VOTE, VOTE, VOTE

No matter who or what you politically support, I encourage you to vote and make your voice heard on Nov. 4th! I have read all sorts of info on Proposition 8 including my own family and friend's blogs. And after much personal thought, I'd like to share what I have learned and am frustrated with in regards to Proposition 8 and its attachments to the LDS church.

I agree with Mel's words here

Here are a few excerpts from interesting articles -
-- "Latter-day Saints are free to disagree with their church on the issue (Prop 8) without facing any sanction", said L. Whitney Clayton of the LDS Quorum of the Seventy. "We love them and bear them no ill will."
-- "When churches or church leaders choose to enter the public sector to engage in debate on a matter of public policy, they should be admitted to the debate and they should expect to participate in it on the same basis as all other participants. In other words, if churches or church leaders choose to oppose or favor a particular piece of legislation, their opinions should be received on the same basis as the opinions offered by other knowledgeable organizations or persons, and they should be considered on their merits. By the same token, churches and church leaders should expect the same broad latitude of discussion of their views that conventionally applies to everyone else’s participation in public policy debates. A church can claim access to higher authority on moral questions, but its opinions on the application of those moral questions to specific legislation will inevitably be challenged by and measured against secular-based legislative or political judgments.” Dallin H. Oaks (Ensign, Oct 1992)
-- "I do expect the church to face a high cost - both externally and internally - for its prominent part in the campaign," said LDS sociologist. "The internal cost will consist of ruptured relationships between and among LDS members of opposing positions, sometimes by friends of long standing and equally strong records of church activity," Mauss said. "In some cases, it will result in disaffection and disaffiliation from the church because of the ways in which their dissent has been handled by local leaders." Robert Rees, a former LDS bishop in California, says he has not witnessed this much divisiveness in the church over a political issue in the last 50 years. Whatever the vote's outcome, Rees says, "it will take considerable humility, charity and forgiveness to heal the wounds caused by this initiative." (Salt Lake Tribune)
-- Literature written by Proposition 8 proponents are freely distributed in Mormon wards (very inappropriate in my opinion), giving the impression the church approves it, but much of it is "misinformation," said Morris Thurston, an LDS attorney in Orange County. Thurston has circulated a point-by-point refutation to an anonymously authored document that has been widely disseminated by Mormons, "Six Consequences . . . If Proposition 8 Fails." Thurston argues that most of its arguments are either untrue or misleading. "The general church authorities I have spoken to have been understanding and compassionate," he said. "They counsel respect, civility and openmindedness toward those who disagree with the church's position."
-- "I am so grieved to see whom my church has chosen as friends in this campaign to pass Proposition 8," said Carol Lynn Pearson, a longtime advocate for gay Mormons. "We have gotten into bed with some of the most extreme of the 'Religious Right,' some of whom are well known as hate mongers." This was not a "mutually affectionate liaison," Pearson said, sharing quotes from her own diary. "We have been raped by organizations that hate the Mormons but love our money and our energy. Now we find ourselves pregnant with fear and even hate. The rhetoric we use, they have put in our mouths, words based more in fear than in fact." (Salt Lake Tribune)

- GREAT SITE - You will be amazed what you will learn...

Proposition 8 is definitely a personal matter, not a religious one. Everyone has the right to believe and express that belief as they see fit, but I would encourage you to fully examine all the information you can before voting on this or any other measure!!