and may your holidays be extremely moderate.
(Isn't my family the best for letting me play dress up on them?)
Wednesday, December 25, 2013
Tuesday, December 24, 2013
What Should We Call Truth
By Megan Knobloch Geilman
[Editor's note: This essay was originally posted on December 24, 2013 with the status: Merry Christmas Eve! A post on truth, specifically eternal truth. Even though I quote Judeo/Christian/Mormon scripture, I tried to write this essay so that anyone could read and appreciate it. Heck, even my atheist friends are really open minded. I also get a little existential, but (hopefully) in an accessible way.]
In an age when there is incessant arguing over who is right and what is right—What if we all started asking: what is true?
[Editor's note: This essay was originally posted on December 24, 2013 with the status: Merry Christmas Eve! A post on truth, specifically eternal truth. Even though I quote Judeo/Christian/Mormon scripture, I tried to write this essay so that anyone could read and appreciate it. Heck, even my atheist friends are really open minded. I also get a little existential, but (hopefully) in an accessible way.]
In an age when there is incessant arguing over who is right and what is right—What if we all started asking: what is true?
What is truth?
Truth is that indisputable "knowing" that something is. That this particular nugget has always existed as truth and that it's particular "truthiness" will always be, no matter what conditions or circumstances change. Statements like "the sky is blue," "Life is like a box of chocolates—you never know what you're gonna get," and "God loves all his children" are easy for the majority of people to accept because they feel true. It resonates with us. Now I make jest with the lexicon above but I do believe truth exists, that it is real and that it will always be real. I have no doubt in my mind that there are facts of our existence and our place in the Universe and also that we can know this truth for ourselves. The Doctrine & Covenants states truth as such: "And truth is knowledge of things as they are, and as they were, and as they are to come" (D&C 93:24). Truth can be questioned, tested, and verified. Truth is still truth and has always existed as truth whether anyone believes it or not. Oh say, what is Truth!—truth is reason, truth eternal—intelligence, glory, light, and knowledge. Truth to me, is all that God knows and is—the characteristics, experiences, knowledge, and actions that make up this great divine being we call God. In short, because I believe that God exists, I believe that truth exists. And since I believe that God speaks to His children, I believe that we can know truth. Line upon line, precept upon precept we can know truth for ourselves and that knowing truth will ultimately benefit us and make our lives better, our experiences more joyful and happy, our families more peaceful and safe, and our world a better place.
So where does Truth come from?
Since the beginning of time God has inspired people with truth. Religion, science, philosophy, the arts—these are all disciplines that search for truth and in turn receive knowledge through inquiry, reason, even faith and prayer. Some of the people God speaks to are Prophets who write some of the truth they receive down as scripture. But God doesn't only speak to Prophets: all great writers, historians, musicians, artists, scientists and other creative types have been inspired. Handel's experiences in writing "The Messiah" were described akin to a series of spiritual manifestations. Max Planck, German physicist who worked on quantum theory relates "It was not by accident that the greatest thinkers of all ages were deeply religious souls." God speaks to all of His children, regardless of time and space, in relation to how much truth they want to know and are willing to seek, and search, and find.
This particular fact has kept me deeply rooted in Mormonism ever since my youth, as Joseph Smith stated: "The first and fundamental principle of our holy religion is, that we believe that we have a right to embrace all, and every item of truth, without limitation or without being circumscribed or prohibited by the creeds or superstitious notions of men, or by the dominations of one another, when that truth is clearly demonstrated to our minds, and we have the highest degree of evidence of the same." Truth is everywhere, in everyone, in everything to varying degrees of "truthfulness." Seeing truth in spectrum isn't fun for those black and white type thinkers—but I find comfort in the fact that when you look at gray close enough, it's just a lot of little black and white dots. There is always truth, you sometimes just have to dig deeper to find it. This requires patience, long suffering, and above all humility that we may not always have all the answers.
Why should we bother knowing Truth?
This particular fact has kept me deeply rooted in Mormonism ever since my youth, as Joseph Smith stated: "The first and fundamental principle of our holy religion is, that we believe that we have a right to embrace all, and every item of truth, without limitation or without being circumscribed or prohibited by the creeds or superstitious notions of men, or by the dominations of one another, when that truth is clearly demonstrated to our minds, and we have the highest degree of evidence of the same." Truth is everywhere, in everyone, in everything to varying degrees of "truthfulness." Seeing truth in spectrum isn't fun for those black and white type thinkers—but I find comfort in the fact that when you look at gray close enough, it's just a lot of little black and white dots. There is always truth, you sometimes just have to dig deeper to find it. This requires patience, long suffering, and above all humility that we may not always have all the answers.
Why should we bother knowing Truth?
As we grow in learning and knowledge we inevitably come in contact with new facts or truths that sometimes seem at odds with what we already know. I think that truth—eternal truth and the laws that actually govern truth don't change. Sometimes, however, our understanding or the "truthfulness" of the law has to grow to accommodate new truths. Remember how the law of gravity is supposed to be this all-encompassing universal law that applies no matter where we are in the universe...well, turns out that gravity might sort of possibly cease to function on a sub-atomic level. Lots of hardworking scientists are currently in the process of figuring that out. We once thought the Sun revolved around the Earth. Before that the Earth was flat. New learning means possibly revising what we knew to be true. This does not mean that truth changes or isn't important, simply our understanding and/or application of it does. It isn't that gravity ceases to exist, or didn't exist before, or is suddenly trivial, it just might be more complex then we previously understood. The sky isn't literally blue—particles in the earth's atmosphere reflect blue light—but the statement "the sky is blue" is still true, we just understand it in a more complex way. Even so, we want things to be more stable than this, so generally learning new things causes us unrest, and as human beings we dislike unrest.
This is why when we are presented with some fact or nugget that could contradict our previously known body of truth we pull back. We are uncomfortable, we want it to go away. Sometimes we decide we can only handle what truth we already hold and we unconsciously put a cap on how much truth we are willing to accept from God: there are scientists who still balk at the idea of a divine being and there are religious people who still don't accept the possibility of the Big Bang Theory or of Evolution. Since we're most comfortable with truth we already accept, we like to surround ourselves with people who share the same beliefs. Sociologists call this your "tribe." Marketers call it a "demographic." Some tribes I associate with are: White, Woman, Late twenty-something, Millennial, Mormon, Feminist, Married, Stay-at-Home, Mom, Heterosexual, Artist. But we should always be willing to challenge our beliefs since truth will always stand up to scrutiny. Truth, like cream, always rises to the top. With the internet and social media we have the perception that we can easily have our beliefs tested, however since our interaction with the internet is guided by algorithm, we can easily get stuck in a "filter bubble" and not be exposed to different ideas. We still have to go out of our way to get a different perspective.
For anyone that has ever learned something new that brought them peace or climactic understanding they will tell you that knowing truth is worth it. That light bulb moment when inspiration hits and things suddenly make sense, the puzzle pieces fit together, one sees above the fray, the forest through the trees. There is no feeling quite like it. Even still, after we commit to new knowledge, we can still sometimes struggle, falter, and fall. In the New Testament, Paul urged those recently baptized Jews: "Cast not away therefore thy confidence, which hath great recompense of reward. For ye have need of patience, that after ye have done the will of God ye might receive the reward" (Hebrews 10:35-36). Seeking for truth is hard, it takes patience and it's not a one time event—but it is so, so worth it.
Presentation of new knowledge creates conflict, and while contention is of the devil (3 Nephi 11:29), conflict is essential to our progression. All conflict is the result of a failure to communicate, whether between ourselves and God, with each other, or within ourselves. Perfect communication would result in perfect harmony, but anyone that has argued law knows that even our best words can fail us. However without conflict, there is no resolution. A fundamental characteristic of our time in mortality is that we must experience "opposition in all things" (2 Nephi 2:27). Opposition creates conflict, but conflict (whether in this life or the next) ends in resolution. Resolution is peace, joy, love—all the "fruits" of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22). In facing these conflict-resolution situations we move from one sphere of knowledge to the next, ascending and progressing until that day when we will "know the truth of all things" (Moroni 10:5, Moses 6:61).
God wants us to search for truth and knowledge and He wants us to have it. This exchange of us desiring knowledge and God granting it has been going on since the beginning of time—and as the human family progresses God is able to disseminate more and more truth at an exponentially faster pace. Early on in human history he had to speak to His children in separate locales and teach them the same things. Important inventions like the wheel and the light bulb were simultaneously invented at around the same time on different continents, much to the confusion and delight of scholars. Jesus Christ visits the people in Jerusalem as documented in the Bible as well as some of his "other sheep" (John 10:16) in the American continents as relayed in the Book of Mormon, teaches his doctrine and establishes his Church. As human history progresses, the interchange of knowledge among mankind has been able to happen at a higher speed in relation to the rate of the exchange. In conjunction, God has been able to give more and more light and knowledge as we engage in this cycle of inquiry, exchange, questioning, seeking and finding. After the Gutenberg press was invented and books were able to be printed for the first time en masse, huge leaps in humanity were made in all disciplines. With the advent of technology and the internet, information can be created and disseminated more quickly than ever before in human history. Little old, stay-at-home mom, me can write a few words and post them to the internet, circumventing all systemic hierarchies, and know that it has been read by 300 people within an hour—this is has never happened before in the earth's history! Anyone and everyone has the ability to speak their truth and have it be heard publicly. But just because information can be passed quickly and efficiently doesn't necessarily mean its true—so how can we know?
How can we know Truth?
While I was an LDS missionary I became very interested in finding a sort of scientific approach to revelation—a clear method I could use in receiving insight from God and then teaching it to others. Over time I've had enough experiences to know certain ways that I know God is speaking to me or how to recognize Truth. Most of these will be familiar to Mormons but most anyone can use them to their own advantage in coming closer to divinity and having a more peaceful, happy existence.
1) Obedience. Specifically obedience to laws you already know. The universe is governed by laws—laws like gravity that if you follow them you will be blessed (not falling down unnecessarily) and if you break them, or attempt to break them you can potentially face discomfort or even disaster (falling from great heights). There are universal laws that govern everything: laws for health (if I eat healthy I will feel better, if I eat poorly I will get sick), laws for money (if I spend more than I earn I will be in debt), laws for education (if I study hard I will learn some things). There are also laws governing the dynamics of movement, social behavior, thought, and beauty. Nobody on earth knows all the laws all at once—even Jesus had to "increase in wisdom and stature" (Luke 2:52) and ascend "grace for grace" (D&C 93:12). A lot of laws are spelled out in commandments written in the scriptures that make up the social codes of religion. Laws, like all truth, exist eternally—they are not so much created as they are discovered. You can call these principles or guidelines but the point is, when you follow them things get better and when you break them, things don't go so well.
