Do you notice a trend in this conversation that has taken place in the last 20 years?
Traditionalists in 1993: “We are worried that the increasing acceptance of and concentration on sexuality in the culture will result in the normalization of behavior that is sinful. It will be increasingly difficult to maintain traditional standards of morality and sexuality in the home because there are prominent counter-examples everywhere. Clearly sinful behavior is becoming ‘normal’ and even being ‘glorified.’ ”
The world: “Don’t be such a prude. This won’t affect you and your family, and aren’t you in favor of freedom? People expressing their sexuality does not affect you.”
Traditionalists in the mid-1990s: “Civil unions are OK in principle, but they could lead to gay marriage, which would decrease the importance of traditional marriage. There is a better solution, which is to allow consenting adults to just write out contracts to leave money to each when they die and to write out other contracts related to their shared belongings. Hospitals could also be petitioned to allow close friends to visit their loved ones. We don’t need to fool around with family law.”
The world: “Shut up you homophobe. And by the way, civil unions will NOT lead to gay marriage, which almost nobody wants.”
Traditionalists in 1995: “The Church has just put out a Proclamation to the World on the Family. It says very clearly that marriage is between ‘man and woman’ and that gender is an eternal character of men and women. Phew. Now, latter-day Saints know exactly where the prophets stand on this issue, and active members of the Church will of course follow the prophet.”
The world: “Whatever. The prophets are also racists. Nobody wants gay marriage anyway. Modern people just want civil unions, which you are obviously a homophobe if you oppose.”
Traditionalists in the 1990s: “Whoa, Hawaii is trying to get gay marriage approved, but the people there don’t want it. They just passed a state constitutional amendment to prohibit it. This is an alarming trend.”
The world: “You are such a bigot. Nobody really wants gay marriage, and it didn’t get approved anyway. But people do want civil unions.”
Traditionalists in 2004: “Hey, the Massachusetts state Supreme Court just passed gay marriage. This is really alarming. I thought nobody wanted gay marriage.”
The world: “Of course the liberal people in Massachusetts want gay marriage, and more power to them. Haven’t you seen all of those people flocking to get married? It is really touching. It is great that they have equality.”
Traditionalists in 2004-2005: “Look, world, I thought you said nobody wanted gay marriage. We have been warning for years that the increasing normalization of sinful behavior would take us here. Nobody really cares about individual people getting married, the problem is a general societal trend. And, by the way, the prophets have clearly said that sex between two people of the same sex is a sin. We love the sinner but don’t love the sin. Christians are told to love everybody, and we do, but Jesus clearly also told people not to sin.”
The world: “Shut up you homophobe. You are a hater.”
Traditionalists (always): “I just said I am a Christian and love everybody.”
The world (always): “You are a hateful hater spewing hateful hate.”
Traditionalists (always): “Christians are told to love everybody, and I will try to love even you.”
The world (always): “I hate you, you bigot.”
Traditionalists in 2005-2008: “We really need to do something about these judges who ignore the will of the people and just pass laws at will, completely ignoring written constitutions. The federal Constitution is silent on the issue of marriage and really leaves that up to the states, which have always decided family law. The 14th amendment has to do with race, not marriage. But these judges could give a hoot about what the actual written documents say. They are filled with their own sense of superiority and feel they should decide right and wrong, ignoring the written law. This is truly alarming.”
The world: “You are concerned about nothing. Nobody is talking about gay marriage in your conservative state. This is only about a few liberal states. But we definitely need more judges who believe Constitutions are living documents that can be bent to our times.”
Traditionalists in 2008: “Hey, Proposition 8 passed in California, thanks in part to the efforts of the LDS Church. Clearly Church members will understand now where the Church stands on this issue.”
The world: “Shut up you arrogant homophobes. We will destroy your temples and your chapels, you scum.”
Traditionalists in 2008: “Who are the haters now?”
The world: “You are. But we hate, hate, hate you, even if you say you love us.”
Traditionalists now: “We told you the courts were filled with people who didn’t care about the written law. We have seen this before. Judges are just inventing law left and right. Now they even overturned Prop. 8 and parts of DOMA, which was signed by Pres. Clinton and was almost unanimously supported by all politicians just 15 years ago.”
The world: “You are haters. We ignore all of your arguments. #equality. Various other vacuous and meaningless slogans. All beginning with #.”
Traditionalists now: “We warned about the slippery slope and the normalization of sinful behavior. Now, polygamy is legal in Utah, and a federal judge, based on nothing but vacuous and meaningless slogans, has unilaterally decided to impose gay marriage in Utah. 125 years ago, Utah was told that marriage is only one man and one woman, or the government would destroy temples. Now, the government has told Utah that marriage is gay and polygamous at the same time. The federal judge has completely ignored the written law. This is truly alarming.”
The world: “You are haters. Isn’t it beautiful that all of these people are getting married by clerks in Salt Lake City? We continue to ignore your arguments and respond to you with sarcasm and general snarkiness because we are superior and pretentious and love everybody (except you).”
Traditionalists now: “This is truly alarming. We have been worried about this for many years now, and many of the things we warned about have come to pass. The Proclamation warns that these types of trends will have truly negative affects on the family and society itself. In every General Conference, prophets and apostles have repeated similar warnings, and in the last two conferences they have said that the Church *will not change* when it comes to these types of moral issues. It seems that the prophets are warning us that we need to be even stronger in supporting the Church on this moral issue. We are worried. The government is forcing photographers to take pictures of gay weddings and even forcing bakers to bake cakes for gay weddings. People, in the name of political correctness, are not allowing people to speak out about traditional values. Even quoting the Bible can get you fired from your job. The society hates religious people. We are worried that society may go overboard and start forcing churches to perform gay marriages in chapels and even temples.”
The world: “You always exaggerate. Nothing bad is going to happen. Nothing bad ever happens. All progress is good. Don’t worry, be happy. But meanwhile, we definitely do hate religious people because they are hateful bigots, and they need to be put in their place. In fact, they really need to shut up about religion in general. Those haters.”