment industry hasn’t stepped up to the plate to fight this unnecessary initiative. My family and I are issuing a $500,000 challenge to the entertainment industry. We will match the next half-million dollars that entertainment industry leaders contribute.

Meanwhile Ron Prentice, Chairman of Protest Marriage, says:

Our powerful first ad, featuring San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsroom, has been viewed tens of thousands of times online, and has helped raise nearly $200,000 from our online supporters. Please watch the ad and keep the momentum going by sending a message to Proposition 8’s Hollywood opponents.

Protect Marriage Fund Raising

Since July 1st. the Yes on 8 campaign has raised about $22.8 million as of Tuesday 7th October. More than 62,000 Californians have contributed their financial support to pass Proposition 8. About two-thirds of all donations received have been $100 or less. Ninety-five percent of all donations have come from within California. The latest YES on Proposition 8 campaign finance report was over 5,000 pages, so large that the office of the California Secretary of State needed extra time to load the report onto their Web site.

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Utah Temples Tour Update

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The Bountiful Temple

The Tour

I am finalizing the Utah Temples Tour. We begin on Saturday 11th. October. I will be blogging via Rickety for each of the four days if you care to follow the tour online. Those definitely going are my sons Paul, Jake, and Dan, Dan’s friend Spencer, and myself. That makes five so we have room for two more in the minivan. My wife is staying behind to help Sarah with Bryson. I have the gas budgeted and two rooms in Monticello taken care of. So there you go, most of the cost is taken care of but you will be expected to buy your own souvenirs. :)

The Details

You can get an idea of the tour by reading the posts from August and September. However there are changes that are reflected in the table below. We will visit 13 temples in 4 days, completing sessions in 11, and traveling 1,526 miles. As a bonus the Sullivan family have requested we take some of their family names with us. On checking the session times it was interesting to find that Provo and Vernal have Monday sessions. Monticello I had to call and they have sessions during the week at 10am, 12 noon, 5pm, and 7pm. What’s the deal here, do they take really long lunches? They also have no clothing rental or cafeteria so it can’t be that they are doing the laundry or cooking the food. I’m getting spoiled living by all these large temples. Anyway, it prompted Jake to go and acquire temple clothes of his own.

Utah Temples Tour
Date Temples Start Finish Miles Map Notes
Oct 11 3 Kaysville Kaysville 154 Map
Oct 14 5 Kaysville Kaysville 125 Map
Oct 15 3 Kaysville Monticello 499 Map Stay over
Oct 16 2 Monticello Kaysville 748 Map

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With My Sons at General Priesthood Meeting

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At the stake center immediately after General Priesthood Meeting.
This rickety photograph above (too many dark suits affected the exposure) was taken in the stake center last night immediately after the conclusion of the General Priesthood Meeting broadcast. I am with my sons (left to right) Paul, Daniel, Jake, and Steven. It is customary for us to go after the broadcast to eat. Judging by the long lines at some eating establishments the custom is widespread. In the photograph below we are at Panda Express in Layton. Left to right are Daniel, Paul, Steven, and Jake. Not shown is my friend Paul Stout and his son Tyler who were eating with us.

As usual our large stake center was filled to overflowing. There were several general authorities speaking via broadcast. Daniel, Jake, and I took notes. I find it helps me concentrate on what is being said. Of course it is also useful as a resource in constructing a blog post. I will just mention two talks here. What struck me about these two talks was the effectiveness of using a phrase throughout the addresses. With Elder Jay E. Jensen it was Arms of Safety. He said:

As I have pondered how to effectively teach the atonement to others, the phrase arms of safety has been useful. When we were baptized and received the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands, we received two ordinances that introduce us to the arms of safety. By coming humbly and fully repentant to sacrament meeting and worthily partaking of the sacrament, we may feel those arms again and again.

