Due to a recent situation close to me, I've been considering same-sex attraction a lot more and my church's stance on it. Moving to CA where the highly publicized Prop 8 was just passed (yay!), I've been trying to think about how to best handle the questions that might come my way.
I went to LDS.org to see what the official church stance on it was and found some really good articles, but a few of them are really long. I didn't think I'd read through all of them, but I ended up getting through most and even a few video interviews. I think the interview with Elder Dallin H. Oaks, an apostle, and Elder Wickman in a q&a session answer the tough questions very well. I'll probably need to re-read it once in CA, but it's good for all to read it, esp since I think it's a very mis-understood topic.
Here is just the final wrap up question to give you a taste:
PUBLIC AFFAIRS: If you had to describe this enormously complex question in a couple of basic principles, what would that be?
ELDER OAKS: God loves all of His children. He has provided a plan for His children to enjoy the choicest blessings that He has to offer in eternity. Those choicest blessings are associated with marriage between a man and a woman by appropriate priesthood authority to bring together a family unit for creation and happiness in this life and in the life to come.
We urge persons with same-gender attractions to control those and to refrain from acting upon them, which is a sin, just as we urge persons with heterosexual attractions to refrain from acting upon them until they have the opportunity for a marriage recognized by God as well as by the law of the land. That is the way to happiness and eternal life. God has given us no commandment that He will not give us the strength and power to observe. That is the Plan of Salvation for His children, and it is our duty to proclaim that plan, to teach its truth, and to praise God for the mission of His Son Jesus Christ. It is Christ’s atonement that makes it possible for us to be forgiven of our sins and His resurrection that gives us the assurance of immortality and the life to come. It is that life to come that orients our views in mortality and reinforces our determination to live the laws of God so that we can qualify for His blessings in immortality.
2 comments:
I read that interview over a year ago and remember thinking it was so good. It's been a while though, I should read it again.
Have you done any house hunting in CA?
It is such a good article, isn't it? Josh has looked a lot in CA, but I want to just live in an apt for a few months and feel out the areas. It's too hard for me to decide when there are so many areas there!
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