The Doctrine & Covenants states: "There is a law, irrevocably decreed in heaven before the foundations of this world, upon which all blessings are predicated—And when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated" All these laws have blessings attached to them that God wants to give to us. This is why people who follow certain commandments will testify of the blessings of them. If you ever find yourself envious of another's success whether in personal relationships, prosperity, or health--instead of allowing contention within yourself, try to identify what laws they might be being obedient to. Trying to mimic someones actions verbatim to receive the same results will end in frustration, for there is infinite variety within the law. Since I believe all these laws have something to do with Ultimate Truth (God), I believe if we do our best at following the laws we already know we can gain access to knowledge of more laws—like steps rising a staircase, and in consequence more truth. We don't know all the laws but I believe we can learn more by having good stewardship and doing our best to follow the ones we do know.
For anyone that has ever learned something new that brought them peace or climactic understanding they will tell you that knowing truth is worth it. That light bulb moment when inspiration hits and things suddenly make sense, the puzzle pieces fit together, one sees above the fray, the forest through the trees. There is no feeling quite like it. Even still, after we commit to new knowledge, we can still sometimes struggle, falter, and fall. In the New Testament, Paul urged those recently baptized Jews: "Cast not away therefore thy confidence, which hath great recompense of reward. For ye have need of patience, that after ye have done the will of God ye might receive the reward" (Hebrews 10:35-36). Seeking for truth is hard, it takes patience and it's not a one time event—but it is so, so worth it.
Presentation of new knowledge creates conflict, and while contention is of the devil (3 Nephi 11:29), conflict is essential to our progression. All conflict is the result of a failure to communicate, whether between ourselves and God, with each other, or within ourselves. Perfect communication would result in perfect harmony, but anyone that has argued law knows that even our best words can fail us. However without conflict, there is no resolution. A fundamental characteristic of our time in mortality is that we must experience "opposition in all things" (2 Nephi 2:27). Opposition creates conflict, but conflict (whether in this life or the next) ends in resolution. Resolution is peace, joy, love—all the "fruits" of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22). In facing these conflict-resolution situations we move from one sphere of knowledge to the next, ascending and progressing until that day when we will "know the truth of all things" (Moroni 10:5, Moses 6:61).
God wants us to search for truth and knowledge and He wants us to have it. This exchange of us desiring knowledge and God granting it has been going on since the beginning of time—and as the human family progresses God is able to disseminate more and more truth at an exponentially faster pace. Early on in human history he had to speak to His children in separate locales and teach them the same things. Important inventions like the wheel and the light bulb were simultaneously invented at around the same time on different continents, much to the confusion and delight of scholars. Jesus Christ visits the people in Jerusalem as documented in the Bible as well as some of his "other sheep" (John 10:16) in the American continents as relayed in the Book of Mormon, teaches his doctrine and establishes his Church. As human history progresses, the interchange of knowledge among mankind has been able to happen at a higher speed in relation to the rate of the exchange. In conjunction, God has been able to give more and more light and knowledge as we engage in this cycle of inquiry, exchange, questioning, seeking and finding. After the Gutenberg press was invented and books were able to be printed for the first time en masse, huge leaps in humanity were made in all disciplines. With the advent of technology and the internet, information can be created and disseminated more quickly than ever before in human history. Little old, stay-at-home mom, me can write a few words and post them to the internet, circumventing all systemic hierarchies, and know that it has been read by 300 people within an hour—this is has never happened before in the earth's history! Anyone and everyone has the ability to speak their truth and have it be heard publicly. But just because information can be passed quickly and efficiently doesn't necessarily mean its true—so how can we know?
How can we know Truth?
While I was an LDS missionary I became very interested in finding a sort of scientific approach to revelation—a clear method I could use in receiving insight from God and then teaching it to others. Over time I've had enough experiences to know certain ways that I know God is speaking to me or how to recognize Truth. Most of these will be familiar to Mormons but most anyone can use them to their own advantage in coming closer to divinity and having a more peaceful, happy existence.
1) Obedience. Specifically obedience to laws you already know. The universe is governed by laws—laws like gravity that if you follow them you will be blessed (not falling down unnecessarily) and if you break them, or attempt to break them you can potentially face discomfort or even disaster (falling from great heights). There are universal laws that govern everything: laws for health (if I eat healthy I will feel better, if I eat poorly I will get sick), laws for money (if I spend more than I earn I will be in debt), laws for education (if I study hard I will learn some things). There are also laws governing the dynamics of movement, social behavior, thought, and beauty. Nobody on earth knows all the laws all at once—even Jesus had to "increase in wisdom and stature" (Luke 2:52) and ascend "grace for grace" (D&C 93:12). A lot of laws are spelled out in commandments written in the scriptures that make up the social codes of religion. Laws, like all truth, exist eternally—they are not so much created as they are discovered. You can call these principles or guidelines but the point is, when you follow them things get better and when you break them, things don't go so well.
The Doctrine & Covenants states: "There is a law, irrevocably decreed in heaven before the foundations of this world, upon which all blessings are predicated—And when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated" All these laws have blessings attached to them that God wants to give to us. This is why people who follow certain commandments will testify of the blessings of them. If you ever find yourself envious of another's success whether in personal relationships, prosperity, or health--instead of allowing contention within yourself, try to identify what laws they might be being obedient to. Trying to mimic someones actions verbatim to receive the same results will end in frustration, for there is infinite variety within the law. Since I believe all these laws have something to do with Ultimate Truth (God), I believe if we do our best at following the laws we already know we can gain access to knowledge of more laws—like steps rising a staircase, and in consequence more truth. We don't know all the laws but I believe we can learn more by having good stewardship and doing our best to follow the ones we do know.
2) Study. We have to do our part. We have to show God that we want to know more. In the Doctrine and Covenants the Lord declares: "seek ye out of the best books words of wisdom; seek learning, even by study and also by faith" (88:118). A lot of people think that "if God wants me to know something He will tell me"—and I think this can happen in cases where God needs you to know something immediately, like in cases of danger and the faith promoting stories that come with that. But for the most part, I think God wants us to do some searching and pondering and seeking and knocking. "Ask and ye shall receive" He says time and time again, "Knock, and it shall be opened unto you" (John 16:24, Matthew 7:7, Matthew 21:22, James 1:5, Enos 1:5, 3 Nephi 14:7, 3 Nephi 27, 29, D&C 88:63, D&C 4:7, D&C 49:26, D&C 103:31, D&C 66:9, D&C 75:27, D&C 6:5, D&C 12:5, D&C 14:5, D&C 11:5). We need to do our part to show God we care about obtaining truth.
In the Doctrine and Covenants, God chastises Oliver Cowdery: "Behold you have not understood; you have supposed that I would give it unto you, when you took no thought save it was to ask me. But behold, I say unto you, that you must study it out in your mind; then you must ask me if it be right..." (D&C 9:7-8). We shouldn't be afraid of new knowledge from God and we shouldn't be afraid to ask for it, "for God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind" (2 Timothy 1:7). Humbly, we should always be learning, always be studying, always be acquiring new knowledge and educating ourselves. And when something doesn't fit, we don't need to throw it away.
I have a shelf in my mind labeled "Don't have all the answers yet" where I put things that don't quite jive at the moment. As the years go by I'm able to take things on and off the shelf as I learn and grow, having faith that someday the shelf will be empty. In a beautiful sermon entitled "What is Truth," Elder Uchtdorf addresses this topic more succinctly then I ever could. After stating our obligation to seek after truth, he concludes with: "My young friends, as you accept the responsibility to seek after truth with an open mind and a humble heart, you will become more tolerant of others, more open to listen, more prepared to understand, more inclined to build up instead of tearing down, and more willing to go where the Lord wants you to go."
We need to obey whether or not it is something of great consequence. From Namaan's faithful servant we are often reminded: "if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it?" (2 Kings 5:13). Sometimes we forget that when the Lord asks us to "lose (our) life for (his) sake" it is both the willingness to lay down our life and die for His cause, but also to give up the daily agenda of day-to-day living for God and follow whatever plan He has for us. Obedience is a two-edged sword.
I have a shelf in my mind labeled "Don't have all the answers yet" where I put things that don't quite jive at the moment. As the years go by I'm able to take things on and off the shelf as I learn and grow, having faith that someday the shelf will be empty. In a beautiful sermon entitled "What is Truth," Elder Uchtdorf addresses this topic more succinctly then I ever could. After stating our obligation to seek after truth, he concludes with: "My young friends, as you accept the responsibility to seek after truth with an open mind and a humble heart, you will become more tolerant of others, more open to listen, more prepared to understand, more inclined to build up instead of tearing down, and more willing to go where the Lord wants you to go."
We need to obey whether or not it is something of great consequence. From Namaan's faithful servant we are often reminded: "if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it?" (2 Kings 5:13). Sometimes we forget that when the Lord asks us to "lose (our) life for (his) sake" it is both the willingness to lay down our life and die for His cause, but also to give up the daily agenda of day-to-day living for God and follow whatever plan He has for us. Obedience is a two-edged sword.
3) Prayer. Prayer is at worst a grocery list of needs from us to God and at best a conversation where we speak and then listen and then obey. The Bible Dictionary states prayer as such: "Prayer is the act by which the will of the Father and the will of the child are brought into correspondence with each other. The object of prayer is not to change the will of God but to secure for ourselves and for others blessings that God is already willing to grant but that are made conditional on our asking for them." If we can trust that God loves us (John 3:16, 1 Nephi 11:17) then we can trust that whatever He commands us to do will be for our ultimate benefit and happiness. Mormon missionaries the world over share time and time again "Moroni's promise" in the Book of Mormon, that if we ask with a "sincere heart" and with "real intent" (meaning we will follow through with the answer we are given) that we may know "the truth of all things"(Moroni 10:3-5). When we ask a specific question to God we can receive specific answers. Again to Oliver Cowdery, the Lord continues: "...and if it is right I will cause that your bosom shall burn within you; therefore, you shall feel that it is right. But if it be not right you shall have no such feelings, but you shall have a stupor of thought that shall cause you to forget the thing which is wrong..." (D&C 9:8-9). In the preceding revelation, the Lord coaxes Oliver: "Yeah, behold, I will tell you in your mind and in your heart, by the Holy Ghost" (D&C 8:2-3). Mind and soul, head and heart. To quote Elder Holland on these verses: "God will teach us in a reasonable way and in a revelatory way—mind and heart combined—by the Holy Ghost." We just need to pray, and ask, and listen, and obey...and then pay attention to the results.
