There's a big difference between the church's official stand on an issue (or official doctrine or policy) and what someone heard said in a meeting. Even the prophet may express his views to leaders and give counsel, but it does not become the official policy of the church until it's officially presented as such and accepted by the church.
To the best of my knowledge it is not at all the official policy of the church that we not use birth control. If you can document that with something official from the church, I'll stand corrected, but... I think you're assuming too much in that statement.
Also remember that even the official policies of the church change over time, and may not be the same now as they were even in President Kimball's time.
As to the legislation, as much as I hate using the words "slippery slope", this looks particularly slippery. The government has no business telling people when they're approved to have children. And when you get something like this passed, you've placed a basic, intensely personal human right in the hands of bureaucrats... and what criteria will really be used in the future?
It's a great vehicle to play out prejudices by deciding that certain social clases, ethnicities, religions or other life situations would be "unfit" to approve bringing children into.
Yes, there are good things that could be done, too. Any totalitarian regime has the potential to use their broad powers for good. They rarely end up doing that, however. It looks to me like a pretty evil bit of legislation, possible well-intentioned, but sure to have disastrous results.
Dangit, now you made me have to go and look up references and everything about this.. :) :)
I posted my response over in moculturehere, if you want to read it, but I'll just link to it here instead of cross-posting because it's a bit of a tangent on this posting.
I think the government does have the right to intervene when people demonstrate an completely unacceptable job of parenting, putting their children at risk, removing the children from that situation temporarily or permanently. Perhaps in extreme cases, they can rule that the parents not be allowed to raise children in the future.
But I'm not willing to solve that problem by putting the government in charge of approving when everyone is allowed to reproduce at all. As tempting as it may be to assert absolute control over other people's lives to force them into doing the right thing all the time... um... that was someone else's plan for us, eh?
To the best of my knowledge it is not at all the official policy of the church that we not use birth control. If you can document that with something official from the church, I'll stand corrected, but... I think you're assuming too much in that statement.
Also remember that even the official policies of the church change over time, and may not be the same now as they were even in President Kimball's time.
As to the legislation, as much as I hate using the words "slippery slope", this looks particularly slippery. The government has no business telling people when they're approved to have children. And when you get something like this passed, you've placed a basic, intensely personal human right in the hands of bureaucrats... and what criteria will really be used in the future?
It's a great vehicle to play out prejudices by deciding that certain social clases, ethnicities, religions or other life situations would be "unfit" to approve bringing children into.
Yes, there are good things that could be done, too. Any totalitarian regime has the potential to use their broad powers for good. They rarely end up doing that, however. It looks to me like a pretty evil bit of legislation, possible well-intentioned, but sure to have disastrous results.
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I posted my response over in moculture here, if you want to read it, but I'll just link to it here instead of cross-posting because it's a bit of a tangent on this posting.
Reply
But I'm not willing to solve that problem by putting the government in charge of approving when everyone is allowed to reproduce at all.
As tempting as it may be to assert absolute control over other people's lives to force them into doing the right thing all the time... um... that was someone else's plan for us, eh?
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