Why as a Mormon I am cool with the Prop. 8 Decision.

Becca and I got married at the Salt Lake City Temple on May 8^th, 2000. We were married in a sealing room atop a set of stairs in the celestial room that once served as office of the prophet; the matrons who attended to us reminded us that it best symbolized the higher covenant we were entering. We were further told by the wonderful gentleman that sealed us, the alter were we knelt was the highest point in the temple where a covenant could be made. I stared across this alter at the love of my life and was married for all eternity.

As I entered the SLC temple that day I presented our civil marriage license issued by Iron County. Those that we asked to witness our marriage were asked to sign two documents, our civil license and our temple marriage certificate; we never saw the civil license again, the temple staff were kind enough to file it with the county for us. At the end of the day we left the temple with one piece of paper, our temple marriage certificate. All of this to impress upon us that our temple marriage was different than a secular marriage. This distinction supports my view that Prop. 8 and every other defense of marriage only for heterosexuals is an attempt to cheapen my temple marriage.

The thrust of the argument for Prop 8, the 31 other state defense of marriage actions and the federal defense of marriage act is that a secular marriage and a religious marriage are on equal footing. I simply reject this. There is clear distinction between my civil marriage and my religious marriage.

From a religious standpoint it is odd to me that my brothers and sisters in the church would clamor to equate the great and everlasting covenant of marriage to that of a civil ceremony that a couple can obtain at a “Chapel of Love drive-thru”. To chase the concept that a temple marriage and civil marriage are equal confuses me. However this is fundamentally what supporters seek, a validation of their temple marriage by placing it on par with a civil marriage.

Having ascended those stairs more than 10 years ago with my bride and holding her hand across that alter, from a religious perspective, is different than gettin’ hitched by Elvis. From a civil perspective there is no difference between a court room civil marriage and the temple.

So here is the question, are all of our temple weddings the same civil marriages or are they different? Is there a difference between our civil marriages and our eternal marriages? In the end, I reject this notion. My civil marriage and my temple marriage are different. I am more concerned about strengthening and living up to my covenants in relation to my temple marriage than I am concerned about whom others are choosing to spend their lives with……are you?

-GGW