{"id":79,"date":"2010-10-04T11:42:30","date_gmt":"2010-10-04T11:42:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/flunkingsainthood\/2010\/10\/lds-apostle-boyd-k-packer-is-wrong-about-homosexuality.html"},"modified":"2010-10-04T11:42:30","modified_gmt":"2010-10-04T11:42:30","slug":"lds-apostle-boyd-k-packer-is-wrong-about-homosexuality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flunkingsainthood\/2010\/10\/lds-apostle-boyd-k-packer-is-wrong-about-homosexuality.html","title":{"rendered":"LDS Apostle Boyd K. Packer Is Wrong About Homosexual Relationships"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"lds_general_conference.jpg\"<\/form>\n

I had a lovely blog post written for today, which I drafted on Saturday after being deeply moved by the beautiful talks from Elder Jeffrey Holland<\/a> and Elder Dieter Uchtdorf<\/a>. The blog today was going to be about favorite General Conference talks, and I was looking forward to hearing about your<\/i> all-time favorite talks–the ones that have stirred your soul or moved you to greater spiritual depth.<\/p>\n

That post is now back in “draft” status and can keep for another time. I need to talk instead about what Elder Boyd K. Packer said yesterday<\/a> in the Sunday morning session, which broke the hearts of many faithful people, both gay and straight.<\/p>\n

Packer said, “If we’re not alert, there are those today who not
\nonly tolerate but advocate voting to change laws that will legalize
\nimmorality, as if a vote would somehow alter the designs of God’s
\nlaws and nature … what good would a vote against the law of
\ngravity do?” <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n


\n“Some suppose that they were preset and cannot overcome what
\nthey feel are inborn tendencies toward the impure and the
\nunnatural,” he said. “Not so. Why would our Heavenly Father do that
\nto anyone?” <\/p>\n

Why, indeed? Elder Packer finds it against God’s
\nnatural laws that some people might be born gay, since homosexual
\nrelationships do not lead to children. The Salt Lake Tribune<\/a><\/i> reported:<\/p>\n

\n

The senior apostle drew on the church’s 1995 declaration, “The Family: A
\nProclamation to the World,” to support his view that the power to
\ncreate offspring “is not an incidental part of the plan of happiness. It
\nis the key — the very key.” <\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

If we
\nwere to take this argument to its logical conclusion, we would then be
\ncompelled to ask why God would create some loving and good people to be
\ninfertile, like several faithful couples in my ward who have been denied
\nchildren. (We would also need to ask why the Church has stopped advising members to always eschew birth control, preferring to leave that issue between a couple and the Lord.) Or we might ask why other people are born with autism, or
\nschizophrenia, or any disability that might preclude a healthy marital
\nrelationship and the possibility of parenthood. But I don’t need to take
\nthis argument to that logical conclusion, because I know in my heart
\nthat the line of argument is fundamentally flawed. Gay people are not
\nlesser children of God, or morally compromised, or disabled, for being
\nattracted to people of the same sex.<\/p>\n

It is painful to be so at
\nodds with my Church on this issue.  It is especially painful to see the
\nChurch’s anti-homosexuality arguments take such a step backward; it is
\none thing to say, as other apostles have done, that the Church opposes
\nhomosexuality and that “we don’t know” why some individuals appear to be
\nbiologically predisposed toward same-sex attraction. It is another
\nthing entirely to deny that God would ever create an individual who
\nwould be unable to fulfill a mandate of reproduction, or to equate
\nhomosexuality with pornography, which is a sin of lust, exploitation,
\nand disordered desires. <\/p>\n

I believe that Elder Packer is wrong
\nthat there is no such thing as a godly homosexual relationship. I define a godly partnership as two
\nindividuals who strive in mutual fidelity to honor one another and care together for others. I have seen a number of godly, lifelong,
\nhomosexual relationships, just as I have seen some heterosexual temple
\nmarriages that were unholy, like an LDS man who would not stop
\nbelittling and humiliating his wife in public, or an LDS woman who
\nturned her children against their father because he had not been as
\nsuccessful in his career as she thought he should be. On the flip side, I
\nhave seen plenty of excellent, beautiful Mormon temple marriages, and
\nsome unhealthy gay relationships. Like heterosexual marriages, gay
\nrelationships are found all across the spectrum, and it only serves to
\ndemonize gay individuals  to characterize all gay relationships as
\n“impure” or “not in harmony with the principles of the Gospel.”<\/p>\n

The
\nprinciples of the Gospel involve love and faith, not condemnation of
\nanyone who is different. In the LDS Church, we are “trying to be like
\nJesus,” as the Primary song puts it. Our goal in life is to become more
\nlike Christ. Why, then, do we fixate so much of our attention on
\ncondemning homosexuality, a subject that Christ did not address a single
\ntime in his earthly ministry?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I had a lovely blog post written for today, which I drafted on Saturday after being deeply moved by the beautiful talks from Elder Jeffrey Holland and Elder Dieter Uchtdorf. The blog today was going to be about favorite General Conference talks, and I was looking forward to hearing about your all-time favorite talks–the ones…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":226,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-79","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mormonism"],"yoast_head":"\nLDS Apostle Boyd K. 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