President Dieter F. Uchtdorf used the phrase Lift Where You Stand. He said:

Individual recognition is rarely an indication of the value of our service. Readers of the Book of Mormon do not know the names, for example, of any of the 2,000 sons of Helaman. As individuals, they are unnamed. As a group, however, they will always be named as a symbol of honesty and courage. They accomplished together what none of them could have accomplished alone.
That is a lesson for us, brethren of the priesthood. When we stand close together and lift where we stand, when we care more for the glory of the kingdom of God than for our own prestige or pleasure, we can accomplish so much more.

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Using the Scriptural Index to the Latter-day Prophets

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BYU's Scriptural Index.
Today is General Conference and I am typing this on my rickety laptop while I watch the talks on television. Thinking of General Conference, a useful tool I have been using is the Scriptural Index to the Latter-day Prophets. From the website we learn what it is about:

This index links from scriptures to the general conference talks and Journal of Discourses speeches that cite those scriptures. So, for example, suppose you want to know who has cited 1 Ne. 3:7 in general conference; click on the Book of Mormon link at the left and scroll down to 1 Ne. 3; there you’ll find the answer. Who has quoted Matt. 5:48? Use the New Testament index to find out.

We have indexed the scriptures cited by speakers in LDS General Conference between 1942 and the present, and those cited by speakers recorded in the Journal of Discourses between 1839 and 1886. You can sort the citation index by scripture (the default), by speaker, or by date of citation.

This resource is useful when you have a talk to give and have been assigned a topic that revolves around a scripture. You can now very quickly find talks from General Conference that reference your scripture and gain additional quotes to give variety to your talk. It works well for Family Home Evening lessons also. I looked up 1 Corinthians 6:19–20 (see image above) and found ten references. There were also additional links for verses 19 and 20 listed separately. I clicked on the second link, “00−O,73,BKP” that gave me the text of the October (O) conference address in the year 2000 (00) by Elder Boyd K. Packer (BKP) found on page 73 (73) of the Ensign.

In the left panel are a number of useful options. There are lists of topics and speakers. You can filter your searches and a nice touch is the ability to give feedback. You don’t need an instruction manual, just play with it and enjoy the words of the prophets.

Update

There are now iPhone and Android Apps, see here for details.
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Proposition 8 Television Ad

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Protect Marriage has produced their first television ad. According to the Protect Marriage Campaign:

For the past two months, California voters have been presented with twisted, inaccurate and false information about the same-sex marriage issue. Wealthy gay activists and Hollywood liberals like Brad Pitt have spent $5 million on an 8 week media buy airing an issue advertisement designed to create public support for gay marriage. They even got Attorney General Jerry Brown to rewrite the official description of Proposition 8 in order to bias voters against the measure. And last week our opponents began spending millions on their official campaign ads. It’s no wonder that some polls have reported a drop in support for Prop. 8.

Tomorrow, voters will begin to hear the rest of the story.

Which is where the television ad comes in. It appears that the purposes of the ad are threefold:

  1. To educate voters that redefining marriage has broad consequences for all Californians.
  2. To remind voters that gay marriage has been imposed on California, against the express will of over 4 million voters.
  3. To let voters see the arrogance of our opponents who expect voters to accept gay marriage, “whether we like it or not.”

Vote Yes on 8
I watched the video (no longer available) to see if the three purposes were communicated. It was easy to see “the arrogance” of San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom right at the start of the video — you can’t really miss it.

The second purpose is communicated well in the scene with the judges. One point that I will make here is that 4 million does not sound like a lot of people when one considers the total number of voting age Californians. Perhaps it would be better to express the number as a percentage. That would make it clear that it is a majority of the people that voted.

Having law professor Richard Peterson with the backdrop of newspaper articles is a nice touch. It accomplishes the first purpose to educate voters. This is the strongest argument of the three because it informs, however briefly, that there are consequences involved.

Overall  I liked the ad. I wouldn’t have put Mr. Newsom in the video. I would have slipped in a family with children in that time slot. With a message similar to, “Children deserve to be raised by a father and a mother.” I am assuming that there are still traditional families in California. Still, very well done for the short time span.
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Proposition 8: Politics and Religion

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Protect Marriage bumper sticker.

