Friday, October 3, 2008

Tolerance and Proposition 8

I received the following from a friend today.

If you've seen the television commercial supporting Proposition 8, you've seen Professor Richard Peterson explaining the consequences of failure. Proving his point, Professor Peterson is now the target of a nasty backlash, as explained in the message below. Isn't it interesting how the apostles of tolerance demonstrate such intolerance towards those who seek to protect traditional marriage? If California voters acquiesce to the judicial imposition of same-sex marriage, they will experience continued weakening of First Amendment rights (free exercise of religion, free speech) in favor of judicially-created "equal protection" rights. Statements like Professor Peterson's will be outlawed as hate speech -- but the hate in the debate isn't coming from him; it's directed toward him. The time for complacency is past.

"If you have watched the TV in the last two days, you may have seen the new Yes on Prop 8 commercial. (the one with Gavin Newsom). The professor from Pepperdine University who speaks on behalf of all of us in the commercial is a very close family friend...so close that I refer to him as "Uncle Richard". He does a fabulous job stating some key consequences of NOT passing prop 8.

"Since the commercial has aired Richard has been receiving literally hundreds of emails, some violent and very threatening from various gay groups and also some even from the faculty. His wife [] said that another well respected and prominent professor was supposed to do the commercial but was called away to Washington D.C. and unable to do it so they asked Richard if he would consider doing it. He said that he would but he had to clear it with" the powers that be" at Pepperdine first. He submitted the script to them and they said that they had no issues with it. Now with the backlash, as so often happens, they are not being very supportive. Richard thought that if there were some positive emails amid all the negative it would help.

"To help support this cause and those who speak out publicly as our voice for our stance... would you please email the head of the law department at Pepperdine, Ken Starr, and let him know how appreciative you are for their support in allowing Professor Richard Peterson to speak for all Prop 8 supporters? If you could please also contact your friends and other supporters and ask for their help in sending an email as well.

"Ken Starr's email is: Ken.Starr@pepperdine.edu

"After receiving this email about the backlash of his participation in this commercial, it confirmed to me again why we CANNOT be complacent as defenders of the Proclamation on the Family. It also gave me more insight as to the church's unprecedented and vigorous support of this issue. As we can see, many groups against prop 8 are VERY vocal and VERY pushy with their views and beliefs. Many of them are all for freedoms of speech, except when it contradicts their beliefs. I personally have seen many No on Prop 8 commercials and haven't thought once, "I am going to email those people and tell them I disagree with them through hateful speech and threats."

"We cannot allow our opponents on this issue bully us into submission and silence our own personal views for fear that we will receive similar backlash as Richard. We can not allow a loud minority to shape an intuition that means so much to the very core of our beliefs. We need to stand up and be counted. I give a lot of credit to Professor Richard Peterson and others who (at some cost) have chosen to stand up and be counted."

No comments: