Sunday, April 14, 2019

Straight and Gay Equality in the Mormon Church: What This Looks Like

Lots of developments have taken place lately among the LDS flock. Shepherds have reversed their roles. Wolves have entered in. The unrepentant are numbered among the repentant; their names are no longer to be blotted out. Evil is being called good. Good is being called evil. (Apparently the worst thing certain people can do these days is call out bad things some people are doing.) The hideous abortion culture and all the LGBTQ social travesties are left unaddressed. All that matters is being nice and loving everybody. (And when did we not be nice and love everybody?) Most people are acting like the three silly monkeys with their eyes, ears, and mouths covered. The worst and most absurd and lustful imaginings of men are being ignored, indulged, encouraged, celebrated. Humble people and troubled families are being left on their own to try to make sense of these crazy things. God's eternal truths are being treated as changeable, transient, dependent upon the fashionable, noisy wickedness of the times. Our people are committing atrocities.

Yes, atrocities. Men are abandoning their holy promises, their faith,
their wives and children, for hedonistic same-sex sex. (Note 8/23/19 Ed Smart for instance.) Family members are being forced to join in celebrating same-sex weddings or be ostracized by their loved ones. A returned missionary turns to male gay prostitution and contracts AIDS. Wouldn't you call a young woman voluntarily having healthy parts of her body cut off so she can more easily pretend to be a male an atrocity? Her grieving Mormon mother sure does. It sounds positively medieval.

Voltaire said, "Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities."

Here's a little atrocity we experienced ourselves the other day. We were innocently driving down a local street when suddenly a vehicle pulled up alongside us out of nowhere, the driver seeming to shout angrily at us. He pointed and waved a large middle finger at us violently. At the same time his car swerved threateningly into our lane toward ours. What was this road rage about? Fearing for our safety we quickly turned onto the first available side road and lost him. All we can figure out is that this bearded thirty-something man in a van was angry at our conservative bumper stickers, most probably the little 2-inch rainbow circle with a line through it. We reported this incident to the police. Bumper stickers are legal, whereas using one's car to threaten people is against the law. And you know, we've seen plenty of bumper stickers we don't like or agree with, but it has never occurred to us to treat any such car or driver in any inconsiderate, much less vulgar, dangerous, or violent manner. So where is the hate really coming from? And where is the kindness?

One result of these above recent developments is that lately we have seen many confused, frustrated, and sad faces, full of pain and suffering. And we have seen some of these same people starting to wake up, starting to think for themselves, starting to let go of their trust in human beings, and turn to God. After all, the scriptures say we are cursed if we put our trust in men, cursed as in stagnated,  deceived, harmed, even led to hell, perhaps. Therefore, shifting our religious responsibilities to ourselves and the Lord is one very good thing that is happening. We in the trenches must engage our God-given intellects, seeking the Spirit to discern truth and error, and guide our families. 

One troubling development that has occurred in our church is that homosexual and heterosexual immoral acts will now be treated exactly the same. Sure, we get it. Gays are all about equality, as per their bumper stickers, shown here. If equality is the primary principle, how can we not see that many homosexual behaviors in same-sex dating and gay marriage will now be acceptable? The problem is that homosexuality is always bad and wrong and unhealthy and unnatural, and heterosexuality is very good and right and healthy and natural in one particular setting---proper relations between faithful man and woman in marriage. So we must point out that in treating homo and hetero immorality exactly the same (such as punishing child abuse, rape, premarital sex, and adultery), homosexual acts other than those, such as sodomy in gay marriage---the only way two men can imitate sexual intercourse---will now be allowed unquestioned.

Even though officially the church is still against gay marriage, top leaders have stated they are leaving dealing with this issue up to local leaders. Therefore, we are quite sure most local church leaders will not question gay marriage among members as it is now legal, pressure to accept it is so great, the public has been completely indoctrinated, and they are not being given specific instructions from the top.

Yes, while equal treatment may forbid some behaviors for both straights and gays, it also allows every gay behavior except those sinful for straights. In other words, equality demands that things that are not sinful among straights can no longer be treated as sinful among gays. Think about it. In this supposed Christ-centered, morality-based church, gay members can, with impunity, indulge and practice same-sex romantic fantasies. (Apparently nobody cares much these days about sexual purity in the heart, mind, or soul, even though the scriptures say that no unclean thing can dwell in God's presence.) In addition, gays can now flirt, dance, hold hands, hug, date, court, show affection publicly, get engaged, and yes, get married and have a family (in their case only through artificial means). None of these acts are immoral for heterosexuals, so evidently they won't be treated as immoral for homosexuals. In one blink, gay coupling just became allowed in the Mormon church.

