Jonny and I went to Harmon’s on Saturday. It was after our day long adventure in our tomato garden, stringing the gigantic stalks up to the heavens on this really cool rig that Jonny built. We had been weeding, trimming, and cleaning out are vegetable garden. Beautiful!! We took our starving family to Fong’s, our favorite local restaurant just down the street from our house, dropped the kids off at the house, and then went to Home Depot, for Jonny and Harmon’s for me. There we ran into our neighbor and friend from the ward. As we began to visit she told me about a special third hour Relief Society/Priesthood meeting that the Bishop was going to be teaching on Sunday about the LGBT community. Even though we were going to be gone in the morning to my cousin Morgan’s homecoming, I knew I wanted to attend.
One of the characteristics about Bishop Vosti that I appreciate is his ability to enthusiastically love others. He understands the weight of sin, but his appetite for the Gospel allows him to help others brush off the shame of sin, and just get down to repenting. Satan loves Heavenly Father’s children to wallow in silence, alone feeling the burden of their mistakes, like there is no way out of the suffocating shackles. For weighty matters, with the help from a bishop, or a judge of Israel, that sin can be washed away by the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Bishop Vosti radiates the love of Jesus Christ, and exudes this spirit of hope, despite obstacles. I image his heart being totally clear, magnifying the love of our Savior, a conduit for the compassion, empathy and hope in our older brother.
This meeting started out with a prayer, and reflection on the first and second great commandment, to love God with all our heart, mind, might and strength, and to love our neighbor as ourselves. This includes our gay and lesbian friends. He referred to a new church website, www.mormonandgays.com, where there are several videos from apostles, and individuals who either have someone in their family who is gay, or who is gay themselves.
Here are some excerpts of text that are included from the website.
Few topics are as emotionally charged or require more sensitivity than same-sex attraction. This complex matter touches on the things we care about most: our basic humanity, our relationship to family, our identity and potential as children of God, how we treat each other, and what it means to be disciples of Christ.
Where the Church stands:
The experience of same-sex attraction is a complex reality for many people. The attraction itself is not a sin, but acting on it is. Even though individuals do not choose to have such attractions, they do choose how to respond to them. With love and understanding, the Church reaches out to all God’s children, including our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters.
What Needs to ChangeDallin H. Oaks of the Twelve Apostles
This official website does not offer a comprehensive explanation of everything related to same-sex attraction, but it does reflect the feelings of Church leaders as to how we should treat each other as part of the human family. The site offers a place where the people whose lives are impacted by attraction to the same sex can find inspiration to work through difficult challenges while remaining faithful to Church teachings.
The Church’s approach to this issue stands apart from society in many ways. And that’s alright. Reasonable people can and do differ. From a public relations perspective it would be easier for the Church to simply accept homosexual behavior. That we cannot do, for God’s law is not ours to change. There is no change in the Church’s position of what is morally right. But what is changing — and what needs to change — is to help Church members respond sensitively and thoughtfully when they encounter same-sex attraction in their own families, among other Church members, or elsewhere.
Another point that was brought up a couple times is that we need to protect our children. Period. And teenagers are still our children. In our word, there are perverted and egregiously dark predators. If our gay and lesbian teens do not feel safe and loved in our congregations, in our community, they will reach outside of our network for acceptance. There are sexual predators waiting the arrival of new and moldable prey. We need to protect our children against such catastrophes.
There are many complex issues that surround same sex attraction that we did not discuss, including the laws of the land that deal with marriage. We started a conversation, an open dialogue about same sex attraction, and set a precedence of inclusion for our ward family. Bishop Vosti is a chiropractor by trade, and he treats several gay patients. He said he does not and cannot discriminate who he provides service for, if someone needs his help, he helps them. I have often though about our business. Many professionals have been fined, or sued because they would not provide goods or services for a same sex marriage, including photographers, florists, etc. When I look at sin, providing a good or service for a sinner, does not make me a sinner, even if I don’t agree morally with their decision. Where does the line in the sane reside? The Bishop would not, under any circumstance participate, from a powers invested point of view, in officiating a same sex wedding, he is under morally obligation not to, regardless of what the law states. In my business, I would be happy to provide service for a gay person, but I would not provide my service to promote, or propagandize gay or lesbian behavior or lifestyle.
I am grateful that I attended this meeting. I have deeply rooted feelings regarding this topic. This instruction from our Bishop was well intentioned, prayerfully prepared and spiritually enriching. I am going to continually strive to provide a loving and inclusive atmosphere to my brothers and sisters, in my home and at church, where I can. I love my Savior. I know that he lives, and that it is because of his distention below all things, that he understands the deepest longings and needs of his children. He can make whole every broken heart. Whether in this life, or the life to comes, every blessing for his children can come into fruition through faithfulness to his commandments, one of those being to love one another.
