Part 2—Further Readings (And Very Brief Comments)

In case you're coming to this post alone, please make sure to read the first part to give some of my comments context.

LDS Church on Homosexuality in General. I endorse this whole-heartedly.

Legal Repercussions of Proposition 8 Not Passing.

Counter Arguments.

And Counter-Counter Arguments. Clearly, as a wise person once said, “Truth is a three-edged sword.” It should also be clear that there are legitimate reasons for opposing homosexual marriages without hating homosexuals or condoning “gay-bashing.” This is a complicated issue, and I hope people on both sides of the issue can realize this.

Gays and the Gospel. These arguments are fairly weak, mostly straw-men arguments not addressing the base issues, and are very this-life centric only. I’m sorry, the Christian message isn’t basically one of love, tolerance, and equality and everybody should be happy all the time. It’s fundamentally one of brokenness in this world and then salvation in the next through Jesus, who was not a peace-loving hippie (see Matthew 10:32-40) and will save us from our sins, but not in them. Thanks to Secily for indirectly leading me to this link.

Gay Mormon’s Re-Writing of the Plan of Salvation. While I already admitted above that our argument against active homosexuality and homosexual marriage isn’t flawless, I find that affirming it would do more damage to the LDS cosmology than this man admits. I would be very surprised to see a revelation changing our stance on this issue, and therefore am fairly confident in stating that he’s simply wrong about his place in the eternal plan of God.

Why Gay Mormons are So Often Tempted to Blow Their Stinkin’ Heads Off, In No Particular Order. This is by my friend Devan mentioned above, who sent me the link while I was drafting this blog entry. Devan tells me that this site will eventually hold the current text of the play he wrote on being a gay Mormon, some scenes of which are torn right out of discussions we had together. My (very very very brief) public response is simply this: Despair doesn’t come from God. Do you think it’s God telling you to kill yourself, or are their other forces at work? When you have thoughts like: "You’re nothing but a worthless homosexual. You’re not good enough for this daughter of Zion" do you think God is putting those thoughts in your head? (Hint: I know Satan is real for pretty much the same reasons I know God is . . . personal experience. And what tactics do you think Satan uses on homosexual Mormons?)