What If Most Everyone Encourages Your Child's Self-Destruction?

What if your kid was rebelling against important truths you had modeled and taught him all his life?

What if he was addicted to same-sex pornography and other unspeakably perverse stuff?

What if he had been seduced by predators into some very risky sexual acts?

What if he had now involved himself in all kinds of depraved and unhealthy activities, including drug abuse and violence? (These are common in the gay lifestyle.)

What if he was now denying even the existence of God, not to mention breaking several of the ten commandments?

What if he was the cause of other of your children and relatives turning against you?

What if he was public about his sin, and belligerent and arrogant and narcissistic, meaning he had zero respect for his own good parents' deep and long-held beliefs and didn’t care one iota what distress he caused you or how he hurt you? (Couldn't he at least honor his parents enough to be discreet about it?)

What if this self-destruction and disrespect on the part of your child was breaking yours and other family members’ hearts?

What if you, his parents, were doing your best in handling this situation and relationship the way the Spirit directed you to, as in standing for the right and for the long-term welfare of your child, by letting him know in no uncertain terms that the direction he was going was destructive and testifying of Christ and his power to redeem?

What if you had educated yourself about the dangers of his lawless lifestyle and were trying to teach his siblings how wrong this child's decisions were and how miserable they would make him?

What if all this was the most intellectually, spiritually, and emotionally trying thing you had ever had to do in your life, and you would greatly benefit from moral support from your church and fellow church members, but you weren't getting it?

Even worse, what if church leaders and extended family and fellow church members---who haven’t given much thought at all to the situation and don’t know what unimaginable perverse thoughts and acts your child has embraced --- do the ignorant, cowardly, and politically correct thing by taking your child's side, or even appearing to, and completely belittling, ignoring, and/or rejecting yours?

What if now you saw that there were people who supposedly believed as you did, in your church, but did the opposite?

What if you had to see that there were many worldly and prideful and unrepentant hypocrites in your congregation who had no interest in your plight and spouted philosophies of men and false doctrines?

What if your child got support not only from the depraved gay community but from people you sit next to in a chapel pew?

What if there were very very few to none people you know who understand or agree with you in your time of need?

What if your church was all about family but at the same time supported homosexuality in all its dead-end sterility and disease? (It's very traumatic for good parents to realize their child will not have posterity or a normal family life and may contract horrific but entirely preventable illnesses.)

What if you were shunned in your own supposed Christian congregation because you are steadfast in following Christ?

What if people in your neighborhood and church congregation whom you have known for decades "like" your child's facebook post proclaiming his homosexual relationship/marriage and offer their congratulations, while ignoring the dangers to your child, the facts, God, your brave stand, and your ongoing personal heartache?

What if these people attend your child's "gay wedding," that is, the ceremony and party celebrating homosexual behavior? (Sorry, there is no good reason to do this.)

What if you had to listen to the hypocrites supporting your child and endure this betrayal in church every Sunday?

What if your other children and grandchildren were exposed to this hypocrisy and betrayal and falseness every Sunday?

What if despite this sad and perplexing reality you continued to turn to the Lord and stand for truth and righteousness?

What if someday a miracle occurred and your child realized he was miserable and repented and thanked you for loving him enough to testify of Christ to him and your relationship was restored?(It happened to Alma the Younger. It happened to us. It does happen.) 

What if in the next realm you recognized the Lord when you saw him because through these trials you had become just a little bit humble and selfless---like Him?

Hang in there, friends.

Can You Have Gay Wedding Cake and Eat It?

We were winding our way home the other evening when we passed a popular wedding/reception venue all lit up with the marquee reading for all to see, “Jacob and Jonathan, The Journey Continues.” It struck us that an awful lot of people had to have been totally on board with this celebration in order to make it happen as it apparently did, including Highland Gardens. Apparently these two enjoyed a fancy party and a grand turnout. It may be quite accurate to say that everybody came to the wedding.

