Although I would not vote for Obama I am praying that he will make a difference to this nation. I am impressed with his wife and her dedication to her family. I do remember the prejudice of my grandmother saying she would never want a black man as the President of the United States. This is truly history making. But I pray it is more than that.
Proposition 8 just barely passed in California. This is a proposition that never would have appeared on the ballot when I was child. I think the tide is turning where we are going to need to stand up for what we believe. There has been much persecution of the LDS community in Califoria. Read this quote from Elder Neal Mawell.
"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."
