stake conference

[MikeWaters]

The message from my stake president was addressed to the youth, and was about chastity and the family. Part of it was about same-sex attraction and the dangers of it. And not acting on urges or impulses. And the warning that acting could place one's "membership in jeopardy." I was trying to understand who the audience was for this talk.

Was it the youth that is gay? Or wonders if he/she might be gay? There was nothing in the talk that was warm or inviting to gays. The message was quite clear--follow the rules on chastity or your membership may be in jeopardy.

Based on the fact that I personally know zero gay couples that attend church and am aware personally of zero openly-gay or closeted gays that attend church, I don't think that this message is "unreceived." Very clearly those that are gay and accept that don't attend church. Or if they do, they keep the fact that they are gay a very close secret.

To me, it's pretty clear that open gay persons are not welcome in this church. There is no outreach (yes, I know on paper there is, but on the 99.9% of the ground there is not. Yes I know that some wards are the exception).

So getting back to the talk, I suppose it was messaging to straight youth that you will hear from the world that being gay is ok, and gays being in relationships is ok, but that is not ok. And you should not accept that worldly view.

I'm just wondering. Has the church failed previously to get this message across. Of course not. I guess the fear from the church is that the church is losing the information battle. Kids are accepting that other people are gay and that they can have relationships and it's not something to get particularly worked up about. It's going to happen and live and let live.

I just don't know where all of this is going. If we are going to have to re-litigate what it means to be a gay mormon year after year after year. Right now it means stay chaste and in the closet or get out.

[MikeWaters]

Just came across this at BCC. It goes to precisely the situation in my stake conference.

http://bycommonconsent.com/2015/09/1...red-prejudice/

In answer to the original question, how do we get young people to accept the church’s stance on homosexuality, the key is really to do what we’ve been doing already with the existing poor results. We can’t manufacture prejudice where society has already removed it unless we cease to participate in society altogether. The problem is that this is the hill we will die on. Millenials as a generation already feel some disconnect with religion and suspicion of the morals of preceding generations. Trying to create a prejudice that society no longer fosters will only further erode trust in organized religion.