Perspective: Faith, Freedom, Family

Thomas, You are incorrect that Miller makes certa...

2010-07-25T16:59:16.741-07:00

Thomas,

You are incorrect that Miller makes certain pornography illegal. I suspect you may have written this post when you were a 1L. All Miller decided is that certain types of pornography are not protected by the Constitution's 1st Amendment. A local law of a state or local government must declare the pornography illegal within its jurisdiction. If the local law only outlaws pornography that is obscene, the a court following Miller will uphold the law and allow prosecution. If the statute prosecutes non-obscene pornography, a court following Miller will strike down the statute.

However, with no local statute declaring pornography illegal, it doesn't matter what Miller says.

Cool arguments. I'll look forward to your nex...

2010-04-18T02:53:12.926-07:00

Cool arguments. I'll look forward to your next post.

Elder Oaks said religious freedom is a big issue f...

2010-04-18T02:52:26.614-07:00

Elder Oaks said religious freedom is a big issue for our generation. I believe it.

How beautiful. "A person's a person, no m...

2010-01-20T08:07:27.904-08:00

How beautiful. "A person's a person, no matter how small." :-) Someone is teaching their children well...

Wow Thomas. I am really impressed with all the blo...

2010-01-13T20:52:31.784-08:00

Wow Thomas. I am really impressed with all the blogs in general. I don't know how you have the time to do this--but God bless you. It is inspiring.

nice post, Thomas. I like the points from Maggie ...

2009-12-11T16:04:29.880-08:00

nice post, Thomas. I like the points from Maggie Gallagher. It gives me some hope on this issue, particularly about traditionalists having more children. That makes me laugh since it's so true.

That was amazing!!! :D :D :D

2009-12-02T04:47:26.243-08:00

That was amazing!!! :D :D :D

thomas you need to get a new hobby buddy.

2009-11-30T21:19:51.378-08:00

thomas you need to get a new hobby buddy.

I would totally support him as well!! I am increa...

2009-10-28T18:03:40.238-07:00

I would totally support him as well!! I am increasingly thinking that this illusion of "neutrality" in the law is not the best thing for this country. Why does our law protect something that not only is so obviously wrong, but also the grand majority of us recognize it as wrong?
I say we stand up for what we all know is right--the position of "I think it is wrong, but whom am I to force my beliefs on someone else" is on the same path as Lincoln's warning that "a house divided against itself cannot stand." As He also said, "Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith, let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it." (Lincoln's Cooper Institute Address, February 27, 1860).

I believe we should give Former Homosexuals our fu...

2009-10-17T22:32:37.258-07:00

I believe we should give Former Homosexuals our full institutional. However, I must admit I feel somewhat uneasy about embracing them closely and entirely, there is sometimes an air of failure and sin about them. I don't mean to cast asperions but clearly we are uncomfortable with gays teaching young children in schools, I would be equally fearful of ex-homosexuals in close private proximity to children.

Stephenson Billings, Dyersburg TN

Amy, Appellate courts have upheld convictions tha...

2009-10-02T19:31:14.649-07:00

Amy,

Appellate courts have upheld convictions that have found adult, online pornography to be obscene. Just one example is United States v. Thomas, which was upheld by the Sixth Circuit. The adult pornography in this case was created in California but accessed in Tennessee. The court applied the community standard of Tennessee. I have not studied the doctrine of community standard extensively, but in this case at least, the community by which the standard is gauged is the community where the material is accessed.

Thomas, if you are a law student then you should k...

2009-10-01T13:11:38.981-07:00

Thomas, if you are a law student then you should know to check your sources and citations thoroughly. It does not appear that you have done that. If you had, you could not honestly have written what you did. As a lawyer of some years' experience, let me give you some professional advice. You must do a better job of research and objective analysis of both sides of an issue on any test, brief, memo or case, or else your grades and your career will suffer.

Please review the following analyses and then consider whether you should revise your post:

http://www.feministmormonhousewives.org/?p=2657

http://openskyvisions.blogspot.com/2009/09/rhetoric-of-elder-hafens-evergreen.html

2009-10-01T13:07:03.530-07:00

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Thomas, May I respectfully disagree with several ...

2009-10-01T12:20:44.775-07:00

Thomas,

May I respectfully disagree with several of your conclusions.

First, your claim that Homosexuality is highly correlated to childhood abuse. As evidence you claim that 80% of women who have SSA were abused. I would ask you to provide the reference to this study. The citation in Elder Hafen's talk references only an audio CD. I have never, ever, heard this before and would be interested to see the peer-reviewed research on this.

Second, the church's offical stance as stated in "God loveth his Children" is that, "Innocent mischief early in life does not predispose a youth toward same-gender attraction as an adult." The argument that experimentation causes homosexuality has been rejected by the church and I find it odd that Elder Hafen has reiterated that it does.

Third, your claim that there is no "gay gene" is supported by two quotes, the first by the APA does not rule out some form of genetic link to sexual orientation, and second by a quote taken out of context from a study performed at Columbia University Researchers. The entire quote reads, "Homosexual orientation results from interaction of many factors, including genetic influences in varying degrees across individuals… The assertion that homosexuality is genetic is so reductionist that it must be dismissed out of hand as a general principle of psychology. (Friedman and Downey)" The researchers do not say that there is no genetic link, only that to say that genes are the ONLY influence is to reduce the complexity of sexuality so far, that it must be dismissed.

I do not mean to cause contention, but as a law student you would agree that accurate citations are essential to ones argument. You do not cite the direct supporting evidence for your claims, only a talk given by Elder Hafen, who has his own citation problems, perpetuating the false claims.

Please be more careful in the future when making claims, and use actual evidence to support them when you do.

Oh come on, Thomas. You know the Miller test is a...

2009-10-01T07:31:44.837-07:00

Oh come on, Thomas. You know the Miller test is almost impossible to apply. It relies on a shared sense of "community decency," and the internet community in which porn proliferates has a VERY low standard of decency, so it's a no-go there. The "prurient interest" clause actually does more harm than good, because lawyers very often say, "see these disgusting pictures of women being sawn in half with chain saws while in the throes of ecstasy? Is there any possible way a person could be turned on by this? Of course not! Therefore it must be artistic or literary, since it couldn't possibly be sexual!" and the producers get off scot-free. Or with "community decency," the lawyers just say, "look at how many similar sites there are! And look at how many people do Google searches for this sort of thing! Clearly, it's mainstream! It's accepted!"
Can you cite a single case where courts have found online pornography to be obscene, and it's been upheld by a higher court?
We live in a messed up world.

Wow! I wish more people knew about this. Thanks ...

2009-09-30T21:11:14.392-07:00

Wow! I wish more people knew about this. Thanks for sharing.

Well, I am so glad to hear. God bless you!

2009-09-29T20:23:50.684-07:00

Well, I am so glad to hear. God bless you!

Thanks for the post! As a Latter-day Saint who ha...

2009-09-27T21:00:50.767-07:00

Thanks for the post! As a Latter-day Saint who has been abused as a child and come out of homosexuality, I couldn't agree more.

I know my case isn't unique and am trying to do my part to share my message, much to the dismay of the gay rights agenda. Thanks,

2009-09-25T15:06:56.812-07:00

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