Prop 102

I decided to take a break from my usual fair of exciting posts full of pictures and videos so I could talk about a little bit more serious matter, so here goes.

For those not in the know, Prop 102 is the proposition to amend the Arizona Constitution to define marriage as being between one man and one woman. Brian and Mindy were recently asked to be the advocates for Prop 102 in our ward, and it got me thinking. I had previously been somewhere between neutral and pro gay marriage (or at least some type of civil union). I always figured, "how does it hurt me?", but some interesting articles swayed my opinion.

The first article is a "amici curiae" issued by the LDS church, the Catholic church, the National Association of Evangelicals, and the Union of Orthodox Jews stating. I wasn't familiar with any of this before, but basically an "amici curiae" is a filing by a party not involved in the case stating additional considerations that they believe should be included in the final decision, and there are some very interesting arguments in the briefing.

The second article is an article on NPR about how court decisions are starting to influence the actions and policies of churchs and other religious organizations.

I agree that defending the institution of marriage is important, but I believe that there's a MUCH scarier issue lurking underneath everything that's happen. The church realizes that some of the current court decisions are not too far of a step from courts dictating what churches and other organizations can do on a large scale. All too often the argument of "separation of church and state" is brought up in these types of debates (I know that I used to buy into that argument), but I think that it's too easily forgotten that the "separation of church and state" was created to protect churches from the government just as much as it was created to protect the government from churches.

Sac Town

So Jenni got sick of me being lazy and already posted about our trip to Sacramento, but I wanted to chime in with links all of the pictures (the plane ride (PWA, Facebook), boating (PWA, Facebook), The Mountain Fortress of Solitude and Fun (PWA, Facebook), everyone dressed up (PWA, Facebook), and rocking out with the old PVille crew (PWA, Facebook)).

I also wanted to post some videos of the "slide of death" that my parents made. So there's actually no death involved, but you do pick up a pretty good clip. I guess I should just show the videos and let you be the judge (we took more videos than any human should be forced to watch, so here's the highlights).

Jenni gives the quick tour of the pool and slide (Facebook)


Cody is the first to jump in (Facebook)


Maybe the running start wasn't the best idea for my first time down the slide (Facebook)


There are a bunch of people in this one, but my bonehead move in the middle is good for a laugh (Facebook)


Cody riding Mike down the slide (Facebook)


It took some peer pressure, but even Jenni went down the slide (Facebook)

Picture Tag

This is how it works: For each question look up the answer on Google image search. Choose your favorite picture from the FIRST page only.

My age: 29


My favorite color: blue


Favorite vacation spot: outdoors


Where I live: Sahuarita, AZ


Where I grew up: Utah, Texas, California


Where I'd like to travel: Deep Sea


Favorite Food: Crab Legs


Favorite treat: Pie


Favorite animal: Saber Tooth Tiger


Past Love: Nintendo


First name: David


Middle Name: Linn


Last name: Johansen


What I'm doing right now: Watching Football


And I tag Bryce, my one and only guy friend whose secure enough in his masculinity to blog, or at least that's what I tell myself when I wake up crying in the middle of the night.