4) Examining "the Fruits." I think this is the most important one but it can be the hardest to pin down. Every act as a before and after: an intention and a consequence. Intentions are never a good indicator of the fruits of something or someone. Villains always see themselves in the right—even Hitler thought he was doing the world a favor. Of course this is why I think it doesn't hurt to trust that people have good intentions...but obviously not everything everyone does is right or true. In the New Testament and Book of Mormon, Jesus uses the phrase "by their fruits ye shall know them" when warning His followers of false prophets (Matthew 7:20, 3 Nephi 14:20). But I think this can be applied when examining any possible falsehood in our lives. It can be complicated though—things that are bad for us often have immediate positive results or fruits. People wouldn't do drugs or drink alcohol or do a number of other things if it didn't have a close-range positive effect. It requires patience and stepping back and sometimes withholding judgment until we can truly see the fruits. Sometimes we don't have time to evaluate all the consequences of a particular action, which is why the Lord occasionally requires us to move forward with faith. And since we have the Atonement of Jesus Christ we can move forward on that faith, knowing that if we misjudged or faltered that His sacrifice can erase our sin, His pain can allow our joy (Isaiah 1:18, Alma 7:11). If we look at long term positive fruits we can often easily and quickly recognize the truth of any situation.
Mormons don't have the corner on truth—we just claim to have access to a continuation of it through a Prophet of God. This is the same claim Christians have when Christ restored his Church by calling twelve apostles and a Prophet (Peter) and Jews claim it through God restoring his Church through Moses. God has been doing this business of getting His truth out for a long time. So why doesn't He just give it to us all at once? I think because He wants us to remain humble and seeking and asking and knocking. If we knew everything all at once, we would neither appreciate or cherish or cultivate the knowledge He has already given us. In the parable of the talents, it didn't matter the amount of talents he gave to each servant, he just cared about the increase. To the servant who hid away the talent, citing fear, the Master rebukes "thou art a wicked and slothful servant" (Matthew 25:26). God wants us to continue to search and ask and seek after new knowledge!
What if we all decided to find truth instead of deciding or figuring out who is right and who is wrong. What if we were all truth-seekers instead of attempted truth definers? What if we collected or compiled this truth—what would it say? What would be in it? Is that what social media already is? If we all sought after truth in our respective disciplines (with that goal in mind) would God exponentially grace us with His wisdom from the Heavens? I suppose as we did this there would be plenty of truths that don't quite fit, but as I have sought to know God's truth for myself so much of it seems paradoxical from my own earthly perspective. To quote Forrest Gump at the end of that great movie (which I think is largely about redemption) when speaking to his sweetheart after her death:
"Jennie...I don't know if Momma was right or if it's Lieutenant Dan...I don't know if we each have a destiny or if were all just floatin' around accidental like on a breeze...but I, I think...maybe it's both. Maybe both is happening at the same time."
I have faith that there will be a time and a place when we will all know all the answers to all the questions, but I also have faith that it can be sooner then we think, if we give it a try.
#whatshouldwecalltruth
What if we all decided to find truth instead of deciding or figuring out who is right and who is wrong. What if we were all truth-seekers instead of attempted truth definers? What if we collected or compiled this truth—what would it say? What would be in it? Is that what social media already is? If we all sought after truth in our respective disciplines (with that goal in mind) would God exponentially grace us with His wisdom from the Heavens? I suppose as we did this there would be plenty of truths that don't quite fit, but as I have sought to know God's truth for myself so much of it seems paradoxical from my own earthly perspective. To quote Forrest Gump at the end of that great movie (which I think is largely about redemption) when speaking to his sweetheart after her death:
"Jennie...I don't know if Momma was right or if it's Lieutenant Dan...I don't know if we each have a destiny or if were all just floatin' around accidental like on a breeze...but I, I think...maybe it's both. Maybe both is happening at the same time."
I have faith that there will be a time and a place when we will all know all the answers to all the questions, but I also have faith that it can be sooner then we think, if we give it a try.
#whatshouldwecalltruth
Tuesday, December 10, 2013
The Straight and Narrow Path: How to Navigate Moral Dilemmas
This Christmas season I would like to discuss moral dilemmas, my mission, and of course: Jesus.
But first, let's talk about commandments. Commandments are given through a prophet of God for general direction and large oversight of the body of the Church, but individual commandments are also given through personal revelation from God through reading the scriptures, inspiration, etc. Often these general commandments and our individual circumstances intersect, and occasionally the direction we receive with what we understand can cause a contradiction, resulting in a moral dilemma. A moral dilemma is when two commandments are presented and when following one, you will inevitably break the other. The first moral dilemma was presented in the garden: the Lord commanded Adam and Eve to both "multiply and replenish the earth"(Genesis 1:28) and also to not partake of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. From their understanding, they could not do both. As Lehi states: "And now, behold, if Adam had not transgressed he would not have fallen, but he would have remained in the garden of Eden. And all things which were created must have remained in the same state in which they were after they were created; and they must have remained forever, and had no end. And they would have had no children; wherefore they would have remained in a state of innocence, having no joy, for they knew no misery; doing no good, for they knew no sin" (2 Nephi 2:22-23).
Other moral dilemmas in the scriptures include Nephi killing Laban (1 Nephi 4:10), Abraham lying about Sarai being his sister (Abraham 2:24), and Abraham's sacrifice of his son Isaac (Genesis 22:2). Sometimes moral dilemmas aren't having to choose between two commandments but between our personal moral obligations and long held social constructs: do I speak up to my boss about views I care about and risk my job or stay quiet? Do I do what's right for my family or focus on the needs of others? Do I call someone out or remain silent? The homeless man on the street--someone looking for help or a scammer trying to take honest people's money? No matter our stance on any matter of subjects, through family and work, learning and leisure, justice and mercy: we all face moral dilemmas all the time, every day.
A lesser known moral dilemma is the story of Ahaz in the Old Testament, whom God commanded to form an alliance of Judah to Assyria so as to foil the alliance between Syria and Ephraim, but Ahaz allies Judah with Assyria anyway, causing problems. More importantly, the Lord tells Ahaz to ask of Him a sign (Isaiah 7:10-11) but Ahaz refuses, saying "I will not ask, neither will I tempt the Lord" (Isaiah 7:12, 2 Nephi 17:12). Understandably, we are generally counseled in the scriptures to NOT to ask the Lord for signs--see Alma 30:43-50. But whether as mercy or judgement, the Lord gives him a sign anyway (Isaiah 7:14, 2 Nephi 17:14).
Ahaz is generally considered a wicked king by Bible scholars but how often are we told to do something by God and we refuse, citing other commandments as reason to not obey. We often cite the faith of Nephi: "I will go and do the things which the Lord commands, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them" as reason that we should be able to follow ANY commandment God gives us. Yet we all face our mortal follies and the fact that "all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). We cannot follow all of the commandments all the time and experience mortality. This is what Stephen Robison calls "The Great Dilemma."
Elder Richard G. Scott this last conference spoke about a moral dilemma a whole group of people faced in the Book of Mormon: "The people of Ammon were at a critical moment of their spiritual lives. They had been true to their covenant never to take up arms. But they understood that fathers are responsible to provide protection to their families. That need seemed great enough to merit consideration of breaking their covenant." The moral dilemma there is eventually solved by their faithful sons, the "Army of Helaman" taking up arms to defend the people but like Elder Scott laments, how those fathers "must have privately wept." Moral dilemmas can make us aware of ourselves: our broken pasts, the inner most intents of our heart, our secret desires, and our highest aspirations--which is why I think they are worth exploring on a personal and public level.
Now I think it's important that we DO draw lines in the sand in our behavior, whether religious or social--and if anyone is thinking God is telling them to kill someone a la Old Testament examples listed above, please contact your ecclesiastical leader immediately. I think these examples are powerful today though because sometimes breaking one long held commandment or construct to follow another can feel akin to bloodshed. Charles Darwin, raised a Christian, told a friend that writing his "Origin of Species" on evolutionary theory felt like "confessing to a murder." Huck Finn struggles over whether to turn in Old Jim and chooses Hell over Heaven. In short, moral dilemmas are hard. And with the increasing mass accountability provided by social media--they are not going away.
Because of the uncomfortableness of a moral dilemma, we often want to remove it and get on with our lives. We do this by either ignoring it completely ("I'm just gonna pretend that homeless man isn't there and maybe the whole issue of homelessness will disappear with it") or we pick a side and slowly let confirmation bias set in. As uncomfortable as a moral dilemma is, I personally find more peace in trying to identify truth rather than ignoring it or picking sides.
In the New Testament, the Pharisees (those lovers of the law) often tried to catch Jesus in His words, using moral dilemmas to incite him. But Jesus, that perfect example, never faltered. This is why when often faced with a moral dilemma Christians will question themselves: "What would Jesus do?" When petitioned on a myriad of subjects and situations he would speak truth: "The sabbath is made for man" (Mark 2:27) he would reply. "Whether is easier, to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Rise up and walk?" he responded (Luke 5:23). "Love the Lord thy God" he confounded "This is the first and great commandment." And with the following charge to "love thy neighbor," He confidently ascribed "on these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets" (Matthew 22:40). He knew the Old Testament in its truth better than they did and dictated with what I always imagined peaceful confidence, speaking "as one having authority, and not as the scribes" (Matthew 7:29). Understandably this drove the Jews nuts.