The old saying, you can't have your cake and eat it, means you can't keep the beautiful cake intact and eat it at the same time. In other words, you don't get to have two opposite things, you have to choose one or the other. This is what is happening with a new crop of  people in probably every Judeo or Christian sect who are suddenly deciding to contort their beliefs to include approval, not just of the gay identity but of homosexual behavior and gay marriage, which are one and the same thing.

Yes, decent, civilized, and even ostensibly Godly religious people are now approving of homosexual relationships and attending gay weddings, and boasting to the whole world about it. This is astounding, homosexuality comprising filthy lusts, abuses of all kinds, sodomy, pornography, promiscuity, chronic health problems, fatal diseases, sterility, and, according to God, spiritual death and hell---that's where Jacob and Jonathan's continuing journey ends. (And yes, heterosexual weddings celebrate the opposite: selflessness, respect, natural sexual relations, fidelity in heart, mind, and body, good health, fertility, and eternal life.)

Let's go back a bit. Remember the people who have been persecuted for speaking out for traditional marriage? Remember the valiant baker, the photographer, the florist, the printer, the county clerk who refused to have anything to do with gay weddings? They got fired, lost their businesses, got sued, even got thrown in jail. Now we have some supposed followers of Christ who are celebrating homosexuality, who "like" it on facebook and attend these weddings, and at the same time claim to believe homosexual behavior is wrong and/or are active members of churches and believers of the holy scriptures that condemn it. Ouch. That hurts our brains.

Their excuses are rather patheti, in our opinion. They assert that attending ceremonies/parties which socially embrace behaviors God roundly condemns, human experience records as depraved, biology shows to be maladaptive, and medicine proves to be extremely harmful is some sort of love or kindness. They argue that "maintaining a relationship" with the people involved in the sin, that is, blatant unrepentant sinners who revel in their sins and invite others to join in their reveling, is more important than standing for truth and righteousness. Yes, that's how presumptuous and arrogant they are. They make themselves an exception, deciding they know better than God.

They never mention that they have made clear that they are against this behavior. They never say they have warned the friend or loved one of the dangers of their acts. They don't seem to have invited them to change their hearts, come to Christ, repent and be washed clean.  In fact, we have heard a prominent local church leader say he'd never presume to call his family member, a lesbian, to repentance. So, he's got a big church calling and he's never read the scriptures?

Trust us, doing something wrong (attending a gay wedding for example) for some imagined or hoped for future good doesn’t work. Only God can decide such things. We’re supposed to obey Him.

It may help to think about it in terms of any sin, weakness, addiction or what have you. The above excuses do not hold water. Any proud, past-feeling, unrepentant sinner/addict/sociopath/narcissist/selfish person can say, Come celebrate this or that with me! Here, try this or that with me! If  you don't participate I am offended! If you don't celebrate who I am and what I do, you don't love me! You're a bigot! You're unChristian! So what if they say that? Can't you take it? Aren't you going to at least warn them of the very real dangers and consequences of this behavior? If you give in for the insipid reasons above, how far will you give in? Is it okay with you for gay men to seduce and initiate younger males, even minors? This happens everyday in the underground gay world. Yes, even in the gay Mormon world.

 What do these people who attend gay weddings while being against them and saying “God knows my heart” think they are indicating? Here I am at your party but you shouldn't be doing this but I'm not gonna say that out loud, just hey, I'm glad to be here and sure love ya! This is crazy wrong. Sorry, attending a gay wedding is a blatant show of support for homosexual behavior. You are encouraging the behavior by your presence.  How would anybody know to think otherwise?

It makes us wonder: have these people checked with the Lord on this? Or is it their own prideful managing of the situation that motivates them? In the case of loved ones, is it the easy way? We say yes, attending the gay wedding is the easy way, the way that doesn't rock the temporal/social relations boat, the way that puts you in a favorable light with the sinner, the way that “maintains the relationship.” And what relationship is that really? It sounds toxic: one side gets every debauched thing it wants, while the other side has to shut up and go along.  

