In the last week I've been called delusional, a liar, manipulative, a giver of false hope, someone akin to Jewish Nazi collaborators, and a victim of Stockholm syndrome. I am maligned by faithful, orthodox Mormons and defenders of the LGBT community alike.
The one thing all my detractors have in common is that they think they know everything there is to know about Mormonism and being gay. Fortunately I don't know anything about either of those things. All I know -- and these things I know with unshakeable certainty -- is that I am gay, that the Church is true, that my marriage to my husband is a blessing from God, that God loves me fiercely and is the vital presence in my life, and that all will be well: for me, for my husband, for our families, and for the Church. All will be well (even when things don't go well) in this life and in the next, if we have a mustard seed worth of faith, hope and Christian mercy for each other. These things God has assured me, and I am determined to prove them, not through skillful argument but through a simple life. Whether it is proven in my lifetime or not I trust God in any event.
I wish well to all, including all of you who have said some very uncharitable things about me. I wish for you only what I wish for myself, namely, peace and love in this world and in eternity.
I like it, John. Go ahead.
ReplyDeleteThis is not Stockholm Syndrome. We are not captors nor hostages. Anyone who believes so does not truly understand what the church or the gospel is. The gospel is not the unwritten rules or handbook but rather the good news that Christ has risen and saved us from physical and spiritual death through his atonement.
ReplyDeleteAnd the church is not the legal corporation administered from top to bottom in today's hierarchal business structure by imperfect people. Rather, the church is us! The church is us: "the body of believers who have taken upon themselves the name of Christ."
WE are the church. Yes, even we the LBGT. We LGBT who are believers in Christ are a part of the body and have the privilege to mourn when we are wounded and can have hope that our burdens too will be borne by our fellow saints of the church who travel with us.
We have the privilege and duty to speak and create dialogue with the other individuals who also comprise the body of believers whether they may be our mothers, fathers, siblings, aunts, uncles, ward members, bishops, stake presidents, or even general authorities.
You, John, just happen to be in a position where you can speak with great humility and understanding with individuals of the church who currently are called to lead. And when you do, you represent many LGBT of the body of the church.
God hath set the members every one of them in the body as it hath pleased him.
There are many members yet one body.
The eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you.
Much more, those members of the body, which seem more feeble, ARE NECESSARY.
Please continue your great work John. There should be no schism in the body and Christ himself desires that members should have the same care one for another. Ask for it at every opportunity. Expect it.
When even one LGBT member suffers, we all as an entire Church suffer. We LGBT have a responsibility as a part of the body of the church to honor each other and rejoice with each other. And at this important juncture in time it is up to us as LGBT to cast off our shackles of shame, our hostage mentality, and our doubts and minister to the body of fellow believers not as children, but as equals.
Another way to look at the writings of Paul to the Corinthians is to see our importance in the body of the church. We are needed. And when we are told we are not needed, it offends the very words of Paul, the new testament... The new covenant of Christ.
You give me hope that the people I love will find the same sense of peace you have, even in the presence of those less charitable than Christ would ever approve of any of us being. I don't know you, but thank you for being who you are where you are.
ReplyDeleteI very much appreciate your realness, your humility. Your posting was full of faith, hope, and charity. You are just the person Affirmation needs at its head at this time.
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