I have been dealing with people like this alot more lately. They are LDS....FYI

• Steve Taylor 

  Its pretty sad people don't see the problems and just going along with society. I have no problem with people doing as they want but you don't see me yelling and screaming down the street that i want cars to be called trucks. It just isn't right, but i guess people will have to deal with the results. I know your not posting this for ppl to tell their feelings on this subject. It just is not ok to accept things that are wrong, but you can still love the person.

  April 20 at 8:23pm · 
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  Rachael Oborn Pais 

  things that are wrong in your opinion. however your opinion is not absolute. please understand, I am not trying to invalidate what you believe or be disrespectful- but thats my whole point. just because you believe one way doesn't mean that everyone else is absolutely wrong and what they believe is invalid or untrue. For each person, what they believe concerning right and wrong is valid and true to them. You are welcome to that belief but that doesn't mean anyone who thinks differently is accepting something "wrong" or just "just going along with society." Not everyone views it as wrong or is supporting it just to go with the flow. I personally support it because I don't believe in not allowing a group of people basic rights in America, a country founded on freedom and allowing everyone basic rights, just because I don't like or agree with what they are doing/lifestyle. I fail to see how allowing them that right will directly affect me, affect my marriage with my husband, make the country fall apart, and ruin the sanctity of marriage. How many times have we heard stories of infidelity committed not just by men, but by women too? Does that not tarnish the sanctity of marriage at all? or is it different because they are straight? I'm glad you want to love them regardless of not sharing the same belief. some people show outright hatred for that. So i commend on wanting to show love. If it were something you believed in and were fighting for, i don't think you would look at it as trivial as wanting to call something by a different name or just noise "yelling and screaming." If it were fighting for your religion/belief/whatever (say someone was trying to take it away or make it impossible for you to fully practice your belief), I bet you would do all you could to make sure your right to practice and believe is protected and allowed to continue. You would want to fight the oppression. Maybe I'm wrong- I don't know- but I know that's what I would do. Even if I don't agree with something, I feel like I can allow it to happen so as many people as possible can have the right of freedom not just the people i believe should have the right to it because they happen to have the same point of view as me. Live and Let live. It's hard to truly love someone to their full capacity if you can't accept them for who they are or if you constantly view them as "a good person, but." To me it places limits on the amount and captivity a person can love. But as I said earlier, I would much rather there be some type of love shown than some of the calloused hatred I have seen demonstrated by people. Thank you for sharing your point of view and I hope you don't take what I say the wrong way. :) just expressing my point of view as well.

  April 21 at 7:36pm · 
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  Steve Taylor 

  There are absolute truths, there are absolute wrongs. You can believe how you will but i will not concede that such things are right. It only takes a few moments to understand this. Hate is wrong, being politically correct to often does not allow the truth to be said. Just because God placed Adam....and Eve together and said man should leave his mother and father and cleave unto his wife and none else, doesn't mean He wanted us to hate those who chose to live a certain way. But to allow what He placed here to stand and continue in my understanding is generally the best idea. These things will continue seeing as we live in the Telestial realm, it is the lowest and as so we can be natural or above that. It is our choice. When we take away absolutes we take away truths to often. No man or woman should be hated or put down for practicing there own freedoms/ agency. They should not force or compel others to allow them to have what they have just cause it is so desired. But what do i know i am wicked, i am slow to often to follow the Lord, I do not always follow where i should. I do live in absolutes... reality. I do not feel just cause i think a certain way everyone else should change how they live or look at things. That was satan's plan to force/ not to let people live and grow or fall by there own. Anyone who uses force or hate or violence to get what they want should be watched very carefully. They generally aren't doing what is right. As to my own believes, If i could not practice i would still have my relationship with the Lord, and God in my heart and fully in my desires. I will not harm another to make them see my point, i will only share the truths from the scriptures, from prophets in every age, and my own testimony in love to influence if at all. If its not welcome then that is there choice. That is how i feel.Yes the push to allow this to happen, the money paid to those in high places and how things work in the world are to often wrong. I have said it before and often if you could only see how the laws are made and how government is actually run you would see better my view of anything that comes to this point.

  April 21 at 8:19pm · 
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  Rachael Oborn Pais 

