Marriage: enero 2017

This week, I enjoyed to hear the speech “Choose the Light” by Elder Vern P. Stanfill, and posted by Brother Barnett this week. As members of the church, sometimes, we feel that we are alone when we are talking about family with non-members, but we can choose to follow our personal revelation.

This week, I was reading the Supreme Court of the United States, the highest ranking judicial body in the United States, opinion in Obergefell v. Hodges (2015) with the purpose of understand the basis of legalization of same marriage in the United States.

This opinion of the court is related with the same sex marriage, and there are two points that I found interesting in the document:

“Decisions about marriage are among the most intimate that an individual can make.”
“The right to marry is that it safeguards children and families and thus draws meaning from related rights of childrearing, procreation, and education.”
I agree with these two opinions of the court, but I still share the definition of “marriage as a union between one man and one woman.” Currently, this definition could be considered homophobic or intolerant, but Is the same to reject a definition of the family and to be intolerant? I do not think so.

After judicial sentence, what can we do who defend the traditional family institution (religious, scientific, political, etc.)? I think we cannot change the sentence, but we can strength the values in the society. In this aspect, religious leaders play an important role because they can lead and motivate citizens to choose to obey laws (commandments) that government cannot enforce.

I want to emphasis that every disciple of Christ could become a leader, as President Kim B. Clark said: “The call to be a disciple-leader is a call to minister and to serve. It is a call to lead as Christ leads.”

Sources:

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES, Syllabus OBERGEFELL ET AL. v. HODGES, DIRECTOR, OHIO DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, ET AL. CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT.

Marriage and Divorce

1:30 p.m.

I was born in a LDS family with a high commitment for family relations, and between friends with families with values like me. So, I did not hear the word divorce in my environment during my early years.

When I grow up, I started to listen the expression “my parents are divorced” in the primary. I remember that this kids had academic and disciplinary problems. Sometimes, they were immersed in conflicts, and my mother and mothers of my friends say us “if they hurt you, you cannot act in the same way, he/she has problems at home”. At that time, I did not understand why they received a preferential treat or why they were considered in disadvantage.

Later, in the middle school, I met another kind of children of divorced parents, they tried hard to be the best, they were responsible, and they had a feeling of overcome everything, but they have a lot of fears, and caution about topics like family, marriage, and even engagement. Another kind of students (others divorced children or members of nonfunctional families) tried to find love or completion in people like them through a sexual behavior or trying another kind of rebel behavior.

When I was in the high school, my school just had one student who did not finish his education, and curiously, he is a child of a single mother.

All student with problems were not children of divorced parents or a single mother/father. I can remember, when I was in the middle school a good friend (son of a model family) was expelled from the school, and he was the only one suspended that year and in many years. So, parents and familiar environment are not the only factor that predict the academic and discipline development of a child, but family have a big influence.

After learn by observation and study about problems that create in the society the divorce and cohabitation, I feel the necessity of learn how to contribute to care of children who have divorced parents, and help marriages in troubles to solve their differences and overcome it. This is the reason because I am taking a minor in Marriage and Family Studies.

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