My Speech to BYU-I Students

Three times a year for the past 3 years, I have had the opportunity to speak to students taking a family advocacy course at BYU-I along with the other UFI volunteers and some state representatives and senators. Sometimes, I write down my speech and sometimes I just wing it. This time I felt like there were specific things that I needed to say, so I wrote it down. We got to hear from Senator Margaret Dayton and Senator Stuart Adams. What I had to say was very much like what Senator Dayton said. Senator Adams was  very interesting because he is the senator who wrote the freedom of religion/gay rights Utah bill often called the "great compromise". Hearing his experience was pretty amazing.

Anyway, I wish I could put up everyone's speeches. They were so good and the Spirit filled the room and one could tell that these students left the room more determined to do whatever they could to fight for religious freedom.

Here is what I said to these students.

"My name is Diane Robertson. I have been writing for UFI for more than 3 years. At times I help out during the Utah Legislation session. The amount I participate in that depends on how my children are doing, because, of course, family comes first. If I lose my own children from spending too much time trying to save other people’s families, I would be a failure indeed. Thus, I am very conscientious about the time I spend away from my family whether it be for church callings, volunteering at the school, or volunteering away from home for United Families International. My 10 children need me more than anyone else in the world. But they also need me to be fighting for them and the world they are going to inherit. It is a delicate balance and both have serious consequences.

I mostly want to speak to you today about the Supreme Court Ruling on gay marriage. I am going to read you this quote given in General Conference in 1967 by then Elder Ezra Taft Benson:

"In such countries as Czechoslovakia, the Communists have used an entirely different method of internal conquest. Instead of the force and violence of a bloody revolution (a "war of national liberation"), parliamentary and political means were used to bring about a more peaceful transition to Communism. The Communist strategists call this alternate plan a "proletarian" revolution.

This plan is as follows: Using unidentified Communist agents and non-Communist sympathizers in key positions in government, in communications media, and in mass organizations, such as labor unions and civil rights groups, demand more and more government power as the solution to all civil rights problems. Total government is the objective of Communism. Without calling it by name, build Communism piece by piece through mass pressures for presidential decrees, court orders, and legislation that appear to be aimed at improving civil rights and other social reforms. If there is social, economic, or educational discrimination, then advocate more government programs and control.

And what if riots come? Then more government housing, government welfare, government job training, and, finally, federal control over police. Thus the essential economic and political structure of Communism can be built entirely "legally" and in apparent response to the wishes of the people who have clamored for some kind of solution to the problems played-up, aggravated, or created outright by Communists for just that purpose. After the machinery of Communism is firmly established, then allow the hidden Communists one by one to make their identities known. Liquidate first the anti-Communists and then the non-Communist sympathizers who are no longer needed in government. The total state mechanism can now openly and "peacefully" be transferred into the hands of Communists. Such is the so-called proletarian revolution. Such has happened in other, once free, countries. It has already started here."

You may ask yourself, what does Communism have to do with gay marriage? Well, everything actually. The Supreme Court ruling on gay marriage has done precisely what was described here by President Benson. Think about what has happened here. To legalize gay marriage and eventually to conform all of society to one way of thinking the gay lobby as a civil rights group has:

1. Used non-Communist sympathizers in key positions to build communism piece by piece in the name of civil rights.
2.  Used presidential decrees, court orders, and legislation that appear to be aimed at improving the rights of LGBT people.
3. They have advocated for more government programs and control.

How many of you have heard someone say,  "This ruling does not matter. It does not affect me." Probably a lot, huh? Me too. And I think:

“Have we so little compassion for the destinies of our own children that we can feel just about ignoring the destruction of the freedoms we have enjoyed?”

It may not be tomorrow that your school and others like it will no longer be accredited. It may not be tomorrow that an only “acceptable” college degree comes from a University in which the government approves of the curriculum. It may not be tomorrow that little children in every school both public and private are taught about sodomy. It may not be tomorrow that CPS enters the homes of parents who teach their children the Biblical views on sexuality. It may not be tomorrow that everyone who writes and speaks against gay marriage, homosexuality, or any other deviant form of sexuality and family life will be fired and branded. It may not be tomorrow that countless churches close down because they cannot afford to pay taxes when their exempt status is removed. It may not be tomorrow, but it is on the agenda, and today the Supreme Court has given the green light for the LGBT lobby to push forward this agenda.

Justice Kenedy declared that:

“The limitation of marriage to opposite-sex couples may long have seemed natural and just, but its inconsistency with the central meaning of the fundamental right to marry is now manifest. With that knowledge must come the recognition that laws excluding same-sex couples from the marriage right impose stigma and injury of the kind prohibited by our basic charter.”

This means that on June 26^th, 2015 the Supreme Court of the United States determined that your religious views on family and sexuality are bigoted and acting on those views would be akin to racial discrimination. Do not think this will not affect you. It will. It will affect me and you and our children and grandchildren.

Don’t think that the LGBT lobby will not continue to use “presidential decrees, court orders, and legislation" that appear to be aimed at improving the rights of LGBT people and other sexual minorities. They will. And don’t think this will help them and hurt you. It will hurt every American of all races and genders, both gay and straight, religious, and irregilous. The LGBT lobby has essentially given the government power over speech, religion, education, family law, commerce, and more. Once a government takes power from the people, they never give it back. Which brings us back around again to communism. The last time I knew that the government just handed people freedom was when a war was fought and won and a sacred document was written to confirm the rights of the people.

But do not despair. Instead take your knowledge and share it. Be an advocate against evil laws and un-constitutional actions by government. Don’t ever let people use Joseph Smith’s words, “we believe in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the laws” to keep you from supporting truth and righteousness. Remember the same man that wrote that is the same man that escaped from unjust imprisonment. You do not need to obey, honor, or sustain wickedness even when it is written into law.

I heed you to decide now to become a good wife and mother, or a good husband and father. Spend your lifetime making your family a good family, and be an advocate for that lifestyle. Do it for your children. Do it for families. Do it for your religion. Do it because you love mankind. #lovewins when men are free. #loveswins when children are born into a home with a married mother and father who honor those marital vows with complete fidelity.