This is beautiful, eloquent, and far better than I could do. One last thing I want to leave with is a special song (from the Hunger Games soundtrack) by The Secret Sisters. Every time this shuffles through my playlist, all I can think of is this topic, and the beautiful future on the horizon. It's worth the 3 minute listen, I promise.
Posted on behalf of Josh Behn:
One could also argue that God may indeed never change, but eons have been spent by imperfect men and women who have tried to interpret God’s will to match the lens through which they see the world.What does scripture teach us? The Book of Mormon is silent on the topic, as is the D&C. Christ never spoke in any of the new testament writings about homosexuality nor same sex Individuals in loving relationship (though he did speak harshly on condemning your brother, and sat down to dinner with sinners).The apostle Paul’s writings are about the closest we get, and biblical scholars tell us that it really wasn’t about homosexuality, but temple prostitution and gender roles within that society (Paul also spoke heavily against women having a voice in religion, as well as being subservient to their husbands).The old testament of course has its own law of Moses prohibitions, but then again, Christ did fulfill that law and we can confidently throw out men lying with men along with eating shellfish, banishing women from the presence of men during menstruation, and putting to death disobedient children.Finally we get to the section known as the Torah, to the story of Lot and Sodom and Gomorah, which really seems to fuel the fire. Hate to rain on the parade, but ask any seminary teacher and they will tell you the sin of sodom was in-hospitality to strangers (the ultimate offense in any tribal civilization). If a secondary sin could be identified it would be aggressive rape.So, nowhere in scripture (spanning 4,000 years) do we actually have any prohibitions against men and women in same sex relationships. What we do have in scripture is plenty of stories of war, slavery, inhumanity and civilizations with very little in common with our own.What is better than scriptural defense is personal revelation. And for thousands upon thousands, the personal answer received was that God loved them the way they are and they were to embrace and live the gifts they had been given. If we are to discount this, than we must also throw out the idea of personal revelation as a church. We must remove the Joseph Smith story and be done with it. Who would you feel comfortable in the day of judgement having disobeyed? Imperfect men or God in Heaven?“To reach the heavens is sublime, but also on dear Earth is life wonderful and amazing; So let us remain mere mortals.”
Bro. W.A. Mozart
Over and out. :)
