Elder Bednar says in this video: “There are no homosexual members of the Church. We are not defined by sexual attraction. We are not defined by sexual behavior. We are sons and daughters of God, and all of us have different challenges in the flesh.”
Reminder: this is a blog that supports the Church and the Brethren and Elder Bednar. If you want to criticize an apostle of the Lord please take it to another blog. Thank you.
Preguntas y Respuestas con élder David A. Bednar, del Cuórum de los Doce, 23 de febrero de 2016¿Cómo pueden hacer los miembros homosexuales de la Iglesia para vivir y seguir firmes en el Evangelio?
Posted by Biblioteca SUD on Sunday, February 28, 2016
New Post: Let’s see if readers can understand what Elder Bednar says in this video: Elder Bednar … https://t.co/jcgoZax9w9 #LDS #Mormon
TheMillennialStar: Let’s see if readers can understand what Elder Bednar says in this video https://t.co/K8pbuW8Lcj #lds #mormon
An interesting look on the issue, and perhaps that’s how God sees it. Everyone has a vice, but the world doesn’t see homosexuality as a vice. So as a member I understand what he is saying, but the world wouldn’t.
The way I read it is that members of the church aren’t defined by any predisposition to sin (sexual or otherwise) one may have. Instead of defining yourself as X (gay, straight, etc.) we should look at ourselves and others as children of our Heavenly Father. We all have weakness, temptations, etc. but shouldn’t let those define who we are.
If you think about it, Bednar’s statement is actually quite liberating because it gets rid of labels that tend to divide people into different camps and the allegiances that come with different groups. Instead of focusing on our weaknesses, it focuses us on our divine and unlimited eternal potential.
Of course the anti-Mormon crowd have their soundbite and use it to show just how bigoted and out-of-touch the church and its leaders are.
I love the way he brings up physical attractiveness as a challenge in the flesh because most people don’t think of physical attractiveness as a challenge or something bad.
It’s great how he has his wife there with him, because she completes his understanding of the world.
His message is great. He wants to eliminate those cookie-cutter labels several movements in the world use to divide people among themselves.
I have a great deal of empathy for those who place a lot of emphasis on their sexuality, especially those who identify themselves as homosexual and lesbian. I can see how they, from the perspective of someone who identifies as homosexual or lesbian, might be upset at Elder Bednar’s words. That said, and to emphasize what earlier commenters have pointed out, Elder Bednar wants us to see ourselves as our Heavenly Father sees us and not as the world sees us and defines us. If we see ourselves as children of a loving Heavenly Father, it helps us keep an eternal perspective.
I love the message Elder Bednar has given in this clip. The differences that the world places upon us are not the differences that Heavenly Father places upon us. Heavenly Father created us, as spirits, with our genders intact. If we come to this earth and are affected by attractions, or disabilities, or appearance differences, those are not eternal. They are for this mortal existence only. I am taking a religion course online, Rel200, The Eternal Family, and we are studying the Proclamation on the Family. It is a beautiful, concise, clear document explaining our belief in the importance of the family in the plan. I am learning so much by breaking the proclamation down into paragraphs and reading talks associated with it. I highly recommend reading that student manual and the proclamation hand-in-hand.
Like what he is trying to say. I.e. we are not LGBT Mormons but Mormons struggling with LGBT issues. We are not alcoholic Mormons but Mormons struggling with alcoholism. Our issue do not define our membership but or membership defines how we deal with our issues.
From Galatians, Chapter 3:
26 For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.
27 For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.
29 And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.
Amen.
Loved his insights, especially about how we are agents. We get to chose for ourselves how we will act.
If I were an object, I would have to do whatever influence was done to me. Since I am a son of God, I can decide to reject bad influences, and accept good influences.
Our agency gives us to right to do good, moral things, and to be blessed by God for it, now and for eternity. It can also give us the ability to do immoral things, and then we will have to suffer the consequences.
I also really liked that he mentioned other temptations. Everyone has sexual temptation, and everyone needs to only employ the powers of sexual intimacy as God ordained. As husband and wife, and in no other combination.
Jonathan,
Love that scripture. Never made the connection before, but it fits so well with what Elder Bednar said.
I’m so grateful for the Family: a proclamation to the world. President Hinckley was trully inspired to present this document two decades ago. The document begins by stating who we all are according to God and what our ultimate potential is, regardless of our current circumstances. Elder Bednar did a great job reemphasizing this important truth to a world so quick to label and divide.
Thank Elder Bednar, for explaining so eloquenty the real issues surrounding same sex attraction.
Very nice to see comments supportive of modern-day prophets and an understanding of some of the deep eternal principles at work here. It is a nice respite from the garbage you see elsewhere on the internet.
Michel Foucault argued for the exact same conclusion, albeit from very different premises. I recently explored his argument at the following post:
http://www.newcoolthang.com/index.php/2016/02/repression-confession-and-human-sexuality/3944/
Here’s a nice little money quote to wet your thirst:
“Sexuality must not be thought of as a kind of natural given which power tries to hold in check, or as an obscure domain which knowledge tries gradually to uncover. It is the name that can be given to a historical construct: not a furtive reality that is difficult to grasp, but a great surface network in which the stimulation of bodies, the intensification of pleasures, the incitement to discourse, the formation of special knowledges, the strengthening of controls and resistances, are linked to one another, in accordance with a few major strategies of knowledge and power.” (History of Sexuality, Vol. 1; Pg. 105-6)
Perfect!
He basically says that we are not created to be merely acted upon and solely controlled by our various attractions and that instead we have truth and agency to act for ourselves in choosing not to sin. It puts to rest COMPLETELY that no person is born a homosexual nor should we define ourselves merely on our attractions but instead by our actions. That said, it is thus true that there are no homosexuals in heaven (currently) nor ever will be (futuristically) because that activity is sinful.
It is amazing to me how unremarkable Elder Bednar’s comments were in the video. He is saying nothing new. If you accept homosexual relations to be sinful, which is what the Church has always taught, then same sex attraction is merely a temptation to sin in a particular way. If one allows their temptation to define their identify by coming out and labeling themselves with it, they’ve lost the first battle against that sin.
“It puts to rest COMPLETELY that no person is born a homosexual[.]” I don’t see how Elder Bednar said that at all.
While I completely get what EB was saying, I can also see how it can easily be taken out of context.
It was a specialized, non-standard, definition.
He often uses them.
I agree with his usage here, he’s right, but I can’t blame others for misunderstanding him.