Yes, the official pronouncements are very difficult to decipher, but if you can, they indeed appear to compromise the 1995 Family Proclamation and reverse a certain "revelation" that was given just a few years ago about not allowing children of gay parents to get baptized. (Isn't it line upon line, not line upon redacted line?) Gay coupling, including gay marriage, is now acceptable in a church that only 11 years ago headed a huge campaign for California's prop 8, which was against legalizing gay marriage. Many people have not left their church, but quite suddenly their church has certainly left them.

How is this possible, you ask? As far as we can make out, from what we have heard here and there, Mormons use the following line of reasoning in order to justify these rapid changes and developments. Get ready. We are not making this up.The thing that is still what they call "a serious transgression" (not necessarily requiring any church discipline, left to local authorities) is just the actual ceremony of same-sex marriage. Not sex acts like sodomy, etc. Now this is the reason why and it might stun you. Powers that be and many members actually believe, or reason, or pretend, or wish, or are convinced that Mormon gays do not act out. We have actually heard this perception expressed verbally by specific individuals in positions of authority. Let that sink in.

Of course "acting out" is not defined. Aren't all of the behaviors listed above homosexual acts? Oh well, let's say what they mean is that they are confident that their very special and precious same-sex attracted church members, family members, and friends are and will forever remain celibate, which means they have not, do not, and will not have full-on same-sex sexual relations, but instead act like, well, close friends. Apparently even when they are married!

News flash. Married people sleep together. They have sexual relations. Marriage is actually the only relationship that is supposed to be sexualized. Of course the institution of marriage has been hijacked and held hostage by the LGBT juggernaut. Activists don't really care at all about gays being "married;" they just hate God and want sex to be for any and everyone, which negates the whole idea of marriage as the only place where sex is supposed to happen. They want to bring the whole house down, as Midge Decter put it. And now same-sex people can get married, and recognized as such, in the Mormon church no less. So there you go. Do people really think that open homosexuals, who insist this is how God made them, who are all about complete equality with heterosexuals, or actually better than, are going to refrain from sex, at least in the only way they can ever, sort of, kind of, do it?

Come now. Is there any reason to assume that unrepentant, same-sex attracted couples, now accepted, are not going to play out their romantic and sexual feelings? With their public sexualized "identity" and in this hedonistic, pornogrified, eroticized environment that tells them with the touch a fingertip that whatever feels good is right and supplies unlimited immediate partners? Is there any evidence? Do we know if any such couples exist? If so, might they be the exception? And another thing: Is there anything wise or realistic or even honest or kind about this fantastic gay celibacy idea? Can we seriously accept people for "who they are" and then not allow them to live that way? No, and so now we are allowing them to live that way, aren't we?---just by pretending that they aren't living that way.

About this conundrum one octogenarian said, "Well, their leaders will just ask them if they are doing it, like they ask everybody else about sexual immorality." Really? Ask married people if they are having sex? It's not immoral! Who asks such a thing of heterosexuals? Nobody, so they can't ask homosexuals. Equality, remember? And even if they were asked, the gay narrative is that lying about it is perfectly fine, if it furthers the cause.

A middle-aged man approached us at a conference this past week. He seemed stunned, in a sort of daze as if faced with something absolutely unbelievable. He said he knew a wonderful young man with so much promise, a young gay Mormon, a favorite, whom everybody trusted could and would live a celibate life. The man looked off in the distance and said, "I just can't believe it. He is living that terrible lifestyle now. And he was such a good boy . . ."

Do people really think we don't reap what we sow?

Do people really think that those emboldened enough and experienced enough and rebellious enough to publicly come out as gay are not involved in pornography and have not experimented and are not acting on it and never will? When such shenanigans are approved of by society and government? Are people really this naive? Or is this gullibility a put-on for convenience-sake, a loophole so as not to have to single out for anything negative the highly protected LGBTQ crowd? And let's not forget that many Mormons today---yes, maybe the ones sitting next to you in church---are perfectly fine with people having gay sex. They can't for the life of them figure out why our leaders don't just let people "love"---read: sex around with---whomever they want! Hello? Nobody is stopping anybody from purely and truly loving anybody sans sex.

