Some consider hanging the Family Proclamation evidence of one’s orthodoxy. Others received it as a gift and hung it to be polite. And many don’t hang it up for a variety of reasons. What’s on your wall?
[poll id=”433″]
Discuss.
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Hang the Proc! (Weekend Poll
Wheat & Tares 
How about thinking about it, but have not taken the time to frame and hang?
It was sent to me by a parent as one more reminder of how much he hates homosexuals. The proclamation is not welcome in my home. I worry that the proclamation might cause any of my children to think I don’t love them should they be gay… so we discuss issues of sexuality to let them know I’m accepting.
It is hard to fully know just how much damage this document is doing to our loved ones…
it is the product of a committee… and conceived from a very prejudicial mindset, and by having it hanging in member’s homes, it was assumed that it could garner the kind of acceptance that it was not granted by a vote of common consent.
I found a parody of the Proc that I almost decided to hang, but then I realized that looking at it would have just reminded me of the original I didn’t like. Big downer. Kind of like when “IhatetheUtahJazz” was my work password.
When did it become a thing to hang this up in our houses? I knew a family in a previous ward that had a framed copy displayed prominently in every room of the house–including the bathrooms. I’m not sure anyone needs to be reminded of gender essentialism right before showering.
If the Proclamation had been tendered as an Official Declaration at general conference I think the number of hands raised in support would have been more than enough for acceptance. The few hands raised in objection would not have meant anything. The common consent argument is meaningless. The POTF is emphasized, supported and based on all sorts of doctrinal and policy positions through out official church materials despite nay sayers’ efforts to say otherwise. If you want to disagree with the POTF, that’s your business. But in doing so you are disagreeing with 15 prophets, seers and revelators.
Idiat, I personally don’t believe that the brethren are in agreement regarding the proclamation or it would have been brought before the body of the church for its official adoption…
Seeing as how this hasn’t happened, I suspect that there are two opposing factions where it comes to the proclamation. The faction that is pushing for the adoption, in not winning approval to ‘canonize’ the proclamation as scripture, decided to supersede the usual format, and instead, firmly root the document into the cultural narrative… (by recommending every family display the document prominently in the home, and in every meeting house.) This was done knowing full well that for most mormons, culture is the strictest police of orthodoxy while not necessarily correctly reflecting gospel truths. And since there is no specific doctrinal basis for many of the issues addressed in the proclamation, there should be great hesitancy in officially recognize it as revealed truth. (Especially considering it was developed by a committee, and not by prophetic revelation.)
Idiat, there is no mention of pre earth life gender in any scripture… and therefore, just as other culturally disastrous assumptions that have been mistaken as doctrine (race and the priesthood a case in point) we cannot just assume that gender is an eternal and immutable constant. Discouraging women from working is so obviously a cultural thing that even the reading of it is embarrassing.
The insistence that our standards be adopted by all nations, or dire consequences will ensue is as solipsistic as it is heretical (not to mention the complete disregard for similar intolerance in our own history leading to more than one extermination order). That this acts as a motivation for members to foist our standards onto a non mormon society flies in the face of Article of Faith 11 and Doctrine and Covenants 134… That we cannot envision our role in a harmonious pluralistic society where morals are a personal concern and ethics are a public concern is the most damning evidence of an ego centric Wasatch cosseted mentality and not a God’s eye view of His children of which we are but a small number.
I have Jesus and my family on my walls.
Regardless of what fam proc says, I don’t really ever hang any kind of document on the wall. It’s not aesthetic and I never get why people do it. You rarely see it outside of mormon homes. If I were to hang any kind of written word it would be the sermon on the mount.
I thought we were really going to hang the prop. Like in effigy or something. Bummer.
There is really nothing in the proclamation. Really not worth the paper to print it big enough to hang on the wall. You can take many pages out of the lesson manuals and get the same type of comments or rhetoric. What the church really believes are in action and families are not front and center at all. If you look at support structure for families with gay children, drugs, suicidal, and other crises all we get is some well intentioned guy to tell you read scriptures and pray more. If it gets really bad (jail or a hospital visit) then they will call in a pro.
I was given a wonderful framed copy of the lords prayer by a catholic man. I see documents in other religions members homes all the time. It is very common to hang your faith on the walls.
Something hung on the wall would hopefully invite examination; and POTF is too lengthy for that. The hallway of our home displays 11×14 pictures of the Temples we have visited. Everyone sees them on the way to the bathroom!
