Be at the Forefront in terms of Expressing Love - Rich Alger
No matter how one feels about homosexuality (from one extreme to the other and at every point between the two extremes), I hope every member of the LDS Church someday understands, accepts and internalizes Elder Cook's message below:
I think the lesson that I learned from that is that as a Church nobody should be more loving and compassionate. No family who has anybody who has a same-gender issue should exclude them from the family circle. They need to be part of the family circle. Do we teach the Proclamation on the Family, do we teach Heavenly Father’s plan, do we teach the first chapter in the second handbook, yes we do. We have a plan of salvation. And having children come into our lives is part of Heavenly Father’s plan. But let us be at the forefront in terms of expressing love, compassion, and outreach to those and let's not have families exclude or be disrespectful of those who choose a different lifestyle as a result of their feelings about their own gender.
Inasmuch as we do unto (those whom we naturally see as) the least of these, our brethren and sisters, we do unto Jesus. If we exclude them, we exclude our Savior. Period.
1 comment:
This is wonderful and so very necessary! As a gay Mormon myself, I'd like to emphasize that as E Oaks once pointed out, we are "in special need of the love and encouragement that is a clear responsibility of Church members, who have signified by covenant their willingness “to bear one another’s burdens” (Mosiah 18:8) “and so fulfil the law of Christ” (Gal. 6:2)."
This can be especially difficult because the default belief of the gay or lesbian mormon is often that they don't or can't belong. So even a whiff of perceived distance can send us running emotionally.
I appreciate your efforts and those of others to include us. We often feel we don't have family and can't be part of the ward family. Thanks.
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