I Will

Sister Bonnie Oscarson, the general young women’s president said, “Sisters, few of us will ever have to face an angry mob, but there is a war going on in this world in which our most cherished and basic doctrines are under attack. I am speaking specifically of the doctrine of the family. The sanctity of the home and the essential purposes of the family are being questioned, criticized, and assaulted on every front.”

I know that a concern that I have is how I can defend marriage. I am not a lawyer or a politician. I am a college so what kind of an impact can I make.  How can I stand for marriage? In his article, “The Attack on Marriage as the Union of a Man and a Woman” Lynn D Wardle gives an answer. “We must make that argument in new and creative ways… We need conservative intellectual forces — think tanks, scholars, religious leaders, and politicians — to actively engage the issue of marriage.”

Lynn D Wardle also says, “And what’s true for the news media is even worse for the cultural media. Keep in mind that Fox is the network that aired Beverly Hills 90210, Melrose Place, and now Glee — each of which has done its part to undermine a healthy vision of marriage and human sexuality. But what is the conservative alternative to Glee? We need more concerted financial commitments to advancing sound culture. There is opportunity here. Roger Ailes famously described himself as a media genius for discovering a niche market that ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, and MSNBC were all ignoring: half of the American population. What was true for the market in news consumption is just as true for entertainment more broadly. Enterprising entrepreneurs who can create television networks or film studios that produce high-quality family-friendly content not only perform good deeds, but will likely make a nice profit. There is an audience for high-quality entertainment that doesn’t undermine the values that parents are trying to impart to their children. Those of us with vocations in policy and the academy need to encourage those with vocations in the artistic realm to continue their important work. It’s not that we need fewer natural-law philosophers or appellate litigators; it’s that we need more of everything. There’s work for everyone, for artists and musicians, for pastors and theologians, for statesmen and lawyers, for scholars and activists.”

Each and every person has an important part to play in showing the world why marriage needs to between a man and a woman. While I may not be a prominent figure, I can use my talents to defend marriage. I do not need to stand on a soapbox and yell at passersby that marriage is between a man and a woman. I can use my talents to proclaim my beliefs. This blog is one way that I can share my beliefs and defend the family. Even small people can make a difference. We can use the social media for good. We can use it to show the world what God has ordained.

The film Courageous tells the account of a man who is awakened to the duties of associated with a father. He seeks to defend the importance of fatherhood. At the end of the movie he asks who will stand up be a father by saying, “Who will? Who will?” 

That is the question that we have today. Who will you stand and defend marriage?

Read Lynn D Wardle at http://www.nationalreview.com/article/378538/marriage-where-do-we-go-here-ryan-t-anderson

Read Sister Oscarson at https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2015/04/defenders-of-the-family-proclamation?lang=eng#watch=video