One of the my most powerful personal stories concerning moral dilemmas is from my LDS mission. While struggling with Depression and a mission president who didn't fully acknowledge mental illness I sought council from the Lord what I should do, how I should strengthen myself and feel better so that I could do the work I knew He wanted me to do. I often received impressions and council which was very hard to follow since it occasionally conflicted with mission rules. For anyone who has never served a mission, mission rules are often treated like commandments, where obedience will bring blessings for you and your investigators, while breaking them will lead to sorrow and missed opportunities. Missionaries who are obedient are seen as exemplary while those who disobey or appear to do so are seen as "rebellious" or "apostate." Having to deal with depression and other health issues while trying to serve a mission was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do. Harder than high school, harder than Depression alone, harder than childbirth, harder than motherhood (so far). This may seem dramatic (or not dramatic depending on your life circumstances) but I care very much about the Lord's work and didn't want my personal struggles to interfere with it. I found great comfort in Doctrine and Covenants Section 3 and the Lord telling me to "remember that it is not the work of God that is frustrated, but the work of men." When I stopped worrying about mission rules and mission culture and started listening to the Lord more, my mission slowly improved and I was able to finish, broken but strong.
One day while struggling I was praying and felt strongly that I needed to talk to my Dad. Calling home for missionaries only happens twice a year on Christmas and Mother's Day so as not to distract from the work. Other exceptions are made for sincere personal needs like health or schooling but it's only by approval and my Mission President was already weary with all the "permissions" I had been asking for during those long Missouri winter months. Simply just calling home was too much for me to handle. I told the Lord I couldn't do it, that if He really did want me to do that I would need His help or I would need Him to help me another way. A few days later we were home for lunch. I was in our room on the twin bed provided by the dear members we were living with, when our small mission cell phone rang, a shiny slate colored Sprint flip model. When I received the phone I saw my own home phone number staring back at me! I answered quickly but tentatively, my heart racing wondering if something was wrong but so grateful for the opportunity.
"Hello?" I answered.
It was my Dad.
He said that his "spider sense" had been tingling and that he felt like he needed to talk to me. I burst into tears knowing that the Lord had simply and mercifully found a way for me to get some comfort during a dark and difficult time. The story still brings me to the point of sobbing whenever I relay it, even as I type these words now. This isn't the only example of my attempts to navigate moral dilemmas before, during, or after my mission but it will always be my most dear because I feel it reminds me of the power of prayer and the love of a Heavenly Father for his child, answered by her earthly father. Happily, this and other experiences like it, as well as psychological counseling and medication, have helped me largely overcome Depressive episodes and I have been able to move forward into a truly wonderful life (not even postpartum!) Even still my compassion for those who may not always fit the "mormon mold" or where the framework of the Church might fail them has never left me. I don't remember what my Father and I ended up talking about during those fateful 20 minutes, but the fact that it happened reminds me often and powerfully of "how merciful the Lord hath been unto the children of men, from the creation of Adam even down until the time that ye shall receive these things and ponder it in your heart" (Moroni 10:4).
Essentially doing the Lord's will in one's life must account for a certain amount of flexibility. I've often thought that Hymn #270 should perhaps be rewritten to the effect of: "It may not be on the mountain height (or it may be)...It may not be on the battle front (or it may be)..." Even so, this is not a call for moderation (even with my often use of the admittedly limited word "moderate") as Elder Oaks states in a wonderful and aptly named fireside entitled "Our Strengths Can Become Our Downfall": "Moderation in all things is not a virtue, because it would seem to justify moderation in commitment."
I think that in order to effectively navigate moral dilemmas in our lives we must, as Julie B. Beck, former General Relief Society President, states: use the Spirit. She says, "A good woman (and I would add man) knows that she (or he) does not have enough time, energy, or opportunity to take care of all of the people or do all of the worthy things her heart yearns to do....But with personal revelation, she can prioritize correctly and navigate this life confidently." I believe that the potential exists for two people to be presented with the exact same moral dilemma and God could give them different answers, 2 different "right" outcomes and to each the other would seem to be "sinning." In my story above God could have easily given me comfort in a thousand other ways that didn't involve breaking mission rules, but I think in that case it was important for me to learn His voice in my life and to feel that love He has for me through my own father. Elder Henry B. Eyring illustrated this concept for Priesthood leaders in his talk "Bind Up Their Wounds." In explaining how God can help quorum presidents know when to ask for service and when not to ask, he elucidates: "[God] knows whose wife was near the breaking point because her husband was unable to find time to do what she needed done to care for her needs. He knows which children would be blessed by seeing their father go one more time to help others or if the children needed the feeling that they matter to their father enough for him to spend time with them that day. But He also knows who needs the invitation to serve but might not appear to be a likely or willing candidate." I see an increased sensitivity to this idea in Church discourse, that individual circumstances merit individual spiritual consideration.
This of course is in paradox to the idea that there is one way for everyone, but we are indeed a peculiar people of paradox. Apparently Mormons are the most comfortable with this idea given one recent survey. This is why within our collective congregation we must get comfortable with the idea of "internal plurality" and the freedom to share all our stories, whether orthodox or not. And to do so even if they contradict one another, because as Joseph Smith stated beautifully: "in proving contraries, truth is made manifest."
Following the Spirit of course takes more self-discipline and self-mastery than simply picking which commandments to follow and always following them, but I think that's part of our existence here on earth: "And we will prove them herewith, to see if they will do all things whatsoever the Lord their God shall command them" (Abraham 3:25). When we always remember the Atonement, we can both navigate these dilemmas without falling into pride against other people or despair that we fall short. As Elder Richard G. Scott puts it, “A righteous life requires discipline. Discipline is that characteristic which will give you the strength to avoid giving up what you want most in life for something you think you want now. It is a friend, not a harsh taskmaster that makes life miserable. Discipline is easier to acquire when it is rooted in faith in Jesus Christ, when it is nourished by an understanding of His teachings and plan of happiness” (emphasis added). If we understand the Atonement, we can navigate moral dilemmas because His sacrifice pays for the breaking of one commandment. The Atonement makes it possible to live in mortality because if we really understood our fallen state, we would be crushed under the weight of impossible despair.
One image that has immensely helped me understand and navigate the moral dilemmas in my life is that of the Straight and Narrow Path. During His Sermon on the Mount, after speaking some of the most powerful verses in all of scripture about not judging, giving freely, asking in faith and the Golden Rule, Jesus gives this image: "Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it" (Matthew 7:13-14). In Mormon scripture the Lord declares through Joseph Smith: "For strait is the gate, and narrow the way that leadeth unto the exaltation and continuation of the lives, and few there be that find it” (D&C 132:22).
Since a path has two ways in which one can fall off it, two other verses help me understand the importance of staying on the path. At the climax of the Book of Mormon, Jesus Christ appears to the Nephites in the Americas, shows him the wounds in His body, and declares his divine role and mission as Savior. He then begins to expound doctrine in 3 Nephi 11:40 and states “And whoso shall declare more or less than this, and establish it for my doctrine, the same cometh of evil, and is not built upon my rock.” Again in the Doctrine & Covenants the Lord states: "Whosoever declareth more or less than this, the same is not of me, but is against me; therefore he is not of my church." On either side of the path there is the potential to fall into a state of "more" or "less" and both have their consequences. Either side would compel us to "be acted upon" rather than to act (2 Nephi 2:26).
One of my all time favorite talks is by Marvin J. Ashton called "The Tongue Can Be a Sharp Sword." He addresses "bashing" and in a day full of 24 hour news, mud-slinging elections, trolling, and daily internet vitriol that would make our ancestors turn in their graves--not to mention the daily atrocities that happen in REAL life, I think it all the more applicable today than when it was given over 20 years ago. He also talks about Charity. Sweet, sweet charity--real charity, the kind that "never faileth" (Moroni 7:46 and Corinthians 13:8). My favorite quote on charity is as follows:
Charity is, perhaps, in many ways a misunderstood word. We often equate charity with visiting the sick, taking in casseroles to those in need, or sharing our excess with those who are less fortunate. But really, true charity is much, much more.
Real charity is not something you give away; it is something that you acquire and make a part of yourself. And when the virtue of charity becomes implanted in your heart, you are never the same again. It makes the thought of being a basher repulsive.
Perhaps the greatest charity comes when we are kind to each other, when we don’t judge or categorize someone else, when we simply give each other the benefit of the doubt or remain quiet. Charity is accepting someone’s differences, weaknesses, and shortcomings; having patience with someone who has let us down; or resisting the impulse to become offended when someone doesn’t handle something the way we might have hoped. Charity is refusing to take advantage of another’s weakness and being willing to forgive someone who has hurt us. Charity is expecting the best of each other.
Fundamental attribution error posits that in going about our daily lives we often ascribe and overemphasize inward character flaws with other people's actions but underemphasize and use external events to explain our own behavior: that person was an idiot for speeding but we can't possibly be late for our own job. Sometimes when we find the truth of the situation we feel remorse: the angry waiter who so deserved my minuscule tip turns out to be a weary father just trying to support a family and a dying mother on small wages. We feel remorse after (and if) we know the truth but was there anything we could do before? This is why Fred Rogers is my personal hero: he always trusted others were doing their best and never judged too soon.
To put even more guilt on your plate there is the the pygmalion effect. Also known as "The Rosenthal Effect" it is the phenomenon where people will rise or lower to the expectations we have for them. If I believe my employees to be hard working and industrious they will rise to that expectation. If we believe our children and students to be dumb and uncreative then sadly and efficiently, they eventually will be. Our own thoughts can cause people to become self-fulfilling prophecies. This places a small but significant responsibility for the actions of others on our own heads. The good news is we can help each other be better! I've seen the fruits in my life as I've started believing people, taking them at their word. I've felt it in my life when people believe me: it makes me want to make sure I'm being that good person they take me to be. I think if we really realized how much we are all interconnected, we would be more careful about our actions. Too often we forget to have charity and to give others the "benefit of the doubt."
I've also realized that if other people are in fact sinning, that they will be judged for it--not me. And it doesn't matter if I'm right or wrong when the Lord tells me "For with what judgement ye judge, ye shall be judged" (3 Nephi 14:2 and Matthew 7:2). As Elder Holland says: “I believe with all my heart that if we can repent of our sins, if we can be charitable with the sins of others, if we can take courage toward our circumstances and want to do something about them, the living Father of us all will reach down and, in the scriptural term, “bear [us] up as on eagles’ wings” (D&C 124:18).”
I think when we realize how much we each fail at Charity--that commandment that Paul says we are "nothing" without--that second great commandment in the law, we start to realize how much more we need the Atonement and only then can we begin to make amends. We must come to terms with that "Great Dilemma" that we are a sinner, because we don't go to the Doctor until we know we are sick. And we are all very, very sick. We need Charity so much and because Christ suffered for all of us, we don't have to keep score. We can forgive ourselves and we can forgive others, and we don't have to judge others because they sin differently than us. We can have that love because He first loved us, and loves all of His children.
