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President Oaks and his wife recently gave a devotional for the Young Adults. The best summary that I have seen so far is found here:
The good:
Elder Oaks expresses love and calls for love for others. He says that people that live differently than we do should be treated with love knowing that God will ultimately judge them.
I felt that it was nice that he acknowledged student debt and lack of affordable housing are contributing factors to postponement of marriage/children.
Considering that Elder Oaks has a long history of beating the anti-SSM drum, these comments were fairly tame.
The bad:
Push for young people to get married young and then proceed to have children. While this advice is more of the same from what we have heard for years, I fear that it puts organizational goals ahead of individual goals and needs. (Pres. Oaks likely feels that individual needs and org. goals are consistent in the long term perspective)
Transgender. President Oaks said that God has repeatedly declared Male and Female and described these individuals as gender confused. He didn’t quite say that Transgender individuals don’t exist but it was implied. He also stated that these feelings can change over time and that families should take the long view. IOW they may be confused but can snap out of it later. Definitely, not a possibility to be something other than male/female in the pre or post mortal existence.
Labels. Repeated advice to avoid labels that are “not compatible” with the gospel. To me, this is an issue of definitions. It makes things easier on the church leaders when they can counsel individuals with SSA or gender confusion rather than someone that IS LGBTQ+. To be gay (for example) forms part of one’s identity and it would not be appropriate to tell people to hide or change their identity. Here again, the idea seems to be that SSA is just a quirk of mortal testing and cannot be part of one’s eternal identity. To me this seems like gaslighting. As if to say that you only think you know who you are but I know that your state of being is only temporary. Whereas, who I am and how I understand myself is correct and permanent and will be eternally upheld and reaffirmed in the afterlife.
I avoided this talk on purpose but I have at least partially read some articles in relation to it. Regarding young people marrying and having children as young as possible regardless of financial or psychological readiness to do so, I think that’s just plain bad advice. I cannot fathom it in this day and age. I think only the most true believers among our younger generations (Millennials and beyond) will heed this advice. My own adult children do not buy into that idea. Anecdotally, my oldest is unmarried (and totally inactive as a non-believer) and lives with a man who is of similar status. He is divorced from a marriage with no children. Neither he nor his ex desired children, even though they were active at the time of their marriage (and were married in the temple). My daughter also does not desire children. My second oldest (late 20s) has been married for a few years, they are semi-active and fulltime graduate students. They do plan to have children after they finish their degrees. They cannot understand why anyone would have children while college students – it’s not fair to them or the kids. The next has also been married a few years and they are semi-active. His wife is also a grad student, but he has a very good professional well paying job. Children are likely in the future for them but they are more vague about a timeline. Son 3 is a menace to society, 25 and unmarried and also a grad student. As far as we know there is no marriage in the near future (next year or so). Just to be totally clear, we only discuss these things when they bring them up, we never ask. Grandchildren will probably be fun, although since we are scattered about the country I’m not sure how much interaction we’ll have. We’re in no rush to be grandparents.
I won’t get on the LGBTQ+ soapbox, except to say that prophets have been wrong in the past and I believe they’re wrong on this issue. There is no scriptural evidence gender is eternal (either before or after earth).
DarkJedi wrote:
I avoided this talk on purpose but I have at least partially read some articles in relation to it.
I avoided it and any articles.
It’s a shame that so much of the Mormon identity is centered around procreation through sexual reproduction. So much so that the highest conceptualization of heaven, the entire reason for our very existence is a mere extension of that worldly identity.
It’s so strange how Oaks keeps revisiting the topic. Maybe he was told not to talk about that subject during this past general conference so we got the Jesus quotes talk but he was itching to get the message out again.
If he becomes prophet I hope we don’t turn into The Church of Let Me Tell You One More Thing About Gay People.
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