Christmas Gifts

The past two weeks of church have been interesting. Last week we weren't able to attend church as we were snowbound due to the nearly two feet of snow that fell in about 24 hours. This week we got to go, but were visiting a different ward. It was a nice break from the usual routine of taking care of a bunch of 2-3 year olds. Usually, we don't get to attend sunday school with the rest of the adults.

Today we had a great lesson about the gifts that Heavenly Father has given us. We talked about how He has given us the opportunity to obtain eternal life through the gift of His Son Jesus Christ.

For ^aGod so ^bloved the ^cworld, that he ^dgave his ^eonly begotten ^fSon, that whosoever ^gbelieveth in him should not perish, but have ^heverlasting ⁱlife. John 3:16

Our teacher spoke also of the gifts that Jesus Christ has given us. Through His Atonement, we can choose to repent, and He can cleanse us of our sins. Thanks to Him, we will be resurrected and overcome death.

My family has a tradition of having a "birthday party" for Jesus on Christmas Eve. The idea was to help the kids in the family, especially the little ones, understand that Christmas is more than Santa and reindeer and presents we get to unwrap. We read the story of Christmas from Luke 2 and then instead of thinking of what we can get, we each come up with something that we can give Jesus in the coming year.

I heard a variation of that tradition today that I liked. The idea was to decide what you can give to Jesus during the coming year, but to write it down and keep it in a present that you keep around all year in a place where you will see it and be reminded of what you have decided to give Him.

I have decided what my gift will be. I hope that you will give Him one too. Merry Christmas!

JRCLS Dinner and Fireside

So, I went to the J. Reuben Clark Law Society dinner and fireside tonight.  Last year was my first time.  It was fun to actually be a law student this time around.  The catered food was decent.  I sat at a table with Aaron M., a UVA alum who is clerking for a DC Circuit Ct.  Also there were Levi and Bonnie and their son Clark.  Levi's a 3L at GW who is looking for public service work for the next year.  His firm will still give him an office and pay him half salary.  Across the way was Troy and Debra W.  Debra's a 3L at GMU who will finish up in December.  I'd seen her their before.  Her husband's a Harvard alum who's doing Native American law on his own.  Rick and Elyse P. were there too of course.  It was good to see them.  

I had a brief conversation with Jon J., one of the Pro Bono Comm. co-chairs.  He remembered me from the lunch at Patton Boggs a few months back.  I told him I was going to be interning for the Potomac Legal Aid Society this summer and that he should feel free to give me anything a 1L can help out with.

The JRCLS Distinguished Service Award was given to Elder Quentin L. Cook of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.  He had been a managing partner at a law firm in San Francisco before working in health care and later being called to church service.  His message focused on two pieces of the Constitutions: 1) pursuit of happiness and 2) religious freedom.  The pursuit of happiness portion was about not comparing yourself to everyone who is the best at a particular skill.  Instead, he encouraged us to strive to develop Christ-like attributes.  The religious freedom portion was focused on encouraging lawyers to actively participate in conversations about the Church in public fora with thoughtful, reasoned responses.

It was a good evening.  Would have been better if Lex were here.  She's off in her homeland playing with friends and family.  She's also got a bridal shower up there this weekend.  

Same-sex Issues and Constitutional Amendments

I saw a post on facebook that led me to an article against the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints' position on the Constitutional Amendments about marriage this fall. The Church's position can be found in a document entitled "The Divine Institution of Marriage." I recommend it to anyone who will be voting on this issue this fall.

Here are some points that I found particularly salient (Excerpts follow below):

1. Statistics about degradation of society's morals in the last half century.
2. Tolerance means love the person, but do not condone the behavior.
3. Allowing changes in definition of marriage will have numerous identifiable consequences that will damage society.

1. Statistics
Our modern era has seen traditional marriage and family – defined as a husband and wife with children in an intact marriage – come increasingly under assault. Sexual morality has declined and infidelity has increased. Since 1960, the proportion of children born out of wedlock has soared from 5.3 percent to 38.5 percent (2006). [10] Divorce has become much more common and accepted, with the United States having one of the highest divorce rates in the world. Since 1973, abortion has taken the lives of over 45 million innocents. [11] At the same time, entertainment standards continue to plummet, and pornography has become a scourge afflicting and addicting many victims. Gender differences increasingly are dismissed as trivial, irrelevant, or transient, thus undermining God’s purpose in creating both men and women.

2. Tolerance means love the person, but do not condone the behavior.
Those who favor homosexual marriage contend that “tolerance” demands that they be given the same right to marry as heterosexual couples. But this appeal for “tolerance” advocates a very different meaning and outcome than that word has meant throughout most of American history and a different meaning than is found in the gospel of Jesus Christ. The Savior taught a much higher concept, that of love. “Love thy neighbor,” He admonished. [13] Jesus loved the sinner even while decrying the sin, as evidenced in the case of the woman taken in adultery: treating her kindly, but exhorting her to “sin no more.” [14] Tolerance as a gospel principle means love and forgiveness of one another, not “tolerating” transgression.

In today’s secular world, the idea of tolerance has come to mean something entirely different. Instead of love, it has come to mean condone – acceptance of wrongful behavior as the price of friendship.

Jesus taught that we love and care for one another without condoning transgression. But today’s politically palatable definition insists that unless one accepts the sin he does not tolerate the sinner.

As Elder Dallin H. Oaks has explained,

Tolerance obviously requires a non-contentious manner of relating toward one another’s differences. But tolerance does not require abandoning one’s standards or one’s opinions on political or public policy choices. Tolerance is a way of reacting to diversity, not a command to insulate it from examination. [15]


3. Long-term harmful effects of changing the definition of marriage:

It is true that some same-sex couples will obtain guardianship over children –through prior heterosexual relationships, through adoption in the states where this is permitted, or by artificial insemination. Despite that, the all-important question of public policy must be: what environment is best for the child and for the rising generation? Traditional marriage provides a solid and well-established social identity to children. It increases the likelihood that they will be able to form a clear gender identity, with sexuality closely linked to both love and procreation. By contrast, the legalization of same-sex marriage likely will erode the social identity, gender development, and moral character of children. Is it really wise for society to pursue such a radical experiment without taking into account its long-term consequences for children?

As just one example of how children will be adversely affected, the establishment of same-sex marriage as a civil right will inevitably require mandatory changes in school curricula. When the state says that same-sex unions are equivalent to heterosexual marriages, the curriculum of public schools will have to support this claim. Beginning with elementary school, children will be taught that marriage can be defined as a relation between any two adults and that consensual sexual relations are morally neutral. Classroom instruction on sex education in secondary schools can be expected to equate homosexual intimacy with heterosexual relations. These developments will create serious clashes between the agenda of the secular school system and the right of parents to teach their children traditional standards of morality.