But first, let's talk about commandments. Commandments are given through a prophet of God for general direction and large oversight of the body of the Church, but individual commandments are also given through personal revelation from God through reading the scriptures, inspiration, etc. Often these general commandments and our individual circumstances intersect, and occasionally the direction we receive with what we understand can cause a contradiction, resulting in a moral dilemma. A moral dilemma is when two commandments are presented and when following one, you will inevitably break the other. The first moral dilemma was presented in the garden: the Lord commanded Adam and Eve to both "multiply and replenish the earth"(Genesis 1:28) and also to not partake of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. From their understanding, they could not do both. As Lehi states: "And now, behold, if Adam had not transgressed he would not have fallen, but he would have remained in the garden of Eden. And all things which were created must have remained in the same state in which they were after they were created; and they must have remained forever, and had no end. And they would have had no children; wherefore they would have remained in a state of innocence, having no joy, for they knew no misery; doing no good, for they knew no sin" (2 Nephi 2:22-23).
Other moral dilemmas in the scriptures include Nephi killing Laban (1 Nephi 4:10), Abraham lying about Sarai being his sister (Abraham 2:24), and Abraham's sacrifice of his son Isaac (Genesis 22:2). Sometimes moral dilemmas aren't having to choose between two commandments but between our personal moral obligations and long held social constructs: do I speak up to my boss about views I care about and risk my job or stay quiet? Do I do what's right for my family or focus on the needs of others? Do I call someone out or remain silent? The homeless man on the street--someone looking for help or a scammer trying to take honest people's money? No matter our stance on any matter of subjects, through family and work, learning and leisure, justice and mercy: we all face moral dilemmas all the time, every day.
A lesser known moral dilemma is the story of Ahaz in the Old Testament, whom God commanded to form an alliance of Judah to Assyria so as to foil the alliance between Syria and Ephraim, but Ahaz allies Judah with Assyria anyway, causing problems. More importantly, the Lord tells Ahaz to ask of Him a sign (Isaiah 7:10-11) but Ahaz refuses, saying "I will not ask, neither will I tempt the Lord" (Isaiah 7:12, 2 Nephi 17:12). Understandably, we are generally counseled in the scriptures to NOT to ask the Lord for signs--see Alma 30:43-50. But whether as mercy or judgement, the Lord gives him a sign anyway (Isaiah 7:14, 2 Nephi 17:14).
Ahaz is generally considered a wicked king by Bible scholars but how often are we told to do something by God and we refuse, citing other commandments as reason to not obey. We often cite the faith of Nephi: "I will go and do the things which the Lord commands, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them" as reason that we should be able to follow ANY commandment God gives us. Yet we all face our mortal follies and the fact that "all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). We cannot follow all of the commandments all the time and experience mortality. This is what Stephen Robison calls "The Great Dilemma."
Elder Richard G. Scott this last conference spoke about a moral dilemma a whole group of people faced in the Book of Mormon: "The people of Ammon were at a critical moment of their spiritual lives. They had been true to their covenant never to take up arms. But they understood that fathers are responsible to provide protection to their families. That need seemed great enough to merit consideration of breaking their covenant." The moral dilemma there is eventually solved by their faithful sons, the "Army of Helaman" taking up arms to defend the people but like Elder Scott laments, how those fathers "must have privately wept." Moral dilemmas can make us aware of ourselves: our broken pasts, the inner most intents of our heart, our secret desires, and our highest aspirations--which is why I think they are worth exploring on a personal and public level.
Now I think it's important that we DO draw lines in the sand in our behavior, whether religious or social--and if anyone is thinking God is telling them to kill someone a la Old Testament examples listed above, please contact your ecclesiastical leader immediately. I think these examples are powerful today though because sometimes breaking one long held commandment or construct to follow another can feel akin to bloodshed. Charles Darwin, raised a Christian, told a friend that writing his "Origin of Species" on evolutionary theory felt like "confessing to a murder." Huck Finn struggles over whether to turn in Old Jim and chooses Hell over Heaven. In short, moral dilemmas are hard. And with the increasing mass accountability provided by social media--they are not going away.
Because of the uncomfortableness of a moral dilemma, we often want to remove it and get on with our lives. We do this by either ignoring it completely ("I'm just gonna pretend that homeless man isn't there and maybe the whole issue of homelessness will disappear with it") or we pick a side and slowly let confirmation bias set in. As uncomfortable as a moral dilemma is, I personally find more peace in trying to identify truth rather than ignoring it or picking sides.
In the New Testament, the Pharisees (those lovers of the law) often tried to catch Jesus in His words, using moral dilemmas to incite him. But Jesus, that perfect example, never faltered. This is why when often faced with a moral dilemma Christians will question themselves: "What would Jesus do?" When petitioned on a myriad of subjects and situations he would speak truth: "The sabbath is made for man" (Mark 2:27) he would reply. "Whether is easier, to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Rise up and walk?" he responded (Luke 5:23). "Love the Lord thy God" he confounded "This is the first and great commandment." And with the following charge to "love thy neighbor," He confidently ascribed "on these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets" (Matthew 22:40). He knew the Old Testament in its truth better than they did and dictated with what I always imagined peaceful confidence, speaking "as one having authority, and not as the scribes" (Matthew 7:29). Understandably this drove the Jews nuts.
One of the my most powerful personal stories concerning moral dilemmas is from my LDS mission. While struggling with Depression and a mission president who didn't fully acknowledge mental illness I sought council from the Lord what I should do, how I should strengthen myself and feel better so that I could do the work I knew He wanted me to do. I often received impressions and council which was very hard to follow since it occasionally conflicted with mission rules. For anyone who has never served a mission, mission rules are often treated like commandments, where obedience will bring blessings for you and your investigators, while breaking them will lead to sorrow and missed opportunities. Missionaries who are obedient are seen as exemplary while those who disobey or appear to do so are seen as "rebellious" or "apostate." Having to deal with depression and other health issues while trying to serve a mission was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do. Harder than high school, harder than Depression alone, harder than childbirth, harder than motherhood (so far). This may seem dramatic (or not dramatic depending on your life circumstances) but I care very much about the Lord's work and didn't want my personal struggles to interfere with it. I found great comfort in Doctrine and Covenants Section 3 and the Lord telling me to "remember that it is not the work of God that is frustrated, but the work of men." When I stopped worrying about mission rules and mission culture and started listening to the Lord more, my mission slowly improved and I was able to finish, broken but strong.
One day while struggling I was praying and felt strongly that I needed to talk to my Dad. Calling home for missionaries only happens twice a year on Christmas and Mother's Day so as not to distract from the work. Other exceptions are made for sincere personal needs like health or schooling but it's only by approval and my Mission President was already weary with all the "permissions" I had been asking for during those long Missouri winter months. Simply just calling home was too much for me to handle. I told the Lord I couldn't do it, that if He really did want me to do that I would need His help or I would need Him to help me another way. A few days later we were home for lunch. I was in our room on the twin bed provided by the dear members we were living with, when our small mission cell phone rang, a shiny slate colored Sprint flip model. When I received the phone I saw my own home phone number staring back at me! I answered quickly but tentatively, my heart racing wondering if something was wrong but so grateful for the opportunity.
"Hello?" I answered.
It was my Dad.
He said that his "spider sense" had been tingling and that he felt like he needed to talk to me. I burst into tears knowing that the Lord had simply and mercifully found a way for me to get some comfort during a dark and difficult time. The story still brings me to the point of sobbing whenever I relay it, even as I type these words now. This isn't the only example of my attempts to navigate moral dilemmas before, during, or after my mission but it will always be my most dear because I feel it reminds me of the power of prayer and the love of a Heavenly Father for his child, answered by her earthly father. Happily, this and other experiences like it, as well as psychological counseling and medication, have helped me largely overcome Depressive episodes and I have been able to move forward into a truly wonderful life (not even postpartum!) Even still my compassion for those who may not always fit the "mormon mold" or where the framework of the Church might fail them has never left me. I don't remember what my Father and I ended up talking about during those fateful 20 minutes, but the fact that it happened reminds me often and powerfully of "how merciful the Lord hath been unto the children of men, from the creation of Adam even down until the time that ye shall receive these things and ponder it in your heart" (Moroni 10:4).
Essentially doing the Lord's will in one's life must account for a certain amount of flexibility. I've often thought that Hymn #270 should perhaps be rewritten to the effect of: "It may not be on the mountain height (or it may be)...It may not be on the battle front (or it may be)..." Even so, this is not a call for moderation (even with my often use of the admittedly limited word "moderate") as Elder Oaks states in a wonderful and aptly named fireside entitled "Our Strengths Can Become Our Downfall": "Moderation in all things is not a virtue, because it would seem to justify moderation in commitment."
I think that in order to effectively navigate moral dilemmas in our lives we must, as Julie B. Beck, former General Relief Society President, states: use the Spirit. She says, "A good woman (and I would add man) knows that she (or he) does not have enough time, energy, or opportunity to take care of all of the people or do all of the worthy things her heart yearns to do....But with personal revelation, she can prioritize correctly and navigate this life confidently." I believe that the potential exists for two people to be presented with the exact same moral dilemma and God could give them different answers, 2 different "right" outcomes and to each the other would seem to be "sinning." In my story above God could have easily given me comfort in a thousand other ways that didn't involve breaking mission rules, but I think in that case it was important for me to learn His voice in my life and to feel that love He has for me through my own father. Elder Henry B. Eyring illustrated this concept for Priesthood leaders in his talk "Bind Up Their Wounds." In explaining how God can help quorum presidents know when to ask for service and when not to ask, he elucidates: "[God] knows whose wife was near the breaking point because her husband was unable to find time to do what she needed done to care for her needs. He knows which children would be blessed by seeing their father go one more time to help others or if the children needed the feeling that they matter to their father enough for him to spend time with them that day. But He also knows who needs the invitation to serve but might not appear to be a likely or willing candidate." I see an increased sensitivity to this idea in Church discourse, that individual circumstances merit individual spiritual consideration.
This of course is in paradox to the idea that there is one way for everyone, but we are indeed a peculiar people of paradox. Apparently Mormons are the most comfortable with this idea given one recent survey. This is why within our collective congregation we must get comfortable with the idea of "internal plurality" and the freedom to share all our stories, whether orthodox or not. And to do so even if they contradict one another, because as Joseph Smith stated beautifully: "in proving contraries, truth is made manifest."