And what about parents and family of the gay person who actually stand against it? This is right to do but may be uncommon these days. Did these bleeding heart homosex celebraters stop to think how disloyal they are being to the people who love that person the most and are taking a stand against this harmful thing? Oh, we see. They don't care about the parents who are heartbroken, who may have to nurse and finance their kid through illnesses, who have to endure persecution, who are grieving for the estrangement and lost future of a beloved child. These gay-wedding goers aren't interested in maintaining that relationship. They only "care" about the gay person.

And to top it off,  attending a gay wedding is also supporting, agreeing with, and affiliating with apostates; if you are LDS you are in trouble or should be. There's no way around that either, despite all these trumped-up sophistries. It's so sad what twisted thinking people will come up with in order to hold on to their false idols and their swelled heads. Apparently many latter-day saints have embraced homosexuality (gay marriage) without compulsory means.

Reality check: Nobody was ever turned from their sins by others who joined in celebration of those sins. Show us one place in the scriptures where the Lord turns anyone from sin by accepting the sin as harmless, wholesome, or worthy of a party. He told the adulteress to get on her way and sin no more, remember? When he had dinner with hypocrites he spoke right out telling them they were hypocrites, their souls defiled. He never celebrated sin; he exposed and denounced sin.

Celebrating sin is what people are doing who attend a gay wedding: joining in an open celebration of sin. Did you accept the invitation? Did you dress up? Did you attend? Did you smile? Did you eat the cake? Did you drink the punch? Did you hug and shake hands with people? Did you give your congratulations? Did you give a gift? Whatever other strategies a person may be planning, any or all of these types of things signify approval, not just of the couple's apparent fondness for and lifetime commitment to each other (that would be friendship), but of homosexuality. That is, approval of prideful, Godless, perverse, sterile, dangerous sexual acts.

Celebratory actions certainly do not signify disapproval of homosex. Whatever happened to how we're supposed to shake at even the appearance of evil? Or turn away from false teachers? Or stand for truth and righteousness at all times? And on and on. And no, there is no "higher law" for certain people who think they are above God's rules.

Real love includes testifying of truth. It includes warning against sin and evil and harm. But no. Through sophistries and compromises and wishy-washy moral relativism (this is my truth, yours might be different), these homosexualists put human relationships and their own high opinion of themselves before their relationship with Heavenly Father, Jesus, and the Holy Ghost. Is this what denying the Holy Ghost means? They certainly seem to want to have their cake and eat it. Though they couch their reasons for attending gay weddings in kindness and spirituality, what they are doing is actually prideful, false, and cruel because they aren't warning their friend or relative of the consequences of their actions. They are pretty much condemning them to hell. How's that for kindness?

Gay wedding attendees purport to care about these people. If they are clothing their actions in spirituality, they must care about the gay person’s immortal soul. Well then, when will they decide to show it? There is no future time when it comes to warning people about sin and testifying of Christ. The time for that is now. Building up and maintaining a relationship and then someday springing your real reason for investing in that relationship is deceitful trickery. When will people start believing that the gospel (sin, repentance, Christ, forgiveness) is more powerful than anything else, including "maintaining human relationships?" Why do people insist on worshiping oneself and each other instead of God? Worshiping anything other than God becomes a demon, C. S. Lewis reminds us.

Would these people also wave rainbow flags at gay pride parades, hang out at gay bars, sit on the front row at drag queen nightclubs, applaud anonymous gay sex in a public restroom, or show up at gay chem-sex party orgies---if invited to attend by their earnest gay family member or friend, all in order to maintain the relationship? Yes, these things are all part of the lifestyle and to the gays you're a bigot if you presume to put any boundaries whatsoever on their sexual exploits.

