Same Gender Attraction

This week we are still in Unit two but have read a lot of different reading material.  One transcript in particular grabbed my attention.  All my life I knew the church's stance on gay marriage, I knew it was because Heavenly Father said only a lawful marriage between a man and a woman is what is right.  I never thought about digging in any deeper to the issue because I lived in a conservative place where I was never really asked about it, because everyone else believed the same thing.    It wasn't until I've read all of these talks and excerpts from interviews that I learned exactly why we are fighting it so much.   Not only is gay marriage  something that Heavenly Father has told us is incorrect, but the rights that members and supporters of the gay community are attacking the very foundation of our religion, which is the importance of family.  The traditional family that has a mother and father who are legally marriage and are faithful to one another provide the best setting for children to thrive.

The church has made statements about trials that everyone was born with.  There are many who are born with physical ailments that will never allow them to marry in the temple, others are born with obsessive tendencies, like to smoke, steal, drink etc.  We believe that there are many who are born with same sex attraction and that is a trial they are given.  Having those tendencies and feelings aren't the sin, it's when those feelings are acted upon, where there are consequences.

Here are a few quotes from the transcript that is an interview with Elder Dallin H. Oaks and Elder Lance B. Wickman with the church's public affairs staff.  Here is a link to read it in full.

"One question that might be asked by somebody who is struggling with same-gender attraction is, “Is this something I’m stuck with forever? What bearing does this have on eternal life? If I can somehow make it through this life, when I appear on the other side, what will I be like?”

- Gratefully, the answer is that same-gender attraction did not exist in the pre-earth life and neither will it exist in the next life. It is a circumstance that for whatever reason or reasons seems to apply right now in mortality, in this nano- second of our eternal existence."

"There is no fullness of joy in the next life without a family unit, including a husband, a wife, and posterity. Further, men are that they might have joy. In the eternal perspective, same- gender activity will only bring sorrow and grief and the loss of eternal opportunities."

"I happen to have a handicapped daughter. She’s a beautiful girl. She’ll be 27 next week. Her name is Courtney. Courtney will never marry in this life, yet she looks wistfully upon those who do. She will stand at the window of my office which overlooks the Salt Lake Temple and look at the brides and their new husbands as they’re having their pictures taken. She’s at once captivated by it and saddened because Courtney understands that will not be her experience here. Courtney didn’t ask for the circumstances into which she was born in this life, any more than somebody with same-gender attraction did. So there are lots of kinds of anguish people can have, even associated with just this matter of marriage. What we look forward to, and the great promise of the gospel, is that whatever our inclinations are here, whatever our shortcomings are here, whatever the hindrances to our enjoying a fullness of joy here, we have the Lord’s assurance for every one of us that those in due course will be removed. We just need to remain faithful."