Following the Spirit of course takes more self-discipline and self-mastery than simply picking which commandments to follow and always following them, but I think that's part of our existence here on earth: "And we will prove them herewith, to see if they will do all things whatsoever the Lord their God shall command them" (Abraham 3:25). When we always remember the Atonement, we can both navigate these dilemmas without falling into pride against other people or despair that we fall short. As Elder Richard G. Scott puts it, “A righteous life requires discipline. Discipline is that characteristic which will give you the strength to avoid giving up what you want most in life for something you think you want now. It is a friend, not a harsh taskmaster that makes life miserable. Discipline is easier to acquire when it is rooted in faith in Jesus Christ, when it is nourished by an understanding of His teachings and plan of happiness” (emphasis added). If we understand the Atonement, we can navigate moral dilemmas because His sacrifice pays for the breaking of one commandment. The Atonement makes it possible to live in mortality because if we really understood our fallen state, we would be crushed under the weight of impossible despair.
One image that has immensely helped me understand and navigate the moral dilemmas in my life is that of the Straight and Narrow Path. During His Sermon on the Mount, after speaking some of the most powerful verses in all of scripture about not judging, giving freely, asking in faith and the Golden Rule, Jesus gives this image: "Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it" (Matthew 7:13-14). In Mormon scripture the Lord declares through Joseph Smith: "For strait is the gate, and narrow the way that leadeth unto the exaltation and continuation of the lives, and few there be that find it” (D&C 132:22).
I shared the following diagram with my Relief Society lesson a few months ago:
The narrow gate is usually referenced as our commitment and covenant to get on the path of discipleship: baptism. Once on the path though we have a long and treacherous way to go in order to "endure to the end." Baptism is a one time event, an outward expression of our inward desires, but continuous repentance and conversion is a process, transformation more than destination.
So often we talk about the "less" of the gospel: struggling with not giving service, laziness at keeping the commandments, using Christ's sacrifice as an excuse for sin (see Nicolitains), the plight of the unfaithful scholar, ignoring doctrine, not following the Prophet, judging people who are different than us, looking down on the poor, breaking the letter of the law...the list could go on. Yet what I find disturbing in much of Church discourse and Sunday School worship is the lack of addressing the "mores" of the gospel: not accepting/receiving service, righteous indignation, not believing or acknowledging Christ's sacrifice for us (see Alma 37:46), praising blind belief, creating or perpetuating folk doctrine, deifying our leaders, judging people who are just like us, scoffing at wealth, breaking the spirit of the law...these to me are equally as important to our gospel living and worship and essential to effectively enduring to the end. I think no one covers this folly of our virtues becoming vices better than C.S. Lewis in his book "The Screwtape Letters" about 2 devils working to trump a faithful christian. As humans we like to both oversimplify and overcomplicate the gospel. Both are a stumbling block to our eternal progression. Both lead us away from the Spirit and can lead to our "destruction." Both need to be repented of.
So how do we stay on the path? How do we effectively navigate the moral dilemmas of our lives? Like I stated above I think following the Spirit is an essential characteristic but I think there's a bigger, more important answer, the answer to everything: The Atoning Sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
Charity is, perhaps, in many ways a misunderstood word. We often equate charity with visiting the sick, taking in casseroles to those in need, or sharing our excess with those who are less fortunate. But really, true charity is much, much more.
Real charity is not something you give away; it is something that you acquire and make a part of yourself. And when the virtue of charity becomes implanted in your heart, you are never the same again. It makes the thought of being a basher repulsive.
Perhaps the greatest charity comes when we are kind to each other, when we don’t judge or categorize someone else, when we simply give each other the benefit of the doubt or remain quiet. Charity is accepting someone’s differences, weaknesses, and shortcomings; having patience with someone who has let us down; or resisting the impulse to become offended when someone doesn’t handle something the way we might have hoped. Charity is refusing to take advantage of another’s weakness and being willing to forgive someone who has hurt us. Charity is expecting the best of each other.
Fundamental attribution error posits that in going about our daily lives we often ascribe and overemphasize inward character flaws with other people's actions but underemphasize and use external events to explain our own behavior: that person was an idiot for speeding but we can't possibly be late for our own job. Sometimes when we find the truth of the situation we feel remorse: the angry waiter who so deserved my minuscule tip turns out to be a weary father just trying to support a family and a dying mother on small wages. We feel remorse after (and if) we know the truth but was there anything we could do before? This is why Fred Rogers is my personal hero: he always trusted others were doing their best and never judged too soon.
To put even more guilt on your plate there is the the pygmalion effect. Also known as "The Rosenthal Effect" it is the phenomenon where people will rise or lower to the expectations we have for them. If I believe my employees to be hard working and industrious they will rise to that expectation. If we believe our children and students to be dumb and uncreative then sadly and efficiently, they eventually will be. Our own thoughts can cause people to become self-fulfilling prophecies. This places a small but significant responsibility for the actions of others on our own heads. The good news is we can help each other be better! I've seen the fruits in my life as I've started believing people, taking them at their word. I've felt it in my life when people believe me: it makes me want to make sure I'm being that good person they take me to be. I think if we really realized how much we are all interconnected, we would be more careful about our actions. Too often we forget to have charity and to give others the "benefit of the doubt."
I've also realized that if other people are in fact sinning, that they will be judged for it--not me. And it doesn't matter if I'm right or wrong when the Lord tells me "For with what judgement ye judge, ye shall be judged" (3 Nephi 14:2 and Matthew 7:2). As Elder Holland says: “I believe with all my heart that if we can repent of our sins, if we can be charitable with the sins of others, if we can take courage toward our circumstances and want to do something about them, the living Father of us all will reach down and, in the scriptural term, “bear [us] up as on eagles’ wings” (D&C 124:18).”
I think when we realize how much we each fail at Charity--that commandment that Paul says we are "nothing" without--that second great commandment in the law, we start to realize how much more we need the Atonement and only then can we begin to make amends. We must come to terms with that "Great Dilemma" that we are a sinner, because we don't go to the Doctor until we know we are sick. And we are all very, very sick. We need Charity so much and because Christ suffered for all of us, we don't have to keep score. We can forgive ourselves and we can forgive others, and we don't have to judge others because they sin differently than us. We can have that love because He first loved us, and loves all of His children.
When we stray from the path, in either direction, we can be humble, we can pray, we can repent. Examine the fruits of ideas and situations and people with the Spirit because "by the power of the Holy Ghost (we) may know the truth of all things" (Moroni 10:5). When we feel bitterness or resentment or fear or unrighteous pride we can recognize it and change. Whether that's looking down at someone who isn't doing what they should or getting frustrated with someone who isn't as patient with us as they should be. We all fall short of the glory of God. We all need the Atonement, we all need Jesus: He is more than the reason for the season, he is the Reason.
"O then, my beloved brethren, come unto the Lord, the Holy One. Remember that his paths are righteous. Behold, the way for man is narrow, but it lieth in a straight course before him, and the keeper of the gate is the Holy One of Israel; and he employeth no servant there; and there is none other way save it be by the gate; for he cannot be deceived, for the Lord God is his name" --2 Nephi 9:41
"O then, my beloved brethren, come unto the Lord, the Holy One. Remember that his paths are righteous. Behold, the way for man is narrow, but it lieth in a straight course before him, and the keeper of the gate is the Holy One of Israel; and he employeth no servant there; and there is none other way save it be by the gate; for he cannot be deceived, for the Lord God is his name" --2 Nephi 9:41
Monday, November 18, 2013
Homosexuals and the Plan of Salvation: Why We Need New Revelation
[Editors Note: This is the first and possibly only post for this blog my husband and I have talked about starting for several months to chronicle our discussions of gospel topics. It was originally posted to Facebook on Monday, November 18, 2013 with the status: Today I am grateful for many things: my family, my faith, my Church, for Prophets and continuing revelation and of course the Savior. I've written something--it's long but I think its important. In my life I've known and cared about a lot of Gay people. I've always felt this was for a reason, that God had a plan, but I didn't know what that reason was. I think this is it."
[Update: I've recently added an addendum at the end of this post that addresses my thoughts on Prop 8 and The Proclamation to the Family since I originally neglected to mention either. I feel they clarify some things and sum up my thoughts.]
As an rank and file member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints I have had to navigate my share of internal contradictions within the teachings of the LDS Church. Often the insights I gain when contemplating these contradictions reveal beautifully harmonious ideas that no longer seem at odds with each other. One such topic involves the treatment of homosexuals in the plan of salvation. I grew up in a loving LDS home with a worthy Priesthood leader for a father and doting stay-at-home mother. I’ve attended Church my whole life, went to BYU for my undergraduate, served a mission and married in the temple. I am currently a stay-at-home mother to a beautiful little boy and am constructing this essay among other projects between naps and bedtimes, dishes and dirty laundry. I’ve studied the deeper aspects of the Gospel that at best leave members feeling uncomfortable and worst lead to their eventual apostasy and removal from the Church (either by themselves or from ecclesiastical discipline) and successfully navigated and integrated them into my own personal tapestry of spirituality and worship. I have a strong testimony of the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ and His speaking to Prophets both in ancient and modern times. In other words, I know both logically and ethereally that this Church is true. I wish to make this known at the beginning of my essay so that as my words, written in the weakness of my language, are not misunderstood, misinterpreted, seen as heresy or even critical of the Church. It has come to my attention, through intense personal prayer and scripture study, larger critical study of Church history and doctrine, personal experience and personal testimony of others that the Plan of Salvation, also known as the “Plan of Happiness” as we currently perceive it, does not account for the current Church supported understandings of homosexuality. In other words: we need new revelation.
I started this honest inquiry a little over a year ago, the biggest thing being the impending birth of my first born son. I wanted to know from the Lord how I should teach and treat homosexuality and interacting with His children in a post-DOMA world, inklings of which I could already sense even though DOMA was not officially repealed until a few months after his birth. I had navigated many relationships with family and friends who were homosexual while maintaining my standards (sometimes even lovingly but blatantly telling them that I supported them as a person but not their lifestyle). Even though I felt I had done so successful, I knew going forward that things would not be the same as they were when I was growing up and I wanted to know from the Lord what He would have me do concerning our growing family. I lacked wisdom, knowing that if any woman needed it at this time in her life it was me. The feelings and promptings I got were somewhat unexpected although I was not shielding myself from them: love openly and proactively, worry not about regulating lifestyle, listen intently and follow the Spirit.