Tax-exempt

Whenever The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints takes a stand on a moral issue the n’er do wells crawl out of the woodwork. The cry rises, “The Church should lose its tax exempt status!” This time around it is Proposition 8 and though I haven’t heard any cries of protest here in Utah, I have read the usual, “Take away their tax-exempt status” in various blog comments.

So it was with interest I read on the Protect Marriage website Joint Statement To California Religious Leaders Regarding Proposition 8. This is a summary of the article.

A Right to Speak

Religious leaders have the right to educate members of their congregation about Proposition 8. Under the federal tax code, religious leaders may speak freely and forcefully on important issues of public policy, including Proposition 8. Pastors and other religious leaders have the right to discuss legislative issues, support or oppose legislation, encourage their members to support or oppose legislation, and offer facts and materials about important legislation as long as the information is educational and is not designed to support a particular political party or candidate. Tax exempt religious organizations may lawfully spend an “insubstantial” amount of their funds (less than 10%) yearly on issue lobbying for Proposition 8.

Voter Registration

Religious organizations have the right to conduct non-partisan voter registration drives. Such registration drives may also include a church setting up a voter registration table or petition signature gathering table in their lobby or mailing registration cards to their members.

Other Rights

Religious organizations cannot currently be forced to perform same-sex marriages. The California Supreme Court stated very clearly in its recent ruling that its opinion does not mean that same-sex couples can demand to be wed in churches across California.

In addition to state rights, churches and religious organizations have substantial protections under the federal constitution and federal law. Even the leading proponents for same-sex marriage agree with this principle.

As well as the Joint Statement there is another document on Protect Marriage called Churches and Politics by the Alliance Defense Fund that goes into much greater detail.

See also:

The Divine Institution of Marriage: A Summary
Protect Marriage Status
Protect Marriage Update
Protect Marriage Campaign
Protect Marriage News
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The Divine Institution of Marriage: A Summary

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Introduction

The original document The Divine Institution of Marriage runs to 3,884 words. This summary attempts to reduce the word count to 1,000 while still giving you the essential reasons why The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is in favor of Proposition 8.

The Church has accepted an invitation to participate in ProtectMarriage and has asked that Church members “do all [they] can to support the proposed constitutional amendment.” At the same time the Church does not condone any kind of hostility towards homosexual men and women.
The First Presidency.

Marriage is Between Husband and Wife

Jesus said:

Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, and said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh? Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. (Matthew 19: 4-6)

Only a man and a woman together have the natural biological capacity to conceive children. Marriage and family are vital instruments for rearing children and teaching them to become responsible adults. Married couples in almost every culture have been granted special benefits aimed primarily at sustaining their relationship and promoting the environment in which children are reared. Co-habitation under any guise or title is not a sufficient reason for defining new forms of marriage.

Extensive studies have shown that in general a husband and wife united in a loving, committed marriage provide the optimal environment for children to be protected, nurtured, and raised. This is not only because of the substantial personal resources that two parents can bring to bear on raising a child, but because of the differing strengths that a father and a mother, by virtue of their gender, bring to the task.

Constitutional Amendments

In recent years in the United States and other countries, a movement has emerged to promote same-sex marriage as an inherent or constitutional right. This is not a small step, but a radical change: instead of society tolerating or accepting private, consensual sexual behavior between adults, advocates of same-sex marriage seek its official endorsement and recognition.

Forty-four states have passed legislation making clear that marriage is between a man and a woman. More than half of those states, twenty-seven in all, have done so by constitutional amendments like the ones pending in California, Arizona, and Florida.

Six out of eight state supreme courts have upheld traditional marriage laws. Only two, Massachusetts and now California, have gone in the other direction, and then, only by the slimmest of margins — 4 to 3 in both cases.

