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Yesterday’s face book feed was calmer than today’s. I sense we will hit more waves and storms in the miles ahead. Maybe nothing will be said, maybe everyone will be silently civil, but hearts are hurting, landscape was torn and I sense bumps. I pray for all of us – believers, orthodox practitioners, and non. May our hearts, words, responses, even facial expressions be guided wisely.
Good luck in tomorrow as you meet with others, and good luck in the days and weeks to come.
Same here. I am giving a talk tomorrow, I prepared a few remarks about this…still contemplating if I should share or not. Maybe get people’s thoughts on this:
I know the SCOTUS decision on marriage equality this week has been big news in my circles, I assume it has been in yours as well. I don’t have much to say about it other than this:
The Church released a statement that said:
“The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints acknowledges that following today’s ruling by the Supreme Court, same-sex marriages are now legal in the United States. The Court’s decision does not alter the Lord’s doctrine that marriage is a union between a man and a woman ordained by God. While showing respect for those who think differently, the Church will continue to teach and promote marriage between a man and a woman as a central part of our doctrine and practice.”
Even though this is the Church’s position there is going to be a diversity of thought, opinion and belief on this topic within our wards, families, and communities. I have friends who are Mormon and are marching in the Pride Parade in San Francisco today. I guess my only point is this, regardless of where we stand on the issue, kindness, love, and respect should be what we try our best to emulate. So let’s take it easy on each other and especially with each other in our church community.
“In an interview back in March of this year Elder D. Todd Christofferson said that individuals in the 15 million-member Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints would be in trouble only for “supporting organizations that promote opposition or positions in opposition to the church’s.”
Backing marriage equality on social media sites, including on Facebook or Twitter, “is not an organized effort to attack our effort,” Christofferson said in the interview, “or our functioning as a church.”________________________________________
The KUTV interviewer asked further if a Latter-day Saint could “hold those beliefs even though they are different from what you teach at the pulpit?”
Yes, the apostle answered.
“Our approach in all of this, as [Mormon founder] Joseph Smith said, is persuasion. You can’t use the priesthood and the authority of the church to dictate. You can’t compel, you can’t coerce. It has to be persuasion, gentleness and love unfeigned, as the words in the scripture.”
Christofferson echoed this sentiment in two January interviews with The Salt Lake Tribune.
“There hasn’t been any litmus test or standard imposed that you couldn’t support that if you want to support it, if that’s your belief and you think it’s right,” Christofferson said after a Jan. 27 news conference.”
The Gospel of John records that the night before Jesus was crucified, as he taught and participated in the sacrament, and washed their feet one of his last pieces of advice was to love on another. That’s how people would know that they were His representatives, that they love one another as Jesus loved them.
Chieko Okazaki, former 1st counselor of the General Relief Society Presidency wrote:
“Christ was born, he lived, and he died to teach us how to love one another and to love our Heavenly Father. The gospel that he taught was one of love. The cause of Christ is to increase the amount of love in the world today–the amount of love in our hearts, the amount of love in our homes, the amount of love in our offices and businesses, the amount of love in our communities, the amount of love in our chapels, the amount of love in our nation, and the amount of love on our planet.”
Let us be filled with love, with kindness, with peace and pray for these qualities in ourselves and others.
I like it. You know your audience best and what the rest of your topic is, but I think it’s completely in line. You might even add Dallin Oaks quotes from GC last October about being civil even if you disagree. Good luck. Let us know how it goes.
I have a TBM friend who posted on FB this morning about all the terrible things that were about to happen because of the SCOTUS decision. Cats and dogs sleeping together, etc .. Confession: I have been baiting him all day long. It has been so easy and so entertaining. Today, I have been very very bad.
Thanks, mom. All I know is that my kids took a baby step this week. Away from the church. They’re not up in arms but they’re realizing that they don’t fit in with most of their LDS friends. (They aren’t really plugged in to the bloggernacle, where they might find more like-minded people.) In my ward, there was one small reference, generally worded, in Sunday School, and one reference, more directly worded, in Priesthhod meeting. I didn’t feel it was necessary to say anything in either case. The talks in SM were on Sabbath worship and were very good. The SS lesson was on love and was excellent. The PH lesson was okay.
It will be interesting to see if anything else is said in future weeks.
I was in another ward today and there was only a small generic reference in passing during the HP meeting. There was no discussion of the subject and I let it pass. The lesson was on Elder Pearson’s talk from conference about staying close to the tree and was OK. The instructor did use symbolism from the talk but also encouraged us to find our own symbolic trees related to our own core beliefs. SS was OK, they got carried away a bit talking about Judas Iscariot and what a nasty being he was with a too-long-discussion about whether he was there when Jesus washed their feet or not. And putting it very bluntly, SM sucked – a youth talk on follow the prophet with all the cliches and lots of not very convincing “I knows” followed by a talk about John Taylor and then one about Brigham Young. Not one mention of the Savior. How did your talk go SBRed?
People referred to it without addressing it directly. The SS lesson was on “This is Life Eternal” which has some heavy “be in the world but not of the world” themes. No one mentioned it directly but there were a few “and I think you all know what I’m talking about” moments. I found that approach interesting and even welcome when compared to approaches that I’ve heard on Sundays in the not too distant past. This isn’t related to the subject, and I think you all know what subject I’m talking about
Quote:We thank the pioneers for building up this gospel.
Those exact words. I found it fascinating. I didn’t spend any time trying to dissect the meaning, I just found the statement fascinating.
For what it’s worth, I heard nothing today in a very nice sacrament meeting. I’ll post this in useful quotes, too. From Elder Oaks, October 2014: Quote:When our positions do not prevail, we should accept unfavorable results graciously and practice civility with our adversaries. In any event, we should be persons of goodwill toward all, rejecting persecution of any kind, including persecution based on race, ethnicity, religious belief or non-belief, and differences in sexual orientation.
SCOTUS ruling was only referenced once yesterday, and only indirectly. I was afraid people would “go off” in Sunday School and so I attended Gospel Doctrine which I almost never do. Sacrament meeting was about Independence Day. My 15 year old daughter asked me Saturday “what’s the big deal about gay marriage, why does it even matter” and she’s not what I would call liberal. I have to think that by the time that Millenials are in charge that things will be different.
Talk went ok I think?…hard to tell sometimes and I think it was a bit edgy (I used a lot of a talk I posted here previously on revelation). There was no mention of the SCOTUS ruling and I was short on time so I didin’t include my statement from above. I went to 8 hours of meetings on Sunday and not one mention of the SCOTUS ruling. I have a feeling the pressure is going to get released this next Sunday.
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