The existence of homosexuality is difficult for many Latter-day Saints because it directly challenges some of our most dear and guarded doctrines on eternal families and our divine natures as children of God. But exist it does. Quoted from the Church’s website: “This complex matter touches on the things we care about most: our basic humanity, our relationship to family, our identity and potential as children of God, how we treat each other, and what it means to be disciples of Christ.”
The Plan of Salvation is the collection of Mormon doctrines that answer the larger questions about our existence: where we came from, why we are here, and where we are going. We believe that we existed before this earth life with Heavenly Parents who loved us and sent us down to earth so that we could learn and grow through experiences and trials and eventually come back to their presence through the sacrifice of their son Jesus Christ. We believe this earth life is an important part of our eternal existence and that the experiences we have here are ultimately “for (our) good” (Doctrine & Covenants 122:7).
With the Church’s introduction of mormonsandgays.org, they make the statement: “The experience of same-sex attraction is a complex reality for many people...Even though individuals do not choose to have such attractions, they do choose how to respond to them.” Recognizing the complex reality of sexuality breaks from the long held dogmatic belief that sexuality at the heart involved a choice. This raises issues with the current lifestyle options allowed to homosexuals within the Mormon Church: a life of celibacy or the infinitely more complex option of a mixed-orientation marriage. And even though I have personally and publicly known people in successful, committed mixed-orientation marriages--it is a hugely personal decision for a couple to say the least, and a difficult path to walk I'm sure.
Growing up in California I had plenty of opportunity to have my valiancy on this subject tested. At 14 I stood up in front of 30 or so classmates and terrifyingly yet proudly denounced gay marriage for a number of well researched reasons. I received an “A” even with my teacher’s contrary opinion on the matter. Yet to be humble we must be willing to review our positions from time to time. The Lord’s urgency on my studying this out has kept me up many a nights, and even with His patience I still have not prayed to ask which way be right and somewhat feeling grateful that no vote is currently being asked of me. I have felt the weight of a great moral dilemma, not unlike Saul in the Old Testament whose animal sacrifice was unacceptable to the Lord, despite it being the expression of obedience in the mosaic law and the approved cultural expression of willingness to do the Lord’s will in one’s life. The words of our Prophet from just this last April (which incidentally I had to read later since at the time I was in the hospital giving birth) have rung in my ears: “Centuries ago, to a generation steeped in the tradition of animal sacrifice, Samuel boldly declared, “To obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.”
Realizing my approach in the past may have been unwarranted and also feeling great spiritual weight to understand these things completely, I launched into a deep scriptural study through all the standard works. I also exhaustively studied Church history as well as scholarly and personal writings online and in print. Conservative faithful LDS readers who have delved into messier gospel topics can testify that “it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Hebrews 10:31). Yet knowing the voice of God in my life and eventually letting faith override the fears I had, I moved forward into the abyss. What I first thought would be a major challenge to my testimony turned out to mostly be an unpacking of the fears and anxieties I had built up around homosexuality (even though I have loved many a gay people). Removing these fears and instead leaning on the Spirit, I have found for myself that “perfect love casteth out all fear” (Moroni 8:16) and that God indeed “hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind” (2 Timothy 1:7). I found that my hesitancy to address these matters was that I “feared man more than God” (D&C 3:7), other men and women being my fellow saints. This essay is in part my repentance from that error. Even so, I was acutely aware that those smarter than me and more spiritual than I of having been deceived in the past. In the midst of my studies I discussed everything I learned with my husband who is also a faithful Latter-day Saint. He has been sublimely supportive and has been my rock, and working together we've kept firmly on The Rock. This analysis is meant to be ultimately faith promoting even though it questions some current Mormon teachings on homosexuality.
From the beginning of time God has called prophets and spoken to them, giving them inspiration and revelation that is often written down as scripture. Scripture is not received within a vacuum, and has much to do with the place and time in which it has been received. When new revelation is not being received, Prophets teach and expound scripture that has already been written. In the Doctrine and Covenants the Lord says: “Behold, I am God and have spoken it; these commandments are of me, and were given unto my servants in their weakness, after the manner of their language, that they might come to understanding” (D&C 1:24). I personally believe that God is trying to do as much good as possible among his imperfect mortal children at any given time, and that as the human family progresses in light and knowledge throughout the dispensations; so does the beauty and complexity of his commandments. This helps me understand why really appalling teachings and commandments from the Lord are found in the Old Testament including murder, mass genocide, slavery, and the treatment of homosexuals. This explains why later revelations often clarify and contextualize earlier teachings and that the Lord’s word is often described as a “two edged sword” to the “dividing asunder” of both joints and marrow, of soul and spirit (Hebrews 4:12, Doctrine and Covenants 11:2, 6:2, 12:2, 14:2, and 33:1).
This is why every new conference, though profoundly inspiring, does not end up in our scriptures and while only a few revelations, mainly the Manifestos and a couple others have been added to our Doctrine and Covenants since the bulk of new revelation was received in this dispensation. Revelation usually happens in response to a question or need and we do not as a Church, to quote Elder Holland, believe in “ex nihilo revelation.”
Since prophets most of the time are working with what is already there and working within the context of current times, it is possible for Church leaders to misinterpret previous scriptures and “make mistakes” as Elder Uchtdorf expressed this last conference. The most notable of this is Brigham Young’s “Adam-God Theory” which was preached from the pulpit and later denounced as non-doctrinal. This does not negate Brigham Young’s calling as a true prophet of God or the true doctrine that he did preach from the pulpit.
Understanding of homosexuality has changed throughout human history and the Church’s own past. Old testament and new testament scriptures make no distinction between lifestyle and inherent sexuality, only stating homosexuality as a sin in the broad sense. This is no wonder, considering this was in a time where the idea of same gender attraction as something inert and sexuality being something distinct from gender or the act of sex itself was about as easily conceived as the internet or airplanes or a thousand other things concerning modernity. It takes only a cursory reading of the Old Testament to gain a clear and unmistakable appreciation for modern and continuing revelation. The Book of Mormon makes no mention of homosexuality, only that sexual sin is an abomination (Alma 39:3–5). The Doctrine & Covenants also make no specific mention of homosexuality. The Church’s own policy and rhetoric has changed over time resulting in the latest iteration being the Church sponsored website http://mormonsandgays.org. In this, while there is a greater call to love and listen, the Church also made clear the distinction that this policy “has not changed nor is changing.”
It is true God’s laws do not change, however, our understanding and application of His laws and ordinances do change from time to time, sometimes in dramatic and paradigm shifting ways. This is at the heart of our foundation built on modern and continuing revelation. In the ancient Church, cultural attitudes and Church policy had to accommodate new revelation with the old cultural practices of Judaism. This is why the Savior had to clarify: “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil” (Matthew 5:17). Much of the New Testament after the four gospels is the Apostles trying to sort out within the membership old cultural practices that were perpetuating or being unnecessarily amalgamated into the new Church. Similarly, early on in the modern Church, there were huge paradigm shifts to both accept polygamy and then after the Manifesto, to discontinue the practice. Faithful Church members in Utah during the period of polygamy believed that the families involved in Church sanctioned polygamy were practicing true “celestial marriage.” This unique family unit as a higher law had to be reconsidered in the period after the revelation disbanding polygamy. Sexual relations are to be kept within bounds the Lord has set, but at times the Lord has ordained other marriages.
Homosexuality within the bonds of marriage has no scriptural precedent, which understandably has led to possible assumptions inside and outside the Church to believe that gay marriage is completely unacceptable and is also in direct opposition to traditional marriage. If new revelation were to allow gay marriage, traditional scriptures about homosexuality would still apply when considering the laws of chastity before marriage and fidelity after.
Now to be clear, this essay is NOT a clarion call for the Church to accommodate gay marriage. And not just because there are subsets within the gay Mormon community that are already doing that but because to me that approach seems more contentious than seeking. I personally feel extremely uncomfortable with directly challenging the Brethren. I do think we need to allow space for dissent within our community, but my call here today is for Mormons everywhere is to stop, take a step back, and recognize the deficiencies within our own doctrine; and at the same time, recognize and ponder on the glorious message of the Restoration: we have a Prophet of God who is authorized to receive further light and knowledge and dispel contradictions in doctrine previously understood.
And in seeking humility I understand and readily acknowledge that an expansion of the current understanding of the Plan of Salvation to accommodate our gay brothers and sisters (beyond being children of God) may not include the ordination of gay marriage. Simply saying God now ordains gay marriage would bring up a lot of other doctrinal questions: what does that mean about the importance of marriage in bringing children of God into this earth life through biological reproduction and the creation of our physical bodies in the image of God for that purpose. We need further revelation to see the broader perspective of how the existence of homosexuality fits in the Plan of Salvation, for at the moment we “see through a glass darkly” (1 Cor. 13:12). We as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints need to stop asking questions about gay marriage, and start asking questions about the role and nature of sexuality in the plan of Salvation. For in there here and now, there is currently no scripture (canonized or otherwise) directly addressing sexuality.
For whatever reason, faults with Church leaders have never caused my testimony to waiver, knowing that God was over all and putting my faith in His plan and His power. This point has been the mainstay of my deeper study of gospel doctrine and history throughout my life. As Jeffrey R. Holland stated: “Except in the case of His only perfect Begotten Son, imperfect people are all God has ever had to work with...As one gifted writer has suggested, when the infinite fulness is poured forth, it is not the oil’s fault if there is some loss because finite vessels can’t quite contain it all.” I know that the Lord speaks to the Prophets but that Prophetic stewardship and revelation is more complex than God simply speaking out his word verbatim to the Prophet. This in no way diminishes the divinity of the work or the authority of the Prophets.
