We don't know quite what to do with anonymous emailed comments. Since we can’t reply to them privately, we have to reply on our public blog. The following was a comment on our post entitled “Gays in the Church – Let’s Think it Through.”
Anonymous:
So, lots of questions/concerns, but interestingly enough, you might actually be wrong about the temple.
In the 1990 changes the law of chastity went from gendered to non-gendered. Since now everybody just follows chastity by restricting sexual relations to their legal spouse, theoretically, a legal gay marriage does not violate that covenant.
You don't have to teach two laws. You just have to apply the one law equally.
SoL response:
First, we don’t know what you mean by any change “from gendered to non-gendered.” We’re pretty sure the words “husband or wife” are meant to refer to opposite sexes.
Second, your theory does not hold water. The law of the land may sanction "gay marriage," but this does not change God's law of chastity which says that homosexual sex is out of bounds, monogamous or not. You seem to have ignored the fact that the very nature of homosexuality is unchaste. And of course monogamy does not necessarily equal chastity in any case. There are many ways heterosexual married people can be unchaste, too. Even our feelings and thoughts can be unchaste, such as lusting after other people's spouses. Our outward behavior, as well as all our desires, passions, and appetites, are to be kept within God's law.
Sounds like an error of syntax. Just because it says husband or wife does not mean there may be two husbands or two wives. From the context and the very nature of the temple, we can infer that we are not meant to marry the same sex.
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