All About Mormons

I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. You may have heard of my church lately relating to proposition 8 and our support of marriage between a man and a woman. One of my basic beliefs is that marriage between a man and a woman is ordained of God. I believe that the family is central to my Heavenly Father’s plan and that procreation is important. I believe that, in order to dwell forever with God, in the highest degree of heaven, I need to get married to a man, and I need to get married in a temple. I am not against homosexuals. I have no hatred towards them, I don’t feel any animosity. My church teaches us to “love one another” (John 13: 34) to “love [our] neighbor as [our]self” (Book of Mormon, Mosiah 23: 15). We are not taught to hate or discriminate. We don’t believe in shunning or hurting or threatening people who have different beliefs than we do. We do believe in marriage between one woman and one man. And our members, through a peaceful, democratic process, have stood to defend our beliefs. They might not be your beliefs. And that is not a problem in my mind. One of the great things about living in America is that people can choose to practice their own morals and values. I will never try to force you to think the way that I think. But I will stand up for what I believe in. Isn’t that my right? It absolutely breaks my heart that the very people who are preaching “tolerance” are targeting members of my church and our incredibly sacred places of worship.