Rainbows. Rainbows everywhere.
That was my Facebook feed yesterday after SCOTUS' ruling on the subject of gay marriage. Tons of my friends changed their profile pictures to accompany tints of the rainbow gay pride flag and I can't tell you how many times I saw #lovewins. I think to say a lot of people are stoked about this is an understatement.
Then the Christian backlash--everything from mild irritation to the claim that Obama is shooting for an American holocaust. According to my knowledge, Christians who have nailed down the whole acting-like-a-true-Christian thing are typically very tolerant and caring toward everyone, but not necessarily permissive. They still feel bound to what the Lord has taught in the Bible and have a desire to obey, regardless of if they fully understand the reason.
Among all these things, I feel it's important to ask why. Why is gay marriage opposed in the Bible? Because it is. Yeah, it may only be a handful of verses, but the Ten Commandments are only a handful of verses, too. The point is, it's still in there. Anyway, I don't know how "mainstream" Christians would answer that question, but as for me and my Mormon self, let me explain. I've seriously done some pondering and scripture study toward this topic and I think I might be able to enlighten some people who might be confused. So don't take what I'm about to say as full-blown Mormon doctrine, but just one dude's opinion.
First and foremost, we lived with God before we were born. We lived as spirits in His presence and we learned from Him and prepared ourselves for the time that we would be born on earth. After all, that's why He created the earth--for us. We have this thing called "eternal progression," meaning that we're constantly learning and growing throughout eternity. Yup. Forever.
I think we were all anxious to be born into mortality. There are things that we can only experience with a body of flesh and bones that we, of course, as spirits, wouldn't have otherwise. If you didn't have a body, how could you feel hot or cold, pleasure or pain, excitement or exhaustion, or the taste of an expertly-crafted club sandwich?? I'm particularly a fan of that last one.
These things we could only experience with a body includes the sacred power to create children and express love through sexual intimacy. Isn't it nuts that we have that power within us? To create a human being through two people that unite themselves in love and unity. We're basically inviting one of those spirits waiting for the blessed experience of mortality to come hang out with us on earth as part of a loving family. Definitely not something to be treated lightly. That's why sexual sin of any kind--not just homosexual sex--is condemned in scripture.
And I think that's why. Do I think that two women or two men can be happy in a marriage relationship? Yeah, I do. But the children part is kind of a big deal to God. He created the earth so spirits could be born here and have the experience of mortality. When two men or two women get married... they can't do that. They don't have that power. It halts the plan that God has made for children to be born within the bonds of marriage as part of that loving family. Essentially, tons of our spirit friends are still waiting to be born, but they can't, so their eternal progression is halted. Gay or lesbian couples can adopt, which I think is a noble thing, but they don't have the procreative power in a marriage relationship that a man and a woman would have. They're simply raising a child that two other people had to create.
But anyway, that's just me. Maybe I'm just another Christian bigot that's stuck in non-progressive traditional values. That's fine. I'm happy with where I'm at and what I believe, and I'd like to be your friend anyway. People are always going to disagree with people. Folks are always going to get their feelings hurt or feel belittled. I think a lot of people on both sides have been feeling that way.
But amidst all of it, can't we still be friends? I sure hope we can.
Just saying.
-Aaron
Well said Aaron!
ReplyDeleteYes, well said. I think I agree that the main reason God is opposed to gay marriage is because it stops His children from progressing. The only way to achieve true exaltation in the highest Celestial glory is, of course, to be sealed for time and all eternity to a spouse of the opposite gender. The Family Proclamation has plenty of reasons why it's ideal to have both genders in a marriage. So in God's view, if a gay couple wants to get married, He can only see that as stopping their progression. like a dam stops a river from flowing, hence "damnation"... (I'm sure you're familiar with this, but still good for anyone reading to consider).
ReplyDeleteCan people be happy in a gay relationship/marriage? Of course. I've seen gay couples who are very happy. But they cannot achieve exaltation together. In other words, they can be happy, but they could be so much more happy eternally if they gave up the gay lifestyle. God understands this so much that there are different degrees of glory. If someone wants to have eternal life with God and become like Him, then they need to keep ALL the commandments. No one's perfect but that's what the Atonement is for. Now for those who don't live chaste lives, or those who live life in gay marriages without repenting, but are still overall very good people, giving service to others, etc., they can still get happiness in eternity. They just won't have the highest degree of glory. Probably Terrestrial glory I would think. That's not bad at all, in fact Terrestrial glory is very similar to the mainstream Christian view of heaven: live happily forever under God's glory, become angels or something, essentially just have an eternal vacation with everything you ever wanted, like food, a mansion, you name it. And many people will end up there and will be very happy to be there. They just wont have the power to create, and sadly their gay marriages will not survive this life. To me, that's just really sad. I'm not gay and I've never struggled with same sex attraction, but I think I would rather be celibate my whole life instead of being married to someone I love my whole life, knowing about eternal marriage, only to have to lose that person upon death.
God sees that too. He is loving and compassionate and doesn't want people to have to experience that. That's one reason why He teaches humanity to avoid homosexuality all together, because in the long run it will be better. Or to look at it another way, maybe God could say "Hey, if you really wanna have a gay relationship your whole life and wanna live with that person, get married, raise kids, go ahead. You will still have Terrestrial glory and that's pretty good still. It's not the best their is and you wont be able to truly dwell with me, but it's not bad either. So go ahead." But of course God will not say that because He cannot look upon any degree of sin with allowance (Alma 45:16). To do so would defeat His entire purpose "to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man" (Moses 1:39). This means all men, not some men or most men, that is His purpose, even though He knows that not all men (and women) will achieve it. In His love and mercy, He still gives the option to everyone. And He will never tell His servants the prophets to say that either. So don't expect the First Presidency to ever release something like that. That's why the Church teaches to be kind, compassionate and considerate of gays and others who don't share their beliefs but does not tolerate their sin. It's out of love. That's the real meaning of #LoveWins in my opinion. The reality is now that lots of gay people will get married and live their lives together. Nothing the Church says can stop that. That's agency. But the Church will still echo God's will by teaching how to reach exaltation in the highest degree of the Celestial Kingdom.
And as a side note, I try to have empathy for gay people because I couldn't imagine having to stay celibate my whole life if that was my only option to reach exaltation because I wasn't attracted to women. Ultimately, God is the judge and who knows where everyone will end up. But we all have to repent of all our sins to reach true Eternal Life. And life is supposed to be a test and following God's commandments is supposed to be inconvenient according to society's standards, like Elder Oaks said last General Conference. So those are my thoughts. Thanks for the post!
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