When one has spent Sunday evening calling voters, asking them to vote yes on 8; when one has spent their time Saturday morning canvassing neighborhoods putting door hanger cards of "remember to vote" with the additional encouragement of "Yes on 8"; when one has spent time on street corners at busy intersections holding up signs and receiving profanity, middle finger gestures, accusations of "homophobia," "bigotry," "intolerance," and hatred; when one spends time guarding and monitoring their property beyond the usual measure along with their yard signs that are routinely stolen or vandalized---when after such an effort is taken, as many have been doing through this past week and longer in California, it is most discouraging to find one with such prominence such as Steve Young, who should be on the right side, on the wrong side.
Before I condemn Steve Young and his wife, I have to concede that there might be some divine design in this. Ezra Taft Benson quoted George Q. Cannon, illustrating a concept that for His purposes, the Lord may and certainly can blind or hide the truth from some for a time. Here is that concept stated by Pres. Benson quoting Elder Whitney:
“Perhaps the Lord needs such men on the outside of His Church to help it along,” said the late Elder Orson F. Whitney of the Quorum of the Twelve. “They are among its auxiliaries, and can do more good for the cause where the Lord has placed them, than anywhere else. … Hence, some are drawn into the fold and receive a testimony of the truth; while others remain unconverted … the beauties and glories of the gospel being veiled temporarily from their view, for a wise purpose. The Lord will open their eyes in His own due time. God is using more than one people for the accomplishment of His great and marvelous work. The Latter-day Saints cannot do it all. It is too vast, too arduous for any one people. … We have no quarrel with the Gentiles. They are our partners in a certain sense.” (Conference Report, April 1928, p. 59.) (Ezra Taft Benson, “Civic Standards for the Faithful Saints,” Ensign, Jul 1972, 59)
Now, how can Steve Young and his wife being wrong on Prop 8 be possibly a move "by divine design?" I'm not saying it is, perhaps they will have heavy accounting before the Lord, lacking faith to understand and comprehend and side with the Lord's prophet. But, I wonder if by chance there is a silver lining in their stance here. The Media and enemies of the Church would like to make the Church out to appear as a "totalitarian" and "hierarchical" institution that demands conformity in "political" issues. Accusations in the media might be ready to smear the church if Prop 8 passes as being a near dictatorial entity mandating how it's members vote. There have been strong political forces for a long time scheming at how to remove the Church's tax exempt status, and that push was strong 8 years ago with Prop 22. Smear campaigns accusing the church and its leadership of "domineering" and coercing a prescribed stance at the polls are tempered and muted to a strong degree when it is shown that a descendent of Brigham Young and his wife oppose an issue that is strongly supported by the church. There, that is perhaps a silver lining. I'll not condemn the Young family, but lament their lack of understanding on this issue, and lack of faith in living prophets.
Mrs Young is dead wrong. She believes not in "discrimination." She'll have to be honest in a coming day as she sees the religion she professes to belong to being not only discriminated against, but persecuted and criminalized for its doctrine, which does not recognize gay marriage---and court rulings will be made against the Church criminalizing them for such doctrines, obliterating the 1st Amendment which states:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
Oops---somehow Mrs. Steve Young failed to grasp how that simple, beautiful, Divinely inspired paragraph is and will be undermined with failure of Prop 8. The Young's fail to grasp that Congress, cannot make any law respecting religion, nor prohibiting the free exercise thereof; and moreover, wicked judges legislating from the bench will take and have taken that power and will rule against Churches in California. LDS Temples shut down? You bet, it happened once before in the late 19th century.
When the Soviet District Court in San Francisco recently ruled that parental rights are "severed" beyond the threshold of the school---when that Stalin/Mao/Hitlarian ruling can be tolerated and made in a US Federal District Court, then we have everything to fear regarding what will happen in short order if Prop 8 fails. Law professors numbering not few, have been warning of the dire situation ahead of us if voters, based on false concepts and arguments, defeat Prop 8, being suckered by sophistry in campaign slogans espousing "fairness" and "equality." Their "fairness" and "equality" will soon be a state run tyranny upon religion, as the Official State Religion of Secularism trumps what it shall rule as "heretical" views, (those of Christianity), regarding marriage and a whole other host of associated issues.
As we seek to grasp how the Young family can be so messed up on this issue, we too lament the failure that "wise men" have not been sought out and upheld from which we can choose to fill the highest executive office in the land. Our choice is by design of secret combinations one of a Socialist and a National Socialist for president of the United States. This is a dismal election in terms of Gadianton Team A, vs. Gadianton Team B. The people will be conned to vote for the "lesser of two evils" and continue to uphold the one party system of Republicrats who are unified in all major policies, who only pretend to oppose each other at election time with fake, scripted debates and their phony "controlled opposition." Their theatrics work every four years like a charm. Heavens, four years ago we had "Skull and Bones Bush, vs. Skull and Bones Kerry, fraudulently placed against each other. That was no choice. And what oaths have they both made to that secret society, of which neither would discuss with the late Tim Russert, RIP.
