“God’s universal
fatherhood and love charges each of us with an innate and reverent
acknowledgement of our shared human dignity. We are to love one another.
We are to treat each other with respect as brothers and sisters and fellow
children of God, no matter how much we may differ from one another.”
Same
gender attraction has recently been a thing of controversy and has occupied my
thoughts, more than ever before. It is a matter that affects my family directly
for arguments on both for and against and I feel it to be dear to my heart. I
know it is a very controversial subject and everyone feels the need to protect
their side of the argument, or their brother, sister, aunt, best friend or
neighbor. I guess I just thought that maybe I could take the time to clarify a
few things about what I believe. I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings and I
can only hope that my friends and family do not get offended for what I have to
say. I want to begin by quoting the main headline from the website MormonsAndGays.org:
Few
topics are as emotionally charged or require more sensitivity than same-sex
attraction. This complex matter touches on the things we care about most: our
basic humanity, our relationship to family, our identity and potential as
children of God, how we treat each other, and what it means to be disciples of
Christ.
My
husband and I have researched this site a lot, partly to look for guidance for
church leaders and also to raise awareness on how we treat others that are
attracted to the same gender. I don’t feel like it is my area or anyone else’s
to place judgment upon people with different views than me and I hope that I
can live my life up to that standard. I also understand the sensitivity of the
topic, I will do my best not to offend anyone, however I will also try my best
to stand up for what I believe to be correct principles, just as I’m sure many
of the people reading this will. I recognize that this is a hard line to walk,
especially since I know in the last few hours I have offended a few people, I
apologize for the way that I went about what I said. Here are a few things to
clarify my views.
First,
I would like to acknowledge that I hold some things very sacred to me. Among
those things being my religion and the sanctity of marriage. My beliefs are
central to everything I do. In 1995, The LDS Church published “The Family: A Proclamation to the World”. This
document contains the beliefs that I stand behind 100% and I encourage everyone
to read this document to understand a little more where my opinion comes from.
I know this proclamation is true, but most certainly that “Children are entitled to birth within the bonds of matrimony,
and to be reared by a father and a mother who honor marital vows with
complete fidelity.” I would also like to point out that this encompasses
much more than same sex marriage and is something that I’ll always do my best
to try to stand up for.
Second,
I would also like to share that along with my religion comes Christ’s second
commandment, “Thou shalt love thy
neighbour as thyself” (Matthew 22:39). I can only hope that those that I’m
around can know and see that that is what my family and I will always try to
put first. One of my favorite quotes was given by a church leader in 2008,
Thomas S Monson said, “Never let a problem to be solved become more important
than a person to be loved.” I can only hope and pray that others can see that I
will always do my best to love my neighbor and put others before me.
I guess
just to finish, I hope that others can understand my view point a little
better. I am just trying to protect the things that I hold dear, but I will
never let that get in the way of loving my neighbor. I hope that people reading
this don’t feel judged or upset, but mostly just that they have another insight
into their argument. Enjoy it or cast it aside, but please don’t feel like I’m
attacking anyone, because that isn’t what I meant it to be.
Amongst all of the things
I don’t know I do know this, we are all children of God, I know that
all humans deserve to be treated with respect and dignity and I know that
I try very hard to constantly do what I feel and hope is Christ-like. I know
that many times I am off key, but I try to always have the goal in mind or
saying “WWJD”? I know better than anyone, except maybe my husband that I
am full of imperfections, but I’m on this path trying to learn as I go, trying
to follow the perfect example of our Savior, Jesus Christ.