Make of that presumption---that Mormon gays are purity itself---what you will. With no satisfactory explanations, everyone is doing just that, making of all of this what they will. As for us at SoL, we repeat. Homosexuality is being portrayed in both mainstream and now in most all churches as normal and wholesome, modeled and taught to children. It is in the air young people breathe today. And yet it is pornographic in nature. It is highly alluring, highly sexual, highly addictive, and highly promiscuous. It is gravely risky and harmful. It is rebellious against nature and God. The acceptance of it as an identity is anti-Christ. It is anti-posterity.Acceptance of the behaviors is a miserable dead end, physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.

Sexual licentiousness knows no bounds and no end. Whatever vile things mankind can imagine, it will do and has done almost since the very beginning. Still, mere sins of the flesh are not the worst sins. For instance, willfully denying and rebelling against God, against goodness and truth, is far worse. But there is hope for all types of sinners. Through Jesus Christ individuals can humble down and admit their sins, turn away from them, repent, and become new beings with changed desires, washed clean and free, loving God first. Strange, within the last decade or so this merciful and glorious gospel solution has no longer been emphasized or even offered in any way regarding same-sex attraction in any official church capacity, not in our church, just like many others. Sin and repentance and redemption are not included in the gay Mormon narrative at all. 

Perhaps the last step (we say last step advisedly) in this long tale of woe is people of the same sex getting married in the Mormon temples. You think not?  What about equality? They have been after this very thing for decades. We remember full-page gay-affirming ads in the papers something like 15 years ago showing two men posing in front of the Salt Lake Temple. They will not stop pressuring the church until this is accomplished. And isn't the groundwork laid? If the required line is that Mormon same-sex couples don't actually do the unspeakable, why can't they be officially joined together now and forever? What about gay-parented families? Why can't the children a same-sex couple procures be sealed to them? The gay family group sheets are already prepared.

Say what leaders will, it is our understanding that just this past week the road was cleared of any obstacles for open gay coupling in the Mormon church and gay temple ceremonies. Not to mention gay teachers and leaders on every level. All celibate of course, wink, wink. This kind of thing is done in private after all, any ultimately fatal or chronic health problems and illnesses are pretty private, too, and no babies ever come of it, so who would know? And if and when they sexually contract deadly disease and chronic debilitating health problems, we're pretty sure nobody would dare to connect the obvious dots. Wouldn't want to judge. They'd probably be even more popular. (Ever heard of bug chasers? These are gays who deliberately have relations with HIV-positive individuals hoping to contract the disease. Apparently in the gay world there is some sort of perverse prestige attached to it.)

As always, we would love to be corrected if we're wrong.

After that, there will be more atrocities to come, yet unimagined by decent people. We haven't even scratched the surface of the transgender insanity being force-fed to us and all that will mean.

So here we are living in a facsimile of Sodom and Gomorrah on steroids, all glossed over with phony righteousness and  diversity and compassion and good works, even falsely sanctioned by God Himself. We imagine Lot's wife just had too many friends and activities she didn't want to leave behind. Do you? What would you sell your soul for?

People ask us if we are keeping the faith. We say, faith in what? Because our faith in God, in Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit teaching us the truth of all things grows stronger every day.

Many Mormons we hear from on these topics have shared that they are greatly comforted and strengthened by the timeless truths referred to on our website and in our books Captain of My Soul, Chased by an Elephant, and Me Tarzan, You Jane. Access the text of Me Tarzan, You Jane for free here. There appear to be very few resources of this kind for Mormons available. Homosexuality, what causes it, the harm and heartbreak it results in, and the possibility of repentance and healing specific to this particular sin are no longer addressed in mainstream Mormonism. Make of that what you will.

Note 4/19/20: On top of the gay lifestyle being modeled in the churches, and gays set up as exemplary members to youth, more results of the type of equality discussed in this post will include youth being not only indoctrinated into homosexualism but initiated into homosex by trusted leaders. If you doubt this will happen, look at the Boy Scouts of America and how it is now bankrupt because of the multitude of sexual abuse law suits. What is encouraged will increase.

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