There is always going to be something, something the gay person wants you to participate in and approve of. If gay wedding goers' purpose is to maintain relationships, why wouldn't they go to any or all of the above? Why wouldn't they take their whole family? Why not expose their children to such depravities if maintaining the relationship is the holy grail? Why not invite homosexuals over and let them indoctrinate and initiate their family into homosexualism? How about gay porn--you can bet it's all included. How about letting the gay couple stay over and practice their sex acts there in your house? (The laundry will be gross, just so you know.) Is there any line these people will draw? And if they draw a line somewhere, how come they get to draw it at some arbitrary distance well past God's line, according to their own presumptions? This is called making a law unto themselves.

Again, please note that these homosexualists (that's what we call people who are in any way accepting of homosexual ideas, culture, identities, and behaviors) don't mention warning anyone or testifying to them of truth. They don't show any willingness to risk discomfort or disapproval from the openly proud sinner in order to warn them or teach them.

These people obviously have not thought their position through or correctly. They have arrived at a very worldly and purely sociological conclusion. They're so full of some sort of imagined moral superiority and some sort of Godless prideful phony spirituality and some sort of idolatry of human relations that they are blinded to their own intellectual dishonesty and hypocrisy. They certainly are ignoring the reality that these people participate in filthy lusts and pornographic behaviors which include sodomy. Hello? There is a reason the scriptures call these acts filthy.

Let's review. Here's C.S. Lewis. "Love may forgive all infirmities and love still in spite of them: but Love cannot cease to will their removal. . . . Love is something more stern and splendid than mere kindness."  In other words, the kind of "love" the homosexualists brag about is not real love. It's  "maintaining human relationships" as the highest principle; it's putting loving each other before loving God. That's not religious. It's not noble. It's not godly. Some very bad types of people and groups "love" each other in this way: mafia, thieves, gangs, drug cartels, cults. It's actually idolatry. And when "getting along" and "belonging" and "maintaining relationships" trumps warning people of dangerous acts that are harmful to them physically and every other way, it's also outright inhuman.

Said Charles Spurgeon, "Strike me if you will, but hear me; ridicule me, but still I will plead with you; cast me under your feet as though I were the offscouring of all things, but at any rate, I will not let you perish, if it be in my power to warn you of your danger." Now that's truly brave and loving.

Jesus hung out with sinners for the sole purpose of pointing out their deep spiritual sins and calling them to repentance. He wasn't maintaining his temporal relationship with them so perhaps at some future time he'd have some influence. He was actually caring about their immortal souls in the here and now and forever. As a result they sought to kill him. No, he wasn't attending their parties to be popular, he was attending their parties to give them a chance to change and was not shy about vocalizing the truth---at the party! So why don't these so-called Christian/Mormon people who are so proud of themselves for attending gay weddings say something at those weddings? You can bet they don't say one solitary word against sin to these sinners. At the wedding---or ever. So how are they like Jesus in any way? It isn't love and it isn't kindness.

Human relationships are not the foundation or the method when it comes to the gospel of Jesus Christ. The first commandment, to love God above all else, is first for a reason.

Jesus said that his teachings would pit even family members against each other. He said to turn away from unrepentant sinners. He said to blot out their names as long as they refuse to repent.

None of this true stuff sounds much like a party, does it?

Here's a thought. What if the gay person(s) knows beyond a doubt that the friend or family member attending his wedding is against it because they have been very vocal about it. We’ll tell you what happens in that case. It's not that the gay person thinks they are loved by this detractor. It's that the gay person thinks he's won them over to acceptance of his perversion or is in the process of doing so!

People need to try to look beyond appearances. We know this is a bit difficult; there's so much temporal, in-your-face, sparkly, flowery, syrupy-sweet, touchy-feely, emotional, self-concerning junk to see beyond. The unvarnished truth is, we are dealing with very proud and wicked and unrepentant sinners here. They have been deceived and have become deceivers. In spite of what you see before you---the expressions of love and beautiful photos and promises and charm and smiles and hugs and youth and tuxes and cakes and flowers---gays are involved in some very nasty stuff. How do you think they got there? They had to be brought along, step by step, initiated and then making wrong choice after wrong choice, continually exposing themselves to some very bad ideas and thoughts and behaviors---stuff decent people can't even imagine---as to rend them boldly past feeling. Decent people make a mistake in ascribing their own sense of decency and morality to proud public homosexuals.

