- This topic is empty.
-
Posts
-
My Pastor of the United Churchof Christ just posted this on the fb church page. I loved it as I am a parent of a gay son. This is the kind of bishop I would have liked: I know several mormon bishops who would say this in private and maybe a couple who would say it in public. I’ve told my wife that if one of my kids is gay I would tell them if they chose a fulfilling gay relationship instead of the church I would 100% understand and support them. Of the four promises in the article, the one that would be most difficult is promise #1 – “you’ll all know it”. I think it would be hard for traditional mormon bishops to talk about it in public although they might very well do the other 3 promises.
This was beautiful. Thanks for sharing! My wife and I have talked about this many times and we already decided that we will act exactly as your pastor outlined.
If I am ever a Bishop, likewise.
Last weekend I attended a Richard Bushman seminar, during lunch we chatted with other attendees, all of them were strangers to us – Two of the women said their wards 5th Sunday lesson was taught by the Bishop and was all about including and loving our LGBT brothers and sisters. They said he did such a great job and the ward members were very receptive. I know this is only one ward, but it’s the equivalent of a pastor in my mind. And I know some pastors personally who won’t be the same page with your pastor Bridget. I am happy yours works for your family. It’s a positive message no matter where it comes from.
Great message. Thanks for sharing it. Some bishops would; some wouldn’t. More wouldn’t, but more would than most people would assume. The number who would is increasing steadily, and the rising generation of bishops includes FAR more who would than in the past.
I too liked the way your Pastor addressed this issue. We recently had a member of the High Council talk in a Sacrament meeting that he thought that the
Church would soon be experiencing persecution like the Jews during the Holocaust or the Blacks in the US
during the 50’s for the position the Church has taken regarding Gay marriage. The sad thing is, I don’t think
anyone else in the congregation had a problem with his statement. That might be an overstatement since we
really don’t know. The Bishopric didn’t say anything about it.
I do believe that we have to take small opportunities & express ourselves regarding Christ’s love for everyone.
We did talk a little about this issue in PH & there was a more balanced response.
Yes. Yes, I think there are definitely bishops who would say this, some privately but others very publicly. I don’t think the Christofferson family hides the fact that there is a gay man in the family in addition the apostle. The official church stance is indeed to be loving and accepting of gay members, which should not be confused with the stance on gay marriage. I really liked the points given. I have told my wife on multiple occasions that if one of our children were to come out to us as gay – we would stop going to church at that point. I just feel that this would swing the value proposition away from staying. On the other hand, as a family we participate in a handful of Christian churches in our community and I can’t think of any that would necessarily be an improvement on the gay issue. There is one church that prides itself on the accepting atmosphere. Great programs for kids & youth. They do tons of outreach to the homeless, addicted, and otherwise down-trodden. This acceptance however does not appear to extend towards gays. I have heard several sermons where this singular exception seems to constitute their stand against the tide of liberalism and erosion of moral values.
Old-Timer wrote:Some bishops would; some wouldn’t. More wouldn’t, but more would than most people would assume. The number who would is increasing steadily, and the rising generation of bishops includes FAR more who would than in the past.
I believe that we are all in the same boat on this one as a larger culture. As people come to know and accept gays this pastors viepoint will become more & more mainstream. Even now – politicians realise that to be anti-gay can cost you more votes than it might gain.
bridget_night, Since you posted this here I have been following your pastor on FB. I really, really like him. He just seems to get it, and if I lived where he does, I would probably stop by his church every few months.
Glad you found a place that helps you find peace and happiness.
-SBRed
SunbeltRed wrote:bridget_night,
Since you posted this here I have been following your pastor on FB. I really, really like him. He just seems to get it, and if I lived where he does, I would probably stop by his church every few months.
Glad you found a place that helps you find peace and happiness.
-SBRed
You are right. He is fantastic. I also like this article I posted on my church wall recently:
A Pastor imagines what a conversation might be like with God after leaving this life–and after he’s excommunicated LGBT individuals (and sometimes their families).
God: “You’ve got it upside-down. The ones who welcomed gay people into their churches were the strong ones. They asked God about it and then they listened to the Spirit – they did what was right – they actually loved people the way that I love people.”
Pastor looks up in tears. “I had no idea.”
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/freedhearts/2015/02/02/pastor-looks-up-in-tears-i-had-no-idea/ That’s a touching quote – but, personally, I don’t like things that paint in such extremes and categorize everyone who disagrees with one position in highly negative ways (like “weak” and “not willing to listen to the Spirit” and “out of touch with God”). Hawk posted the classic definition of bigot recently – and, interestingly, that quote fits that definition perfectly (people who are intolerant of differing opinions and views). I absolutely would NOT call the person who said it a bigot, and I pointed out the difficulty of using such an expansive definition in the thread where Hawk posted it – but I do believe it is important to self-examine and be aware of things like this. It’s one thing to state opposition to something; it’s another thing entirely to talk in terms that we would reject as bigoted if they were said about us.
Think about that for a second:
Change the focus to say those who do NOT excommunicate LGBT members are strong and listen to the spirit and those who DO are not strong and fear peer pressure more than God. How would you react – and how would you characterize that statement? I’m pretty sure many people would scream bigotry – but those same people would miss the irony of their acceptance of the quote as written.
I see that its been awhile (2014) since I started this thread!! I have been busy with my life and some health issues. But, thought this would be a good place to share this interesting information which relates to the subject of whether a Mormon Bishop would ever do this. This 2016 Christmas, my gay son came to visit us in Florida from Seattle. He got to meet our new Interim pastor, who is gay, as well as his partner. My son loves to play Scrabble and our pastor and his partner came over to our home to play Scrabble with him for 3 hours. When our pastor learned that my son had a recent breakup and was hurting, he asked if he could pray over him. It was so touching the love he poured out for our son and asking God to help him find a life partner. My son said this is the first time any minister has done that for me. Then my son told the pastor that he wished there were more gay movies, like “Brokeback Mountain” and my pastor loaned him a couple of his DVD’s to watch. One was “Latter Days”!! Now, my son is friends with my Pastor on facebook and listens to his video recorded sermons. For the first time my son is starting to have faith in Christ again. The pastor answers all his spiritual questions now and what a blessing this Christmas was for all of us. My son is the young man in the black shirt in the picture.
Thank you for sharing Bridget. I truly hope your son finds happiness. I also love scrabble. My in-laws play it without keeping score. For a long time I felt that this was weird. A 2 letter word is valued as much as an 8 letter word. Now I understand that the game is really just an excuse to visit and connect with each other. There is a lesson in there somewhere.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.