I only blog about once a year, so here goes. I am pregnant with our second child, a boy. His name is going to be Alexander Ian Herman and we will call him Xander. I got pregnant in January and played tennis until the end of August. I was due today, but no real contractions since a few I had on Saturday night. I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow and we'll see how it goes. Zia was 10 days late, so I'm not holding my breath.
On a non-personal note, the LDS church had conference this weekend and again a Mormon leader said some offensive remarks toward the gay community. I understand that conference is for members, but why bring up this issue again?
His comment was "
There are those today who not only tolerate but advocate voting to change laws that would legalize immorality, as if a vote would somehow alter the designs of God's laws and nature."
First of all, there are all sorts of things that are viewed as immoral by the LDS church that are legal -- drinking, pornography, masturbation, smoking, sex before marriage and more -- and the reason these things are legal is because of personal choice and FREEDOM. The fact that the church is involved in taking away people's choice is ridiculous and somewhat hypocritical.
He also said "
Some suppose that they were pre-set and cannot overcome what they feel are inborn tendencies toward the impure and unnatural. Not so! Why would our Heavenly Father do that to anyone? Remember, He is our Father."
Also, these type of statements are harmful to young Mormons who are confused about their sexuality and preferences. The insensitive comments can lead to a crisis of faith at the least and Suicide at the worst. Although the church has made these type of comments before, it has not been as blatantly mean and homophobic as Boyd K. Packer's comments.
Since religion and fact are not compatible this comment is full of holes. There are studies and evidence that gay people are born that way and the idea that it is a choice in any way is so silly. Why would people choose to be a persecuted minority? Does he really believe that Heavenly Father does things to people - like cause deaths and miscarriages and disease? I guess some religious people believe that, but many don't believe in a God that tortures people for fun, mabye Mr. Packer does.
"
History demonstrates over and over again that moral standards cannot be changed by battle and cannot be changed by ballot."
On DeseretNews.com a reader said "Maybe he is using different history books than the rest of us, but moral standards are almost always changed by ballot or by battle. As society advances, develops increased liberty, and follows reason rather than dogma, positive changes are voted into law and then enforced, or they are won by fiat. Examples include the creation of a Constitution, revolutionary wars to create democracies where was tyranny, the legislation of civil liberties regardless of race, giving women the right to vote, the magna carta; there are literally hundreds of examples. Uplifting moral standards through reason-guided legislation is the norm." JBarnes of Kaysville
Reason and religion are opposites, so it makes sense that religious comments cannot be backed by reason. It can be hard to argue with religion, but sometimes we've got to point out comments that are so outrageous, especially when they are told to millions of people.