For all those who object to the POTF, I can’t help but wonder what their own version would read like. Would it be spiritually uplifting, or filled with hateful name-calling for anyone who has a different opinion?
jb #11 makes my point. Handbook Two, Sunday, institute, seminary lessons and Ensign articles etc. say the same things as are set forth in the POTF. You can certainly disagree with them, not like them, and so forth but it won’t change the fact that those principles are the church’s current position. I’m not aware of any of the FP/Q12 expressing any kind of dissent or disagreement over its content.
IDIAT #13
FP/Q12 disagreeing?
Perhaps Boyd Packer stating live in conference (Oct 2010) that the POTF was scripture, and then when his transcript was reviewed by the FP/Q12, he was forced to remove the reference to it being scripture, would be sufficient for you to acknowledge dissent or disagreement over its content.
And don’t believe for a minute that he slipped up and didn’t realize what he was saying in conference. And further, don’t believe for a minute that he removed it willingly.
There is more than one member of that august group (FP/Q12) that has privately referred to Boyd as a “moron”.
Religious displays in our home are limited to desk-size models of Thorvaldsen’s Christus, Michaelanngelo’s Pieta and Disposition.
What’s on my wall? In my man cave, I have the Buddhist Wheel of Life. I also have a side of Sierra Nevada’s box of Pale Ale, which if you use my preferred pronunciation of Pale Ale, it brings a whole new feeling to my man cave.
Sean 14 – you must run in different circles than me and other members if you know for a fact that “more than one member of that august group has referred to (President) Boyd K. Packer as a “moron.””
Markag #12: that’s not very nice to think individual proclamations would have hateful name calling. Really? Members who have GLBT folks in their family, or have a mother who works outside the home, or believe presiding is done by both parents, not just one would write much kinder, more loving, more inclusive proclamations without hateful name calling at all. That was a below the bar remark. Hope you do better next time. Hope you think better even more.
A few others have made this point, but I don’t see the purpose of hanging any lengthy document on my wall. Seeing pictures of my loved ones reminds me of the value of my family far more than a bunch of words that just blend into the general background. Pictures of my family are more to the point, anyway. I don’t fit the mold preached in the family Proclamation, so seeing it doesn’t give me warm fuzzies like seeing pictures of my loved ones does.
On the same count, I have pictures that speak to me of Jesus Christ, but I’m not going to hang pages of the New Testament up on my wall even though I adore the New Testament. I was also always baffled that at my university, someone had gone to all the trouble and expense of putting a printed copy of the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights up in every classroom on campus. I love those documents, too, but I’m not going to stand there and read them.
The presence of the words doesn’t lend the home any special holiness. What does sanctify a home is when we treat our family members with as much love as we have.
The Proclamation on the Family was written for the church to use in legal briefs in its efforts to stop same-sex marriage. It is an anti-gay document disguised as a feel-good celebration of The Family. My sister gave me a framed copy to hang on my wall. I ripped the document out and used the frame for a picture of my husband and I together with our adopted gay son. That is our own family proclamation.
Whatever that is LDS-related that I display in my home is whatever aesthetically pleases me as fitting within the decor, like a temple pic or something of the Savior. I feel no need to “preach” to anyone with artwork or posters in mine home; the home itself and the conduct of its inhabitants ought to suffice as a Gospel message.
Still, I more than accept PotF as scripture and wise counsel. Judging from the vituperousness of those that reject it; while certainly they have their religious freedom to do so (freedom OF religion by necessity includes freedom FROM it), I see what Spirit those that trump their rejection of same are being led by.
The target audience must be very small. According to figures I looked up 27% of Utahan women never marry, 73% of women of childbearing age work, so those who actually live the Proclamation dream/fiction would seem to be no more than 27% plus the retirees.
The wording is very clever, in that it doesn’t mention gay marriage, but all members know that that is the message. Plausible deniability, perhaps.
Message sent @12.04 AM Monday.
I agree, Geoff. I’m also irritated with the emphasis on using the Proc as the basis for talks lately. It inevitably leads to sexist jokes. It’s not cool to joke about races. Why is it OK to joke that men work hard so women can spend their money? Or to assert that all men are one way and all women are another way? For those of us who don’t fit the mold, it just sounds ridiculous.
For the younger generation, the Proclamation is interpreted not as being about gay marriage but about gender roles and a woman’s place. I believe men can nurture as well as women so it does not hang in my home. Heavenly Father is a male and he can nurture as well as as woman. In order for women to be able to step in their husband’s role should it be necessary, they have to be prepared to earn a living. I have pictures of Christ and the Salt Lake Temple.