President Packer has numerous times in the last half decade stated "we cannot ignore Moroni's warning that we 'must awake to a sense of our awful situation.'" Of course most LDS People don't seem to grasp what he's talking about, even after Gordon B. Hinckley admonished the whole church to "read again" the marvelous Book of Mormon before year end in 2005. President Hinckley even sought to help us grasp what the book would teach us, citing "scheming leaders" of whom the people succumbed, and he also stated the book was "as current as the morning newspaper." Current as the Morning Newspaper? Most truly don't think so, or they fail to make the parallels and obvious connections.
Ezra Taft Benson too mentioned Moroni's warning that Pres. Packer has been citing. In the last address Ezra Taft Benson stood at the pulpit and delivered under power of his own voice just before being "withdrawn from among the people," he warned:
“I testify that wickedness is rapidly expanding in every segment of our society. (See D&C 1:14- 16; 84:49-53.) It is more highly organized, more cleverly disguised, and more powerfully promoted than ever before. Secret combinations lusting for power, gain, and glory are flourishing. A secret combination that seeks to overthrow the freedom of all lands, nations, and countries is increasing its evil influence and control over America and the entire world. (See Ether 8:18-25.)” (Conference Report, Oct.. 1988, Ensign, Nov. 1988, p. 87.)
Devoted patriots, who love equity, truth, and justice are grieved, having awakened "to a sense of our awful situation" and lamenting that these secret combinations are now "above" us. These secret combinations are using our sympathies to sell "fairness" in marriage as an instrument that with some court rulings ahead will criminalize the LDS Church for its doctrines, and bring it clashing against the government in regards to its free practice of religious ceremonies in its sacred temples. Such "discrimination" already has taken place, where the Church's leadership was murdered and imprisoned, temples and properties seized, it's people driven by "executive extermination order" and mindless and "tolerant" mobs destroyed, looted, raped, robbed, and plundered the saints.
Surely, we will be judged by how we vote. We have that franchise, and we do not lay our sins upon the head of a king, we must account for our own voice. Citizens in what is now merely a remnant of a Republic in the USA, must account for their voice as did ancient Nephites who were given a government "by voice of the people" by their last righteous king, Mosiah. He taught and warned:
And now behold I say unto you, it is not expedient that such abominations should come upon you.
Therefore, choose you by the voice of this people, judges, that ye may be judged according to the claws which have been given you by our fathers, which are correct, and which were given them by the hand of the Lord.
Now it is not common that the voice of the people desireth anything contrary to that which is right; but it is common for the lesser part of the people to desire that which is not right; therefore this shall ye observe and make it your law—to do your business by the voice of the people.
And if the time comes that the voice of the people doth choose iniquity, then is the time that the judgments of God will come upon you; yea, then is the time he will visit you with great destruction even as he has hitherto visited this land. (Mosiah 29:24-27.)
May we pray, and hope and long for a place of "refuge from the storm" coming against the Family. If Prop 8 fails, we shall begin to see an exponential increase in the forces of nature upheaving themselves, as the prophesied judgments of God are dished out to a greater degree in adherence to His Word of warning through prophets. Certainly the most severe and "desolating" judgments ahead will take place only after a "way of escape" is given to the righteous. In that same "I Testify" talk of Ezra Taft Benson, his last by his own voice, he too seemed to see our day:
I testify that the church and kingdom of God is increasing in strength. Its numbers are growing, as is the faithfulness of its faithful members. It has never been better organized or equipped to perform its divine mission.
I testify that as the forces of evil increase under Lucifer’s leadership and as the forces of good increase under the leadership of Jesus Christ, there will be growing battles between the two until the final confrontation. As the issues become clearer and more obvious, all mankind will eventually be required to align themselves either for the kingdom of God or for the kingdom of the devil. As these conflicts rage, either secretly or openly, the righteous will be tested. God’s wrath will soon shake the nations of the earth and will be poured out on the wicked without measure. (See JS—H 1:45; D&C 1:9.) But God will provide strength for the righteous and the means of escape; and eventually and finally truth will triumph. (See 1 Ne. 22:15–23.)
In considering a "refuge from the storm" that rages against the family, and we're going to see it get much worse, we can delight at knowing such a place will happily be found in our future, though one does not know what a struggle might ensue to bring it about. Boyd K. Packer prophesied:
"The ultimate goal and purpose of the adversary, who has 'great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time,' is to disrupt, disturb, and to destroy the home and the family. Like a ship without a rudder, without a compass, we drift from the family values which have anchored us in the past. Now we are caught in a current so strong that unless we correct our course, civilization as we know it will surely be wrecked to pieces.