Because this question strikes at the very heart of the family, because it is one of the great moral issues of our time, and because it has the potential for great impact upon the family, the Church is speaking out on this issue, and asking members to get involved.

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Protect Marriage Status

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Our rings with our temple marriage certificate.

Poll Understates Support for Proposition 8

The California Field Poll published in newspapers yesterday significantly understates support for Proposition 8, according to ProtectMarriage.com Campaign Manager Frank Schubert. Schubert’s comments are based on a historic review of Field Poll data and a new study that compared polling to actual results in more than two dozen states, including California, where the marriage issue has appeared on the ballot.

ProtectMarriage.com’s study, released yesterday, shows that pollsters have under-estimated support for marriage measures by an average of seven percentage points in the 26 states studied. In some cases, polls have vastly under-stated support for traditional marriage by as much as 21 percentage points.

The state-by-state study looked at the same-sex marriage issue in 26 states where it has appeared on the ballot, dating back to the first campaign of its kind in Hawaii in 1998. Surveys published by news media outlets prior to an election under-estimated support for traditional marriage by an average of seven points. In only two states (Texas and South Carolina) did pre-election surveys accurately measure voter support for traditional marriage, and in both of those states support stood at 76%. Support for traditional marriage was under-estimated in 23 of the 26 states studied, ranging from a low of 3% in Kentucky and Oregon, to as high as 21% in North Dakota.

In 2000, the Field Poll itself underestimated support for Proposition 22 by at least eight percentage points. That initiative ended up winning with overwhelming voter support — capturing over 61% of the vote. Frank Schubert, who has twice been named the nation’s most valuable consultant by the American Association of Political Consultants, said:

Recent polls published by California media outlets claim that Proposition 8, restoring marriage in California as between a man and a woman, is trailing among voters. These polls, including the Field Poll released this week, suffer from the same historic problem that other polls on this subject around the country have had: they do not accurately reflect the true support for traditional marriage.
I can’t say for sure why polls almost always understate support for traditional marriage, but I believe it is because the media portrays same-sex marriage as being politically correct. Supporters of traditional marriage don’t want pollsters to consider them intolerant, so they mask their true feelings on the issue. The result is that support for traditional marriage rises considerably when voters cast their ballots in the privacy of the voter booth. It is my opinion that the same thing will happen in California when voters cast ballots on Proposition 8.

Earlier surveys from the L.A. Times poll and Survey USA poll have showed Proposition 8/ProtectMarriage.com with a slight lead, at 54% support.

Schubert said:

Our own internal surveys show that we are in a dead-heat on Proposition 8. The campaign manager for the No on 8 campaign has been quoted recently as saying the same thing. This race is very much up for grabs. It’s up to our campaign to convince voters of all the many reasons to restore marriage as between a man and a woman. I remain confident that we will do so.

Source: ProtectMarriage.com email.
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Oquirrh Mountain Temple Revisited

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In May I visited the Oquirrh Mountain Temple construction site. Last week I visited again and took photographs. As you can see the angel Moroni is now atop the temple. The 60,000 square foot temple sits on 11 acres and its exterior will be finished in a light beige granite from China. It was announced 1st October 2005 and the groundbreaking and site dedication was 16th December 2006 by Gordon B. Hinckley. Originally named the South Jordan Utah Temple the name was changed 16th December 2006 to avoid confusion with the Jordan River Utah Temple also in South Jordan.
Oquirrh Mountain Temple in May
Oquirrh Mountain Temple in September
Moroni atop the Oquirrh Mountain Temple
The temple has 63-foot high walls and a single spire reaching 193 feet, topped by the angel Moroni. South Jordan is the only city in the world with two LDS temples (the other being the Jordan River Utah Temple, located approximately 3½ miles to the northeast). The temple will serve 83,000 Latter-day Saints living in the western Salt Lake Valley. The temple is the thirteenth temple built in Utah and the fourth built in the Salt Lake Valley. The temple site property was donated to the church by Kennecott Land.
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