The Plan and Proclamation


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So, I'm giving the lesson for priesthood tomorrow.  I went over the talk (The Plan and Proclamation -- Dallin H. Oaks. Oct 2017 Conference).

I found several rather interesting things.

1) The first half of the talk is about being in the world but not of the world.  Not a single word about the Proclamation other than repeated mention of gay marriage and cohabitation outside of marriage.

2) The beginnings of the Proclamation.

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The inspiration identifying the need for a proclamation on the family came to the leadership of the Church over 23 years ago (Early 1994). It was a surprise to some who thought the doctrinal truths about marriage and the family were well understood without restatement.  Nevertheless, we felt the confirmation and we went to work. Subjects were identified and discussed by members of the Quorum of the Twelve for nearly a year. Language was proposed, reviewed, and revised. Prayerfully we continually pleaded with the Lord for His inspiration on what we should say and how we should say it. We all learned “line upon line, precept upon precept,” as the Lord has promised (D&C 98:12).

During this revelatory process, a proposed text was presented to the First Presidency, who oversee and promulgate Church teachings and doctrine. After the Presidency made further changes, the proclamation on the family was announced by the President of the Church, Gordon B. Hinckley. In the women’s meeting of September 23, 1995, he introduced the proclamation with these words: “With so much of sophistry that is passed off as truth, with so much of deception concerning standards and values, with so much of allurement and enticement to take on the slow stain of the world, we have felt to warn and forewarn.

I thought the timing of the inspiration was perfect based on the experience of Richard Wilkins, Law Professor at BYU at the time, who took it before the UN in Sep 1996.

Spring or summer of 1994 - receive inspiration to write it in the first place.

Draft and re-draft for about a year.  - spring or summer of 1995.

Send to First Presidency for review -- approve over the spring and summer of 1995.

Announce it in Sep 1995 (women's meeting of Conference).

Publish it in various forms throughout the following months to get it into the consciousness of the Church population.

Then in June of 1996: Bro Wilkins goes to the UN to stress the important role of the family to a UN council on international laws regarding family  -- in defense against the attacks specifically by "The Women's Caucus" a US feminist organization run by Bella Abzug.

Through political maneuvering and stategem, the Caucus had managed to get all kinds of radical lesbian feminism written into the law and used all means necessary to silence all opposition.  But little miracle after little miracle brought Bro Wilkins to speak before the UN.  When originally preparing what was supposed to be a 10 min presentation, the Caucus' tactics cut his time down to 4 minutes.

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Having so little time... he fell back upon the Proclamation... Later, as he retold his experience, Wilkins admitted that at the time it first came out he read it and thought,"Yes, well, we all know that."

But THAT DAY in Istanbul, standing before influential representatives from across the world, he knew without a doubt it was an inspired document...one prepared well in advance by Prophets of God, for just such a time as this.

He received a standing ovation and many compliments and thanks from representatives of nearly every country in the world.  The members of the women's caucus actually spit on him (he later found wet spots on his jacket, and made statements that he didn't deserve to live.

by small and simple things:

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Bella Abzug insisted that ther was a massive, well-organized, well-funded organization behind me.  All I ad was a plane ticket...a small travel advance...my Mastercard, and the Proclamation to the World on the Family.

Yes, it really was proclaimed to THE WORLD that day.

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What had looked, from the beginning, like another total victory for the feminist agenda was, instead, almost total defeat.

Whether it is considered revelation on the level of "thus Saith The Lord" such as most secitions of the D&C is immaterial.  It is revelation from God.  The document as it is written was inspired by God to men who listened, and prayed, and listened some more, until we have the product that so many see as so obvious that it causes many to say,"Yes, we already know all that."

A brother in my ward has been working with custody issues.  In one court session, he quoted some lines from the Proclamation which swayed the judge toward his favor.  Later, he commented to him that he had never heard such obvious truth stated so clearly and succinctly as that.  And he thanked him, mentioning that he would carry those sentiments in his courtroom in future trials.

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7 hours ago, zil said:

@Carborendum, do you have a link or something where one can find the UN story?

1 hour ago, Sunday21 said:

I'd like to thank Sunday for providing these links. 

I received an email back in 1999 to 2000 that spoke of his adventure.  This page is what I recall that email to have said.  When I receive an email like that, I do my best to check sources so long as I have time.  So, I forwarded this to the David M. Kennedy center and asked them to verify what it said.  The response was that one sentence said something incorrect.  The sentence said that he read the Proclamation (implying that he read the whole thing verbatim).  The correction was that he paraphrased many salient points and only gave a few direct quotes.  This was necessary to stay under the 4 min time limit.

Also fun reading is:

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/jack-huberman/screwing-up-america-richa_b_26069.html

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Screwing Up America: Richard Wilkins and the Mormon-Evangelical-Islamo-Fascist Axis of Extreme Evil

Richard Wilkins was the mayor of Sunnydale in the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, who sold his soul to demons in return for never aging. But the Richard Wilkins we’re concerned with is a law professor at Brigham Young University (BYU) in Utah who has literally made a pact with different demons.

In recent years, while leaders of the Christian right have made a habit of attacking Islam with some of most lively and colorful vilification in the history of American religious bigotry ... some, recognizing the affinities between Christian and Muslim fundamentalism, have forged ties even with Islamic clerics and governments that endorse jihad against America—all for the greater good of attacking homosexuality, women’s rights, and the rest of the moral corruption for which Western societies must and will be destoyed by the hand of God.

...

A week after the conference, Wilkins’ lobbying efforts somehow got a Qatar-sponsored, “pro-family,” anti-women’s rights resolution approved by the UN General Assembly—without a vote. “For the first time at the UN, we had the anti-family powers scrambling by surprising them,” the Mormon magazine, Meridian, boasted.

Hey, if Huffpo is that angry with the guy, I guess he must have done some good in his life.

Really, there are so many gems like these quotes above that the article makes for fun reading.  The reason I found it so funny was that if you take the rhetoric out, the ad hominems out,  the mischaracterizations out, the lies out, etc.  it really sounds like an article praising his efforts.  I am absolutely amazed that someone could line-by-line outline this man's greatest accomplishments and then believe they had made an unshakable case against this man.  I couldn't stop smiling as I read it.

It was just another case of: Thank you for your enodrsement.

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