Remember, the righteous are those repenting. The wicked are those who are not repenting. We don’t see any repentance going on in regards to so-called gay weddings. (Who knows, maybe these outspoken homosexualists have some sexual sins of their own they are enjoying, feel guilty about, or have never repented of, and so are soft on this sin.)

Attending a gay union ceremony/party is wrong, wrong for everybody every time. Do not go. Do what is right, let the consequence follow. For all you know, the gay relative/friend may be testing you to see if you really believe in God and His rules, or if you're a complete hypocrite, or if they can hope to win you over. People need to quit with the excuses and sophistries and pseudo-moral superiority and moral relativism and imagined nuances. Absolutes exist that you can't get around, as uncomfortable as they are in this wicked worldly place.

Whether or not to attend a gay wedding is not a complex problem. You don't have to wonder or ask anybody if you should go or not in each particular circumstance. It's plain common sense and the Spirit of the Lord will confirm it, that is if you care about God and goodness and Christ and immortal souls more than you care about yourself and how wise and great you are and how influential you think you can be with people and how much people like you. Nobody can eat a piece of gay wedding cake, so to speak, and still be against gross sexual immorality. Don't sell your soul for a ridiculous "gay wedding," or anything else.

We have spoken strongly here because we really love God and we really care about the welfare of the immortal souls of those attending gay weddings and of the homosexuals too. That's true charity and that's why we've posted this, come what may.

Thoughts for a Thinking, Feeling, Suffering, Persecuted Believer

Those of us who are disturbed and concerned about the embrace of evil and sin our culture has taken, and especially the tragedy that our church congregations and members of our own families have taken this direction also, have a wonderful opportunity to turn to the Lord. That is actually the most important thing to do.

We empathize with those who have poured out their hearts to us in frustration and disillusionment. We totally understand. We are with you. But, as a wise friend said, those who are complaining are the ones with the most pressing problem. Yes, when we are feeling frustrated and disillusioned, betrayed and perplexed, unsupported, persecuted, and even shunned, we are the ones with the most pressing problem. It's not a problem for our enemies. They don't care. They are full of themselves and completely deceived. We are the ones faltering. Lack of faith is a weakness, a sin in and of itself. If we were perfect we would never falter in our faith. So here we are, ourselves weak and sinful. As such, this is an amazingly clear opportunity to repent and show whose side we are on. It's an amazing opportunity to turn to the Lord, trust fully in him, put our whole reliance on him.

This doesn't mean we won't get discouraged sometimes. It doesn't mean we won't feel sorrow for loved ones and others who have sold their souls to this world and its wickedness; Jesus himself was a man of sorrows. It doesn't mean we won't see what's happening and what will inevitably follow. But it does mean that we continually turn to the Lord, that we wish the true best for everyone, that we choose God first, that we exercise faith in God's plan and Jesus Christ as the only way, that we bear our own small crosses out of love for the Lord, that we live our daily lives looking forward with hope for eternal life. In this way our joy will outweigh our sorrow.

We find it helpful to keep the Word of God close. One way is to memorize scriptures so as to have them at the ready in our hearts and minds at any time. Here are some good ones to memorize and ponder and apply, to, if we must coin a word,  applonderize.

Howabout:

We are troubled on every side,yet not distressed; we are perplexed but not in despair; persecuted but not forsaken; cast down but not destroyed. 2 Corinthians 4:8-9

Or this particular favorite:

. . . let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the author and finisher of our faith. Hebrews 123:1-2


Of course there's:

Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. Proverbs 3: 5-6

Maybe the best:

And now my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock or our Redeemer, who is Christ , the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty wind, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless woe because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall. Helaman 5:12

There are seemingly endless terribly lovely truths to choose to hold in our minds. And that is what we must do.

