The commentary on the public affairs interview on same-gender attraction is fascinating for me to read. Most of it has been respectful, although there have been several comments that have been over-emotional and downright rude. I have even had to delete a few comments for being extremely unpolite and irrelevant.
One of the key issues that comes up often is how people with same-gender attraction are treated in the Church.
I was baptized at the age of 8, like most kids in active member families. Though I don’t have a lot of memories from that young age, I am very happy to report I remember my baptism quite well.
I turned 8 on 2 July 1980. I was happy I wouldn’t have to wait long before I could get baptized – the stake baptism for that month was 5 July. For my 8th birthday, from my parents I got my own set of scriptures. For my birthday/baptism, from my ward/Primary I got a Book of Mormon (do you remember those medium blue ones with the gold angel Moroni on the cover? That was the one I got) and a picture of Jesus, which still hangs the wall of my bedroom at my parents’ house.
Well, we woke up to news this morning that Tropical Storm Ernesto is likely to turn back into a hurricane by tonight and that it is heading straight for my house in Miami. Yikes! Veteran hurricane watchers will note that it could remain a tropical storm, in which case we get a few blown down branches and lots of rain but no other serious problems, it could veer off in one direction or the other or it could become a Category 3 hurricane by the time it hits sometime Tuesday night. Category 3 means serious damage throughout Miami. We’ve been spending a lot of time preparing — standing in line at the grocery store and at gas stations. Now it’s time to put up the shutters and hunker down. I hope to send updates until the lights go out sometime Tuesday night.
This interview on the Church web site is extraordinary. Church public affairs interviewed Elder Dallin H. Oaks, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Church, and Elder Lance B. Wickman, a member of the Seventy, at length and asked just about every imaginable question on the issue of same-gender attraction. This interview is extraordinary because of the timing and the repeated statements from the Church making absolutely crystal clear its position on this issue.
Some highlights:
I love this quotation from Joseph Smith:
Gems from the Teachings of Church Leaders
Love and Missionary Work
—————————————————October 19, 1840
Nauvoo, Illinois
Joseph Smith“Love is one of the chief characteristics of Deity, and ought to be manifested by those who aspire to be the sons of God. A man filled with the love of God, is not content with blessing his family alone, but ranges through the whole world, anxious to bless the whole human race. This has been your feeling, and caused you to forego the pleasures of home, that you might be a blessing to others, who are candidates for immortality, but strangers to truth; and for so doing, I pray that heaven’s choicest blessings may rest upon you.”
( History of the Church, 4:227)
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