"...The Family is safe within the church. We are not in doubt as to what course we must follow. It was given in the beginning, and guidance from on high is renewed as need may be.
"As we continue on our course, these things will follow as night the day: The distance between the Church and a world set on a course that we cannot follow will steadily increase. Some will fall away into apostasy, break their covenants, and replace the plan of redemption with their own rules.
"Across the world, those who now come by the tens of thousands will inevitably come as a flood to where the family is safe. Here they will worship the Father in the name of Christ, by the gift of the Holy Ghost, and know that the gospel is the great plan of happiness, of redemption, of which I bear witness in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
(Boyd K. Packer "The Father and The Family" May Ensign, 1994. pp.19, 21.)
May Steve Young and his wife in mercy be in a location where the family is safe. They are undermining its safety in their current stance, being seduced by beguiling arguments, being conned by the "fairness" and "equality" falsehoods being dished out. They unwittingly lay open the door to the criminalizing of their own religion.
Neil A. Maxwell proved himself "visionary" and certainly "prophetic" with this utterance in 1978:
"Make no mistake about it, brothers and sisters, in the months and years ahead, events are likely to require each member to decide whether or not he will follow the First Presidency. Members will find it more difficult to halt longer between two opinions. President Marion G. Romney said, many years ago, that he had 'never hesitated to follow the counsel of the Authorities of the Church even though it crossed my social, professional or political life.'
"This is hard doctrine, but it is particularly vital doctrine in a society which is becoming more wicked. In short, brothers and sisters, not being ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ includes not being ashamed of the prophets of Jesus Christ. . . . Your discipleship may see the time when such religious convictions are discounted. . . . This new irreligious imperialism seeks to disallow certain opinions simply because those opinions grow out of religious convictions.
"Resistance to abortion will be seen as primitive. Concern over the institution of the family will be viewed as untrendy and unenlightened. ... Before the ultimate victory of the forces of righteousness, some skirmishes will be lost. Even in these, however, let us leave a record so that the choices are clear, letting others do as they will in the face of prophetic counsel. There will also be times, happily, when a minor defeat seems probable, but others will step forward, having been rallied to rightness by what we do. We will know the joy, on occasion, of having awakened a slumbering majority of the decent people of all races and creeds which was, till then, unconscious of itself. Jesus said that when the fig trees put forth their leaves, 'summer is nigh.' Thus warned that summer is upon us, let us not then complain of the heat." (Neal A. Maxwell, “A More Determined Discipleship,” Ensign, Feb 1979, 69–73 An address delivered at Brigham Young University, 10 October 1978)
It is hard to imagine that Steve Young and his wife would make such a monstrous error, "wooed with sophistry" of the world. Let us hope that Prop 8 passes, which will not deny rights to gay couples. Their rights will remain in tact with passage of the proposition, only their "unions" will be denied the official legal designation as being a "marriage." This measure puts in place a great buffer and protection from the trashing of the 1st Amendment, regarding any "law" regarding religion that "shall not be made" either by Congress nor the now Soviet US District Courts.
[Note: subsequent to the authoring of this article above comes this news coverage from KSL.com in Salt Lake City where Steve Young clarifies his side of the matter, as opposed to the opinion of his wife. It would be hoped she can come to understand that her brother has "domestic partner" rights, but she is conned into upholding an agenda with teeth inherent to destroy the 1st Amendment, giving inroads to the courts to "make law" (prohibited in the 1st Amendment) "regarding religion and the free exercise thereof."]
Excerpt from Ezra Taft Benson
“Perhaps the Lord needs such men on the outside of His Church to help it along,” said the late Elder Orson F. Whitney of the Quorum of the Twelve. “They are among its auxiliaries, and can do more good for the cause where the Lord has placed them, than anywhere else. … Hence, some are drawn into the fold and receive a testimony of the truth; while others remain unconverted … the beauties and glories of the gospel being veiled temporarily from their view, for a wise purpose. The Lord will open their eyes in His own due time. God is using more than one people for the accomplishment of His great and marvelous work. The Latter-day Saints cannot do it all. It is too vast, too arduous for any one people. … We have no quarrel with the Gentiles. They are our partners in a certain sense.” (Conference Report, April 1928, p. 59.) (Ezra Taft Benson, “
"The ultimate goal and purpose of the adversary, who has 'great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time,' is to disrupt, disturb, and to destroy the home and the family. Like a ship without a rudder, without a compass, we drift from the family values which have anchored us in the past. Now we are caught in a current so strong that unless we correct our course, civilization as we know it will surely be wrecked to pieces.
"Make no mistake about it, brothers and sisters, in the months and years ahead, events are likely to require each member to decide whether or not he will follow the First Presidency. Members will find it more difficult to halt longer between two opinions. President Marion G. Romney said, many years ago, that he had 'never hesitated to follow the counsel of the Authorities of the Church even though it crossed my social, professional or political life.'