Flannery O'Connor said (and we paraphrase) that any dismay at the wickedness of the world or the inefficiencies of the church is a sign of our nearness to God. There is nothing much we can do about the powers that be here on earth. We mustn't worry about it. Our primary job is to preserve and grow our own personal faith, and that's a difficult enough job for anybody nowadays. Now is the time for followers of Christ to do what they say they believe, to live out the gospel in their minds and hearts and actions. And by the grace of Christ miracles may occur, the greatest miracle being the change in a hard human heart --- including our own.

What Constitutes an Anti-Christ?

We were sitting in Sunday School last Sunday being instructed on Alma 30-31. I didn't make the comments I wanted to, so I thought I'd share them here.

There are many anti-Christs in the Book of Mormon and each had his own false teachings. But the one teaching I have found they all had in common was that there was no need for repentance. Korihor, for one, said that the idea of a remission of sins was "the effect of a frenzied mind" and "every man fared in this life according to the management of the creature," and "every man prospered according to his genius" and that "whatsoever a man did was no crime," hence no need for repentance, for Christ, for redemption.  This is why he was an anti-Christ. He wasn't just denying the existence of God (which is what was discussed in Sunday School), he was outspokenly denying the concept of sin and Christ as atoning for our sins if we repent, which I believe was the primary falsehood he wanted to spread.And it made him very popular.

Another thought was that the story about the Zoramites is to be applied to us, ourselves. I have found it very instructive to continually examine my heart and my motives to see if I am placing myself above others in any way. Or if I am forgetting God at any time. Or if I am taking glory upon myself instead of giving it all to God. Or if I am relying on managing myself or relying on others instead of relying solely on the Lord. Or if I am belittling my sins or excusing my weaknesses, denying the power of Christ's Atonement in regards to my sins and weaknesses in any way. The list goes on. The Spirit of the Lord sure lets me know where I am deficient here and there.

I am well aware that these kinds of ideas are unpopular in church today, at least where I am sitting. Maybe that is why I don't say much in church anymore. In a world like ours, where the very idea of being a sinner is played down in favor of  self-esteem and respecting all opinions and fear of estranging anybody and puffing up each other, in other words, praise of men (including ourselves), we've turned away from these terribly lovely truths and taken up with the likes of Korihor. We want our ears tickled and our egos boosted. We want to rely on other human beings and be seen of men, climbing social/church ladders rather than relying on the Lord. We'd rather hear the comfortable parts and leave out the disturbing parts of the gospel. Now, when somebody dares to speak the whole truth, it is resisted---even in Sunday School. As George Orwell wrote, "In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act."

I share these comments because the above essential points are not being taught, or not being emphasized. If they aren't prioritized they essentially aren't taught. If they aren't taught, people don't know them and live them. If people don't know and live and love the truth, they know and live and love something else, something not fully true if not completely false, something not of God, which makes it demonic. The devil works just that way. He makes anti-Christ ideas sound good and harmless and comfortable and wholesome. He tells people just what they want to hear. Don't forget that mixing up the philosophies of men with scripture is the work of the devil.

Anti-Christism has crept into every aspect of human society. Life is too painful and busy and difficult to worry about the whole gospel. Life is just about finding something distracting to do, friending everybody, and feeling good about yourself. Vaporous temporal platitudes about sentimental human relations are praised and clung to. Some, like the Zoramites, attach the Lord's name to this pablum. This worshiping and managing of the creature by the creature is what is deemed most important, popular, and acceptable. On the other hand, those who make known they actually believe in the fallen human condition, in sin, Christ, and repentance are revolutionaries, or haters, or at least stodgy, annoying, mean, and judgmental.

No wonder they crucified him.

-Janice Graham