Dew has given motivational speeches to audiences in the United States and around the world , traveling in Colombia , Africa , the Philippines , Cambodia , Ecuador and Japan . Some of her speeches have included : Dew opened the 2004 Republican National Convention with a prayer after , she said , she had received a telephone request from " out of the blue and after she " had to ask myself if this would appear too partisan , and I decided it was never inappropriate to pray . " She said she thought it " remarkable " that an LDS Church member was invited for the honor , " and even more so a woman . " Dew " drew criticism " resulting from remarks she made on February 28 , 2004 , at a Washington , D.C. , meeting of the Family Action Council International , an interfaith group . According to Lee Davidson , a '' Deseret News '' reporter who was present , Dew quoted a statement by journalist Dorothy Thompson in 1941 : saying that before World War II would be over , every person would either stand for or against German dictator Adolf Hitler — and that trying not to make any choice was in fact making one , for Hitler . Dew said in calm tones that the same is true in the fight for the traditional family , and everyone will support or fight it . " If we do not act in behalf of the family , that is itself an act of opposition to the family , " she said . Dew did add , " At first it may be extreme to imply a comparison between the atrocities of Hitler and what is happening in terms of contemporary threats against the family — but maybe not , " and added she feels that breaking up the family will break up society . The next month the Affirmation : Gay & Lesbian Mormons organization , which is not officially affiliated with the LDS Church , issued a statement expressing “ outrage ” at Dew 's remarks , and in September of the same year the president of the Human Rights Campaign and the strategic director of the National Black Justice Coalition called on President George W. Bush to repudiate Dew 's “ deeply offensive comments about GLBT Americans . ” In April 2005 Dew said that her point had nothing to do with Hitler . “ I was n't comparing anybody to Hitler , ” she said . “ Hitler is irrelevant to the point I was trying to make . ” “ I have friends living an openly gay lifestyle with kids , ” she added . “ In every instance , they are caring parents who love their kids and their kids love them . They know I feel it 's not my prerogative to judge them . It 's their right to choose . ... Those that deal with same-sex attraction have my respect . ” She has authored several books , including the biographies of two presidents of the LDS church — Gordon B. Hinckley and Ezra Taft Benson . She also has written a biography of the 1985 Miss America , Sharlene Wells . All of her works were published in Salt Lake City by Deseret Book
2004 Republican National Convention
2004 Republican National Convention
Sheri L. Dew