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Wow, just when you think things can’t get any worse! They sound like the typical pharisee and Sadducee in Jesus day when they told Jesus he had a devil in him. It sounds to me that they have to make excuses for why you are this way because this is really shaking their foundation. They certainly don’t look upon the ‘heart’ of you cwald. I am soo sorry.
This past Thursday I went to one of my Women’s Bible study classes at Christ Community church in Daytona Beach. What surprised me was that the woman who heads our class told me she had seen Brokeback Mountain and it had really helped her understand gays better. She said that the Pastor had told her that he wanted all of his leaders in the church to go see it because there was no way they could reach out and love homosexuals if they don’t try to understand them. She said she really liked the movie and she was so saddened at how cruel people can be to gays. These people don’t have gays in their own families or believe homosexuality is supported by the Bible but the compassion they exhibit to gays and to my gay son when he was visiting last Christmas shows they have the love of Christ in their hearts. It amazed me that the Pastor and leaders are willing to go see this movie and try to understand.
I will pray for your family cwald. Bridget
I was researching genealogy with the man who was appointed by stake leadership to lead my ward’s proposition 8 campaign recently. He knew of my opposition and as we sat at a computer, asked why I openly raised my opposition in the ward. I answered honestly, “two gay brothers, one gay son.” He leaned closer and said; “I knew you had good reason to may a stand. I didn’t agree either, but was afraid to refuse the call. Isn’t it interesting how the issue badly damaged the church’s image.” Gaytan – sounds like some supervillain… 😆 cwald, even if you were satanic and gay, you are greatly loved. Do you think some people feel threatened by the power you have in expressing your opinion and the “drawing force” you have on others? Fatherof4husbandof1 wrote:cwald, even if you were satanic and gay, you are greatly loved.
Do you think some people feel threatened by the power you have in expressing your opinion and the “drawing force” you have on others?Very good F4H1. Yes. I am in a position in the church, but especially the community, where I do have a lot of influence – and I do have some charisma and some skill in the written and spoken word. I’m sure my family perceives me as a threat to other family members, and probably my stake leaders feel the same.
bridget_night wrote:Wow, just when you think things can’t get any worse! They sound like the typical pharisee and Sadducee in Jesus day when they told Jesus he had a devil in him. It sounds to me that they have to make excuses for why you are this way because this is really shaking their foundation.
They certainly don’t look upon the ‘heart’ of you cwald. I am soo sorry….
Thanks BN. And, as I’m sure we all know and feel at times – they are family and I love them dearly. That is why the middle way hurts so badly some days.
Just got this email from one of my brothers. -sigh-Quote:I’ve really struggled since Friday night with how to respond, or even if I should respond, to your religion comments you had with mom and dad. I certainly have no interest in getting into a back and forth religion arguement with you. I do however want there to be no doubt in your mind how I feel about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. That is that I have an unshakable testimony that Joseph Smith was truly God’s prophet, who was chosen to restore the true gospel of Jesus Christ to the earth. Because I have that testimony, I also have a testimony that we have had an unbroken line of prophets on the earth from Joseph Smith’s time to present day, and such Thomas Monson is a true prophet. If he dies tomorrow, Boyd K Packer will continue that line of prophets chosen by God to give us guidance and counsel.
I am sorry to offend you, but you will not be okay at judgement day unless you have a softening of heart. Obviously, there is much I don’t know about you. But I have read your letters for years. In almost all of them there has been some sort of jab at the church. I am hard pressed to accept that you don’t know the church to be true. Over time you have gotten pissed at different church leaders over different things. You have struggled to live certain commandments so you have convinced yourself that they weren’t important or weren’t really from God. We all have different commandments that we struggle to keep. We accept those as the things that we need to work on and try to do better. I know that you struggle with the church having so many “rules”. That is really quite comical to me for a school teacher to think that we would be okay without those rules or guide lines. Lets take out all the rules in school. Lets not worry about if kids cheat on tests, bring guns to school, disrespect teachers, follow any type of dress code. Let’s just let them do whatever they feel they need to do. For that matter, lets eliminate all the rules from our society. We don’t need traffic laws, drug laws, or anything else. People can just do what they feel comfortable with. If we have to have rules or guidelines in school and in society in general, how can you really believe that in religion it would be any different.
I pray for each of my family members on a daily basis. I will continue to do so for as long as I live. It is truly heart breaking for me to see you on the path that you are on. I have struggled greatly with it since talking to mom last weekend. I just know that this is the true church and that we must strive to follow ALL of its teachings. I know that there are millions of people on the earth that aren’t fortuneate enought to born into this gospel. There of millions of them that are truly great people who do the best they can to live right. I know that God is merciful and has a plan for those people and won’t turn away anyone who never had a chance to learn his gospel. You are not one of those people. We have been brought up around the gospel and have a great responsibility to stay true to it. I hope and pray that you will eventually stop denying those things that you have been taught and that you must know to be true deep down…. but I wouldn’t feel right to pretend that I think that your stance is okay. Yesterday I went and watched Tate Greene (Stuart’s kid) get baptised and then went to the temple for Colton’s sealing. These events are always great opportunities to receive spiritual reaffirmation of the truthfulness of the gospel….
I wrote him back and thanked him for his concern and love. You proud of me Ray?
🙂 Quote:I wrote him back and thanked him for his concern and love.
You proud of me Ray?
ABSO-STINKING-LUTLEY!!!!!
:clap: :clap: :clap: Seriously, seriously proud of you, friend.
Best way to deal with these things Cwald. Don’t get aggressive, that’s how people want us to be sometimes. Just because they’re acting like [expletive]s doesn’t mean you have to.
cwald, thank you for sharing, that e-mail was —priceless—- If you haven’t already done so, I doubt you could get your brother to do one of those MBTI (myers-briggs) tests at this point, but do you happen to know where your brother would fit in? I have a guess. doug wrote:If you haven’t already done so, I doubt you could get your brother to do one of those MBTI (myers-briggs) tests at this point, but do you happen to know where your brother would fit in? I have a guess.
They would have no interest. I would guess that my brothers, most of my family would certainly be hard-core Guardians for sure. What were you thinking?
Hey funny thing, A different brother called me up yesterday, because he had heard of my recent troubles from the home front. This brother lives in D.C. and is in the military and staunch republican. I briefed in him on the whole thing, and he disagreed with me of course —- civilly.
:clap: I asked him after-wards if he thought I was gay and satanic. His response was “No. I think you areliberal,😈 which in the mormon world is a hell of lot worse than being gay or satanic.” We had a pretty good at that.(((((HUGS)))))) to you cwald. That’s a tough email to read. You responded so maturely!!!! I’m proud of you too. What can you say to that really? Anything you say will be seen as unrighteous in some way. What a tough position to be in. My heart goes out to you. CG
Satanic and Gay? Hmmmmmm, a certain song comes to mind. It’s one of my favorite tunes 
Stephen Lynch – Beelz aka satan song
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swGBlDn_yiI [FAIR WARNING: some foul language in the song]
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