Are Celibate Gay Mormons Any Sort of Heroes?

Here at SoL we sure wish people would think things through a little. That's okay. We'll help you. Of course it's up to you to discern truth and error, good and evil, sin and righteousness in what you read here. But at least you get to hear another side of things from us. The side that is hardly ever said or heard these days.

What we've been hearing, yes, from within our church, is that an actively gay middle-aged man who gives up gay sex so he can come back into full church fellowship is somewhat heroic. But wait, he lets everyone know he still lusts after sodomy. He even brags and jokes about his sex drive and glows over the delights he experienced during decades of sexual debauchery. (See our previous post, That We May Be Homosexualists.)

Heroic? Really? Doesn't he sound more like a dirty old man?

Bear in mind we are not not talking about people who quietly and privately resist and even conquer their demons and move on. We're talking about people who have had their cake and are still eating it. These are people who are pushing an agenda, the narrative that gay is who they are, that gay sex is not only harmless but wonderful, that not only the world but the church will come around sooner or later to embrace these relationships. And they are making great progress. When such a book as one of these proud gays has written is held up in a Sunday women's meeting as don't-miss reading, as it was in our ward, we are well on our way. In fact, we're there. And no, they won't stop. They will never stop. Evil will always triumph if good people do nothing to stop it. In this case, supposed good people are even encouraging it.

As usual, there is so much wrong with this whole thing we don't know where to begin. So we'll just begin anywhere.

Just because a man says he is celibate or has given up committing sodomy, are there other related habits he is engaged in? Even so, is a man who is helped to overcome some noxious sexual habit like masturbation and pornography addiction a hero? Is a man who merely gives up prostitutes heroic? Is a married man who gives up adultery a hero? Is a man who once sexually molested and abused children any sort of public hero? Ever?

 Are single straight celibate people heroes? We never hear anything about them. Are straight fornicators who gave it up heroes? Are former adulterers heroes? We never hear any praise for them either. In fact, such things are not even spoken of.  Why is it that only gays, and among the orthodox Mormon culture for the time being, only supposed celibate gays, considered heroes? Especially and particularly?

What this is is nonsense. The sexual drive is a human trait, not a gay trait. 

Are any sinners (which means all of us) heroes for the sole reason that we cease to commit some outward sin? Really? If we give up one sin, aren't there more sins we have to work on?  What about sins of the heart, as in inward sexual purity? In fact, should we fallen humans ever allow ourselves to be thought of as spiritual heroes? 

In the case of gay Mormons, for instance, what if they define celibacy differently than most other people? What aspects of the lifestyle are they still engaging in? Porn? Masturbation? Phone sex? These activities are staples of homosexuality. What if they gave it up just because they got caught? What if they got older and didn't care so much about sex anymore? What if they just couldn't get a gay sex partner they liked? What if they saw something else they now want more? What if they calculated on gaining another sort of selfish advantage? What if they are just saying they gave it up? Is there proof? Has a lot of time passed?

Shouldn't it matter why the person gave it up? If it was really to get back into the church, shouldn't it matter why they want back into the church? What if they just want to make names for themselves and further the acceptance of the gay identity, and then the behaviors? It's certainly being furthered! Churches everywhere have completely reversed their position on homosexuality in the last 10-15 years! Bible or no Bible!

Shouldn't it matter what this person's character is? Shouldn't it matter what his beliefs and desires are? Shouldn't it matter if he has experienced a mighty change of heart? Shouldn't we care about these things for the safety of those in the flock and for the sake of the individual's own precious immortal soul? The scriptures are certainly clear. A person can repent as many times as necessary, and be fully welcomed back into the fold, that is, after some time passes as evidence of his repentance.

But wait. Hold it right there. Nowhere in this now popular celibate gay Mormon narrative that people are gobbling up and swallowing whole are the words sin and repentance. In other words, there is no gospel of Jesus Christ in this scenario. All we have is the outward politically correct appearance of things. Nothing about sin. Nothing about the heart. No mighty change. Nothing about Christ as our essential Savior from sin. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing.

This is what happens when we pretend at Christianity, when we secularize religion, when we have become first-class hypocrites. This is what happens when we put human beings and human desires and human positioning, in other words, the world, before God. Christ is mischaracterized beyond recognition. Something else more popular takes his place. And plenty of people unthinkingly go for it.

Who knew that so many people would forsake the Lord to take up the banner of something as stupid and gross as perverse sexual appetite, that is, homosexual lust? There are many other false idols, but, incredibly, this one highly politicized and distorted issue has become the national taste and is leading many people on that broad path away from Christ.

Believing in and having faith in Christ is for people who are desperately interested in forgiveness, who long to be forgiven of their sins, their flaws, their faults, their humanness. It's not for people who have little or no sense of sin, who perceive little or no need for redemption, who think they can sufficiently manage themselves so as to avoid relying fully on Christ. Such people, if they claim to be followers of Christ, are the worst kind of hypocrite. Real followers of Christ believe he is the only way. 

To borrow from Hugh Nibley, the righteous are those who are repenting; the wicked are those who are not.

Perhaps, in a private circle of family and friends, people who forsake their sins and sinful desires, inside and out, gay "identity" included, could be regarded as a type of hero in that they chose to leave behind a pleasurable and destructive and difficult-to-overcome sin and turned their lives around, while all the world mocked and derided them. As we recall Jordan Peterson putting it, being a real hero means you've done something positive, not just quit doing something evil.
 
More accurately, they should be regarded as repentant sinners, precious, humble, even holy. But there is no such scenario and no such doctrine coming from Mormon homosexualists, who seem to have a strangle hold on the powers that be. And make no mistake. Anybody, yes, anybody, who makes excuses for homosexual identity, lusts, and/or acts (that includes gay marriage) is a homosexualist.

And yes, we will be judged on our desires. There is no hiding those from the Lord, now or ever. Nothing unclean can dwell in God's presence. That includes a dirty mind. And that includes any sort of worldliness. The only way to become clean is by repentance through the blood of Christ. Crazy how nowadays this kind of talk sounds stodgy and overzealous and weirdly religious to most people. But it's absolutely true and we rarely say it or hear it anymore, even in church. We're even worse than the Zoramites.

There is only One True Hero where we sinners are concerned, and people are free to take him or leave him. That Hero is Christ, and only those who have truly repented of any sin, large or small, know who he is.