Believer - Mormonism and LGBT

[headinhands]

Anyone else seen this documentary on BBC iPlayer. Really good.

I haven’t seen it yet but plan on catching up! Is the Mormon faith starting to open up to the LGBT community?

I think the the general believers are quicker on the up take than the church leaders

Oh no. I’m not too surprised then 😂. Well I guess it’s good that the general believers are opening up more. I think the church leaders need to remember it’s 2018, not 1950

Many priests in the C of E are gay and lesbian. Some are trans. I'm pretty sure they don't want to go back to the 1950s but our congregations can be stuck there. It is complicated.

I’m aware of how open other churches are. Same can’t be said for the Mormon church though. I don’t agree with shunning people just for their sexual orientation.

To be fair that's what the bible says though, so humans do have to sort of overrule it to make it palatable.

I know, I personally don’t agree with it. If there is a god, I don’t believe he would be so hateful. The bible has been re-written so many times I take it with a pinch of salt.

Just watched the documentary and it is really powerful. What struck me as someone who works for the church is how authoritarian the LDS leadership structure is and how male, white and elderly it is. Change is going to be really hard with all the cultural baggage that is on show at the apostles and prophets meeting.

Where change is happening in my denomination is where conversations are happening between people who don't agree with each other but are willing to listen to each other's stories. I did a lot of work in one church with my fellow ministers who did not agree with the ministry of women but found it harder to sustain when then had prayed with, studied scripture with and eaten with a woman whose denomination has recognised her call to the priesthood.

I would hope that the listening and discerning process can start in the Mormon church in the full acceptance of women and LGBT. It requires courage and isn't going to be quick.

I don't think the Mormon congregation has changed one bit.

Or as we should call it the Church of Jesus of the Latter day Saints.

Calling it Mormonism is a "Victory for Satan" apparently.

I grew up in a devout Mormon home, and still attend church on occasion. I do not believe in the religion, but most people don't know that. People are a lot nicer and less judgmental toward those who are LGBT than they used to be, but believers pretty universally still think gay marriage is wrong. There used to be an idea that just being gay was wrong. Now, they only think it's bad if you act on it.

I sometimes tell believing Mormons that I have gay friends who believe that God supports their gay marriage. Here are some of the responses I've had.

1. They are deceived - it wasn't the spirit of God
2. I only have a problem with those who believe it's wrong and do it anyway.
3. A look of shock/disgust on their face, but no comment. I've seen similar from people when talking about ordination of women to the priesthood in other religions.
4. I think it's wrong, but it's not my place to judge. I don't fully understand, and it's only my job to love them.
5. I support them (usually this comment only comes from people who don't regularly attend church meetings)

Recently, I sat in the hall outside a classroom when a sister was talking about how her gay brother had forgotten that he was a child of God, and hoped he'd come back to the right path.

According to basically every believing Mormon I know, gay relationships are wrong, and a serious sin. I have little doubt that I would have been kicked out of my house and on my own at 18 if I had dated another girl. Parents today are less likely to disown or kick out their own kids. Believing Mormons are more likely than before to be kind and to support legal protections like gay marriage and anti-discrimination, but they continue to view homosexuality as sinful.

Homosexual relationships are only seen as sinful in the sense that it is incompatible with the plan of happiness, which is essentially:

• we all existed as spirit children of God and agreed to go to Earth to get bodies, be part of families and to gain experience
• on Earth, we make choices to act in ways that we know are good or not
• after death, people who weren’t taught the gospel on Earth are taught it and have the chance to accept it or not
• when every spirit who wanted the opportunity has been to Earth, it’s judgement day time
• on judgement day, God and Jesus decide which sort of heaven each person goes to, based on the sort of person they became in the circumstances they faced. Only people who knew the truth and actively worked against it go to hell. That’s a very, very tiny number of people. Maybe a handful.
• Those who get to the best heaven have eternal growth and progression. The only way that can happen is if they become like God and have spirit families of their own and become gods, otherwise they stop learning cos they’ve learned all there is to know. Here’s where the gay bit comes in: it takes a man and a woman to have a baby. If you don’t have one or the other: no spirit babies. End of progression. Oops.

Being homosexual doesn’t make someone disgusting or evil or less worthy of being loved. I think people in the church understand that a lot better now than they did even 10 years ago.