  I appreciate the way you responded. Thank you for sharing it in a civil, respectful way. I respect your point of view even though mine differs. I'm grateful for your conviction, that you genuinely live by what you believe and try to do so in the most loving way. And i'm definitely not asking you to concede anything. Just sharing a different point of view on it :) Once again, I feel like right and wrong can be subjective depending on how a person views things, was raised, religious or lack of religious influence (because not everyone believes in God) etc. I don't believe in absolutes. So many people have different interpretations of the same Bible and walk away with different truths. Various religions have different prophets or leaders that were given inspired truth. For each person, what they believe, at least in religion, it is absolute truth. So there can be conflicting absolute truths from religion to religion- but each believes its right because it's the right one. I personally view that as subjective. I have a hard time even finding one absolute- for example, take thou shalt not kill- what about people defending freedom, families in situations when someone comes in trying to harm them, etc. (and i'm guessing you are LDS by some of the terms you used.) what about Nephi killing Laban because it is better that one man should perish than a whole nation crumble. I'm just saying I have a hard time finding one thing that is absolute all the time- no exceptions- period, except maybe incest lol :P For me, things aren't black and white but come in all shades of grey. I take a more utilitarianistic approach to things. Nothing can be 100 % proven or disproven. (Fallabilsm principle- you might be wrong even if 99.9% believe bc one person could actually be right and the majority not know it.) That doesn't mean you can't have any type of belief. Things can be tested over time and if it holds up, it has credit even if it can't be 100% proven. You can't go throughout life without forming any sort of view on things. That's why I love all the different points of view people have to offer. It continually tests me, what I believe, whether I should be more open minded to something else, etc In the end, learning from each other can help us come to a closer idea of "truth" whatever truth ends up being. I mostly agree with Mills harm principle - each individual has the right to act as he wants, so long as these actions do not harm others. It goes along with what you said about agency and not forcing people to live a certain way. I agree with you that anyone who uses force or hate or violence to get things should be watched. Concerning gay marriage- it's simple allowing another group of people a right to have marriage even if you disagree with it or don't think marriage should be between a man and man or woman and woman. it's not forcing you to change your stance on it as much as it is just allowing them to exercise there right and freedom to it. Going back to Mills, I also like the idea of allowing people to develop eudaimonsticly (sp?). When people are forced into certain roles or slots in society, it's hard for them to truly develop b/c so many other people are trying to control even the most intimate details of their life and forcing them to be how society at large thinks they should be rather than being who they really are. They can't be accepted as a good person as is. Anyways, this is getting really long so I will stop :) Thank you for sharing your beliefs in love. I'm sure you will influence many people for good throughout your life.

  April 21 at 10:23pm · 
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  Steve Taylor 

  Just a couple of thoughts, and one random bout from a stranger. With out certainty there is neither life nor death, all things would be one combined. There has to be absolutes other wise one could not say there are no absolute truths. God from my stand point being truth, giving all truth at one point or another to mankind. Mankind out of our inability to understand with out light our enlightenment DE Evolved and took the certain truths that suited them. Thus many differing religions, (i'm sure you've heard these sorts of ideas before) in which each denote a God or Creator. They all are the "right one" due to some special thing. Then understand that confusion is not placed there by God, but is due to man choosing not to follow as He prescribed. I find truths in all religions. Does one have more than another? Do people look different? So yes, can one ultimately have all truth? From the knowledge i have gained...not something i have faith in meaning i do have a definite and a absolute knowledge of God, and of Christ. I do not speculate or speak of things i do not know. I do not speak in metaphor but in actuality of These beings. Second thought just about the thou shalt not kill thing, according to Jewish traditions Laban would have had to have been put to death, usually by the one he stole. He stole there riches, he tried to actually kill Nephi and his brothers. So it would not have been killing him, just a for of the law being carried out. As far as murder and killing goes none of us are innocent none of us except those who can live to be perfect...(not me ha ha) Not that i could handle someone harming me or my loved ones, but it is a much weightier matter that God should sort out, as for me my forgiveness will happen before i get to that point in the event I am not there meaning already dead. It is sad and horrible bad things happen. People who suffer i understand there hurt and wish to fill that hurt, I can't only One can. I will morn with them, i will not seek vengince, i will seek justice occur but that is not for my sake but so another family would not suffer. I know i opened another can of worms, but I know my views differ from those of my belief in quite a few instances. I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of latter day saints, I follow only Him and none else. He is not to be followed blindly but with faith accepting what is hard, and then having it confirmed in time or in the present as i have. I would give anyone the shirt off my back and my shoes if they were in need of those, Many of my homosexual friends understand that there feelings though strong should be constrained. They understand that to give into every whim of feelings would leave a person destitute and chaotic. They do not indulge, but are better at restraint than most people i know. They desire marriage to be a man and woman, and that a minority of people should not affect the majority. If they ever were to be with someone they could to themselves say they were married. But to change the a definition because they want what is a wonderful thing for a man and woman, is out of there mind. They do not feel cast out, but loved and accepted as they are. To assign in class is live, people in the way they live denote weather they are better than others. Should those of better means and position bow to those who have not? No, if they desire they can but no force should be imposed. We all people are not the same, we are all of different color, creed, values, religions. We can not say everyone should have the same. If it happens then it does, but if you make everyone diverse and try to unite them it will never work. You are either united, and realize you are the one who makes a difference for you then you move forward. If you choose not to then you do not. If you can not then help will be given. I go on, but to say this There is a God, I know this not in a spiritual way or metaphorical mean but in actuality, and Christ His son. As sure as the sun rises i know this. In a coming day people will have to come to grips with the things happening weather they think them wicked or not, weather good or evil. We will all be confronted with a choice. I hope in some part of my ramble i make sense, and not to offend. The precepts of men i do not adhere to, only God's