Me and My Bubble

I am not a person who likes politics...at all. And I like to live in what I lovingly refer to as my bubble. I don't watch the news or read the news because I don't want to hear about all of the bad or controversial things going on in the world. I tell Josh the same thing when he comes home and wants to tell me the latest story he read about on CNN.com-I don't want to hear it. I want to live in my happy little contented bubble and keep seeing the world through my rose colored lenses.

But alas, this time I have to come out of my bubble-like it or not. Many of you know, in fact I have talked at least via email to many of you, that marriage is being threatened in California currently. On November 4th the state of California will vote to amend the constitution to state that marriage is defined as between a man and a woman.

I believe that marriage between a man and a woman is ordained of God and is central to his plan for His children. I truly believe that we must protect the institution of marriage.

In California we (we being of course those of us in favor of marriage between a man and a woman) are working hard to do what we can to protect the institution of marriage. I have personally made phone calls to registered voters to tell them about Proposition 8-to give them the facts, find out how they plan to vote and do a little persuading where needed. Not something that I like to do in my spare time but I am doing it because I know that it matters. Josh has walked and knocked doors to do the same. We have a bumper sticker and a yard sign proclaiming YES on 8. We have donated money, we have prayed, we have fasted, we have talked to friends and we will continue to do these things.

Tonight I attended a fireside about this effort. Elders Ballard and Cook of the Quorum of the 12 and Elder Clayton from the 70 spoke about the importance of this amendment and, here is the fun part, asked the young people of the church to use the internet to spread the word and help gain support for this cause. I can do that and so can you! I haven't posted about this on my blog before because pretty much everyone I know who reads my blog already agrees with me on this issue and hardly any of you live in CA. But as I listened to Elders Ballard and Cook tonight I thought of a plan. I am posting this on my blog and "tagging" ALL of you to post it on yours. In your own words or use mine, I don't care but it could have a ripple effect if you all post about this on your blog and then ask others to post on theirs too. Or use your facebook or myspace accounts or email or whatever you can do.

Here are a few facts:
Proposition 8 (vote YES!) does not remove any rights from the gay community. It simply defines marriage as between a man and a woman. This truly isn't anti-gay. We aren't condeming them, we are simply stating that we believe in the sanctity of marriage between a man and a woman. We can still love the people out there who are gay, but we don't have to embrace their lifestyle choice.

Should the amendment not pass, children can and will be taught in public schools about gay marriage and worse, homosexual sexuality.

Churches who refuse to support gay marriage could lose their tax exempt status and the churches with adoption agencies could be forced to adopt babies to gay couples. (Or quit adoptions altogether.)

(All of the above statements were said tonight by the General Authorities.)

What you can do?

Remind anyone you know in CA to register to vote and vote YES on prop 8 on Nov. 4th

Spread the word on your own blog, facebook, myspace, email, anywhere-you never know where the ripple could go and how it might help

Donate money to the Protect Marriage Coalition here: http://www.protectmarriage.com/ They are working on commercials currently that the polls are showing ARE affecting voters in a good way! But they need more money. This is an easy way for people outside of CA to help.

Pray for the amendment to pass.

If you want to educate yourself more on this issue, the church (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) has set up a website with vidoes and information for everyone: http://www.preservingmarriage.org/

In fact, read their words there because I am sure they said it better than I can.

At the close of the meeting tonight we sang a hymn. I thought the choice of hymn was a wonderful and powerful reminder of why we do what we do. We sang "Let us all Press On" and the words struck me in a new way:

Let us all press on in the work of the Lord, That when life is o'er we may gain a reward;
In the fight for right let us wield a sword, The mighty sword of truth.
Fear not, though the enemy deride; Courage, for the Lord is on our side.
We will heed not what the wicked may say, But the Lord alone we will obey.

It felt great to sing that among my fellow Californians and feel the strength of a group of people willing to stand up for what is right.

Vote YES for Prop 8