A Worst-Case Scenario on Gay Marriage

Personally, I have some libertarian leanings. I tend to think that adults should be free to do what they want with their own bodies, without interference from government. I tend to favor having no laws against the personal use of drugs, prostitution, abortion, sodomy, etc. as long as partakers in such vices don’t violate the rights of anyone else. Let them do what they want and face the natural consequences; after all, they usually do anyway.

But for our civilization to officially, openly embrace gay marriage, celebrate these sinful unions, and give them the stamp of normalcy to confuse the hell out of our children is the sign of a civilization that is starting to get really sick. With such thumbing of the nose at God and his consequent withdrawal of blessings from us, Satan will be freer to use this warped situation to do as much damage as possible. Personally, I think this issue could eventually turn today's worldly political correctness into tomorrow's persecution and mob mentality against those who don’t conform.

My prediction is that homosexuality could be to Mormonism in the 21st century what polygamy was to us in the 19th, only in reverse. In the 19th century, we espoused a principle that the civilization at large could not abide, and civilization eventually pressured us into abandoning it. In the 21st century, civilization is espousing a principle that Mormonism cannot abide, and civilization will try to pressure us to accept it with every bit as much force as they used to get us to abandon polygamy, and perhaps worse. But instead of driving us to comply like we did to get statehood, it will instead make us dig our heels in deeper and ultimately perhaps cause us to part ways.

I think within a decade or two you’ll find the church isolated and embattled because we refuse to accept gay marriage, the homosexual lifestyle and agenda, and accompanying legislation, which I imagine may have progressed to the federal constitutional level by then. I think we’ll see sanctions against those who don’t comply, such as closing our temples for refusing to perform gay marriages—and if that’s not possible legally, I think people will take so-called justice into their own hands. I predict that the pressure will weed out many worldly-leaning Mormons from the flock and prompt many faithful Mormons to leave the big metropolitan areas, especially on the coasts, and gather together elsewhere for safety and protection from the storm. We may even find the church itself officially disenfranchised or outlawed at some point, but if so then it will continue on an underground basis.

Why do I think this? Because the increasingly secular, irreligious world needs a seemingly moral cause to replace the religion they have rejected and assuage their consciences, and Satan is setting up gay marriage as a false cause that tricks people all too easily, even those with some religious sympathy. He is making it seem like accepting and embracing homosexuality is the next logical step in a progressive civilization, and anyone who stands in the way will be mowed down with even more vehemence than that with which racists and other bigots are castigated in today’s politically correct atmosphere. There’s some validity in political correctness, of course, but Satan’s twisting it and taking it too far, using it to deceive people into defending and celebrating a sin. God will not support the civilization in this like I believe he did during the black civil rights movement, and so it will all turn nasty and evil.

I do not predict that the church will ever back down on the gay issue. Some Mormons are saying that the church backed down on blacks and it’s just a matter of time before we back down on gays, and we’ll all feel so stupid and ashamed for resisting. However, you never saw the church resist the black civil rights movement in any officially coordinated way, although some individual leaders expressed concern. By contrast, on the gay issue the church is clearly ramping up for the fight, and I’m sure we’ll go the distance even if we end up getting knocked out of the ring. I think most other anti-gay religious groups will eventually crumble under the social pressure, and we’ll be left standing mostly alone.

If gay marriage survives in California this fall, I think it will be a real tipping point. (For those who don't know, according to Wikipedia the term tipping point describes "a point at which a slow gradual change becomes irreversible and then proceeds with gathering pace. It is derived from the metaphor of a rigid solid object being tilted to a point where it begins to topple.") I think 2008 could go down in history as a major turning point that puts us on a faster track to the chaos and calamities of the last days. In related news, this year may also mark a turning point with regards to an economic downturn from which we might never fully recover, given the unprecedented perfect-storm pressures of debt and energy and climate and so forth. And who knows what change will be wrought by this fall’s presidential election, the results of which may lead us into new situations that, in retrospect, will look like additional major turning points?

If our civilization does manage to mostly recover from all these negative trends or otherwise delay the inevitable, then 2008 will have been a preview for when things really do start devolving faster into the next level of the last days. But frankly, I think President Hinckley got out just in time.

Here’s a link to some solid stuff on homosexuality and gay marriage.