A bill has been proposed in Congress which aims "to extend the registration and conscription requirements of the Selective Service System, currently applicable only to men between the ages of 18 and 26, to women between those ages". In other words, to require women to register for draft into military service.

The bill can be found here: https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/house...

It is a part of a larger bill, found here: https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/house...

The proposed bill would destroy the Constitutionally guaranteed liberty of millions of American families to live according to their faith, including my own, making this country uninhabitable by persons practicing such faiths.

I do not speak for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but I speak as an individual observer of that faith with a covenant obligation to uphold and defend the doctrine of the Family as taught by its leaders, the chiefest of whom is the Lord Jesus Christ.

In September of 1995, the Prophet and President of the Church at that time, Gordon B. Hinckley, issued a Proclamation to the entire World on the Family on behalf of the Church:

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/1995/10/the...

In part, the document states:

"Gender is an essential characteristic of individual premortal, mortal, and eternal identity and purpose."

Further, the divinely decreed roles of each respective gender within the marriage relationship are clearly defined:

"By divine design, fathers are to preside over their families in love and righteousness and are responsible to provide the necessities of life and protection for their families. Mothers are primarily responsible for the nurture of their children."

Observers of the faith cannot in good conscience force women from their homes and from their fundamental responsibilities of nurture and care or preparation for children into a role which God has appointed solely to men--to act in the capacity of protectors and defenders in the United States military.

I plead with American officers of government and voters everywhere to recognize that to pass this act would be to violate the sacred right to religious freedom of millions of American citizens, by making impossible the pattern of life and duty that God has revealed to us as our foremost of earthly obligations.

The Proclamation on the Family further states:

"In these sacred responsibilities, fathers and mothers are obligated to help one another as equal partners."

It is manifest to the world that we who sign this petition already view, or support the religious freedom of those who view, men and women as equals without feeling a need to force women into the roles of men or vice-versa in order to enact said equality.

I call upon our people to protect the right of women in our faith to prepare without hinderment for the sacred responsibilities of motherhood, which is our nation's greatest strength.

Our officers of government have a moral obligation to the American people to protect their Constitutional rights, including the free exercise of religion.

This petition will be delivered to our lawmakers in Congress with the attached signatures as evidence of irreparable harm to American families caused by the bill's assault against First Amendment rights.