Prophets and Apostles being ordained of God and authorized to speak in His name and knowing that they can and have spoken untrue statements from the pulpit does not make these two facts mutually exclusive. In his CES fireside at the beginning of this year, Elder Uchtdorf quoted Brigham Young in saying: “I am … afraid that this people have so much confidence in their leaders that they will not inquire for themselves of God whether they are led by him. I am fearful they settle down in a state of blind self-security. … Let every man and woman know, by the whispering of the Spirit of God to themselves, whether their leaders are walking in the path the Lord dictates.” To me this places a large responsibility on us as members to be listening to the Spirit while we internalize the teachings of Church Authorities. I am sure even Elder Oak’s would agree that making the Lord a priority in our lives and not placing any other Gods ahead of the One who leads this Church would also include His anointed servants. It is telling to me of the character of Elder Bruce R. McConkie, a well known writer on theories about the “seed of cain” concerning “The Negro” to say in a BYU devotional a few months after the 1978 landmark revelation to “Forget everything that I have said, or what President Brigham Young or President George Q. Cannon or whomsoever has said in days past that is contrary to the present revelation. We spoke with a limited understanding and without the light and knowledge that now has come into the world” (emphasis added).
Perhaps the best example we have of Prophetic revelation and the revelatory process is the documentation gathered by Spencer W. Kimball’s son in a BYU Studies Article concerning the revelation to extend the Priesthood to all worthy males. President Kimball struggled for months on end, praying in the temple and importuning the brethren in considering the question on blacks and the Priesthood, which was a divided issue for a time among the apostles. He struggled with the prejudices he held growing up as a boy in Arizona and the long held cultural attitudes in America at the time concerning African Americans and with a beautiful experience involving a pentecostal outpouring of the Spirit, they were able to overturn the policy restricting Priesthood and Temple ordinances for Black members.
On one side God speaks to Prophets in the weakness of their language, while on the other side the Prophets can only give us revelation that we are willing to accept. An example of this in in the Old Testament when Moses brought down the higher law but upon finding the children of Israel worshipping the golden calf, returned to the Lord and brought down the stone tablets and what now known as “The Mosaic Law” or lower law (Exodus 32:19-20). Concerning the revelation extending the Priesthood to blacks, It is interesting to note that in meetings leading up to the announcement, there were concerns that the membership wouldn’t receive the revelation. From what I understand, we could be stopping revelation from happening simply because we don’t believe it could happen or have faith enough to ask. As Moroni states: “wherefore, if these things (miracles and revelations) have ceased wo be unto the children of men, for it is because of unbelief, and all is vain” (Moroni 7:37). We must have faith, as well as prepare ourselves, for further light and knowledge from the Lord through a Prophet of God.
Whenever the Prophet has received new revelation from the Lord, there are shifts that occur within the larger membership to accommodate and shed off folk doctrine that has built up around how things were practiced before the new revelation. This is part of the pattern of God calling Prophets from the beginning of time, his people eventually falling into apostasy, and the Church having to be reestablished and restored by calling a new prophet. Even though we are in the “dispensation of the fulness of times,” the final dispensation, and prophecy reveals no other mass apostasy before the second coming (Daniel 2:44, D&C 138:44), we can still collect folk doctrine that can inhibit us from receiving new revelation. In the words of President Uchtdorf: “Brothers and sisters, as good as our previous experience may be, if we stop asking questions, stop thinking, stop pondering, we can thwart the revelations of the Spirit...How often has the Holy Spirit tried to tell us something we needed to know but couldn’t get past the massive iron gate of what we thought we already knew?” (emphasis added). I believe homosexuality could fall under the situation of previous understanding thwarting new revelation.
Most members in the Church believe that revelation through a prophet of God is essentially a top-down program. The understanding is, “if the Lord wants us to know something, he will tell us through the Prophet” often forgetting that revelation through the Prophet is not much different for them as it is for us and the distinction is more a matter of stewardship rather than spirituality. I’ve heard many talks from the Brethren telling members that they hold the same revelatory power in their lives as the Prophet does. This does not mean members can receive revelation for the Church (this was cleared up early on with Doctrine & Covenants section 28 concerning Hiram Page) but it also does not mean members cannot receive revelation about the Church. In our lesson manual this year, Lorenzo Snow recounts an experience he had in the spring of 1840 where he received a vision dictating the doctrine we now understand as “deification of man.” His own poem sums up the revelation:
“As man now is, God once was:
As God now is, man may be.”
The account continues, “Feeling that he had received ‘a sacred communication’ that he should guard carefully, Lorenzo Snow did not teach the doctrine publicly until he knew that the Prophet Joseph Smith had taught it. Once he knew the doctrine was public knowledge, he testified of it frequently (Teachings of the Presidents of the Church: Lorenzo Snow, Page 83). This is especially interesting, because when Lorenzo Snow received these thoughts, the idea of a God who progresses, as well as his children being able to attain godhood was in direct contradiction to the current understanding of the nature of God and man, and still is for mainstream Christianity. Where I judged them before, this account gives me pause when thinking of many faithful Latter-day saint members who currently support gay marriage. Let us have charity and give them the benefit of the doubt. If they are wrong that will weigh on their conscience, not ours.
Even though there is nothing stopping members from asking for more revelations from the Prophet, the “proper channels” for that to occur have been convoluted through Correlation and widespread growth of the Church in the 20th century. In Joseph Smith’s day, members could easily approach the Prophet and ask questions about personal or doctrinal matters, resulting in many of the revelations included in the Doctrine & Covenants. With the advent of the internet and social media, all organizations are seeing a flattening effect, including the Church. Grassroots efforts with members who have concerns about doctrine have begun to snowball, perhaps the most noted being the Mormon Feminists. Even though I myself identify as a “Moderate Mormon Feminist” I have not officially joined with any of the feminist groups, simply because social protest within the Church makes me extremely uncomfortable, even though I also have honest questions concerning doctrine and policy regarding gender roles.
To honestly contemplate gay marriage within the gospel paradigm has admittedly felt somewhat akin to an “abrahamic sacrifice” in going against my long held convictions concerning authority, revelation and eternal families. Sometimes we like to draw the proverbial line in the sand and do our best to “hide our face from sin” (Isaiah 53). Yet knowing that I could fall prey to the same overzealousness as the Pharisees, I did my best to follow the Spirit and walk the “straight and narrow path.” Feeling great urgency from the Lord I have pressed onward. The mental gymnastics that a member has to make to accommodate gay marriage in the Mormon paradigm are not much more than the call to both stand up for traditional marriage while obeying the charge to “love thy neighbor” (as I have literally, at multiple times and multiple locations in the United States had neighbors who are homosexual). This does not mean that gay marriage will be ordained in the Mormon Church, I just want to make sure I am humble and willing to receive any new revelation the Lord presents through His prophet.
Of course, if gay marriage were allowed, members who have fought long and hard for traditional marriage would see this as a very real contradiction to the most recent discourse from the Church and would perhaps suffer from a faith crisis. This would not be historically precedent, as families in my mission in Missouri were known to have left the Church after the 1978 revelation extending Priesthood to blacks. I judged them, falling to the vice of generational superiority, until I realized that up until about a year ago I would have had a faith crisis myself if the Church were to change its policy concerning homosexuality. I was further humbled when I realized that there were many statements from Apostles prior to 1978 that suggested blacks would only receive the Priesthood in the Eternities.
Our Plan of Happiness as outlined in the scriptures is a beautiful restoration that expands and clarifies what early Christians sought to understand with the scripture that was left to them. For example, the expansion to include a pre-mortal existence as well as the break from a clearly bifurcated Heaven/Hell afterlife account for greater mercy from our Heavenly Father regarding the necessary saving ordinances for those who could not receive them in this life. But as any gospel scholar within the Church knows, it does not answer all questions. For example, it does not specifically tell us HOW we lived with our Heavenly Parents or HOW our Spirits were organized. At the other end of the diagram, there are conflicting opinions from apostles about the rigidity of the tri-glory existence: namely, is “kingdom swapping” allowed? In the same vein and understandably, it was written from a heteronormative perspective, like all scripture before it. To quote the 9th article of our faith: “We believe all that God has revealed, all that He does now reveal, and we believe that He will yet reveal many great and important things pertaining to the Kingdom of God.”
One view that has been expressed from some of the Brethren is that homosexuality is a condition of mortality, that God’s children will not be gay in the eternities. I have heard accounts of some gay Mormons believing this to be true, while there are some that find this idea ludicrous. I find that when I compare this idea to my own heterosexuality and what I understand about my eternal marriage, the idea holds much less water. This idea may end up being a personal opinion of the Apostles preached as doctrine. This is not unheard of and does not challenge their status as Apostles of the Lord, especial witnesses of Jesus Christ.
If there was a major policy change regarding homosexuality within the Church, critics and non-believers might cite outside pressures as the impetus and try to use it as evidence to discount the divinity of this work. While these pressures are indeed part of receiving modern revelation (can we honestly say the Manifesto would have happened without the United States outlawing polygamy?) true believers and those with personal testimonies regarding the sanctity of this work will know that it is more nuanced than that: the Lord is directing His Church through his imperfect, mortal children.
And so I wait patiently, urging all to pray for ourselves and our leaders and to pray for inspiration and the courage to follow it. I am humbly petitioning our leaders to examine the role that homosexuals play in the Plan of Salvation, a undertaking that has yet to be examined in the context of seeking prophetic advice. If that revelation comes tomorrow, in 10 years, 50 years, or never, I continue to support the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and sustain our leaders because I know this is God’s Church on the earth once again. In the meantime I continue to pray and follow inspiration of how I can both support the plan as we currently understand it, including the traditional family and our religious freedoms while also following inspiration on how I can better love and support our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters around us. These days that includes an increase of love, listening, charity, and friendship which unfortunately has not always been my highest priority.
To the current and former gay Mormons and their allies: I honor your pain and your patience. You are effectively navigating a doctrinal desert and many of you in my eyes are “spiritual pioneers.” The scriptures that can help you and bring you comfort far outnumber the scriptures that might confuse you or bring you pain. My thoughts are drawn to the Gentiles who approached Peter before the revelation was received to bring the gospel to all the world and to those faithful African Americans who lived and worked in the Church prior to the 1978 revelation. I pray that further light and knowledge come sooner rather than later. In the meantime, please stay with us as much as possible: We need you and the Lord needs you.
As a woman in the Church I have no ecclesiastical authority or aspirations for such beyond my family and my calling. I am simply and most profoundly: a mother. I have made the sacrifice of mind and body, spirit and soul to bring a child into this world, in a tabernacle of flesh, in order to experience mortality. I will raise him in a righteous loving home surrounded by the Gospel and caring parents, and the hope he and the children to come will make correct decisions through their agency that will lead them back into the arms of loving Heavenly Parents. Becoming a parent makes you realize the sublime love of our Heavenly Father towards all of his children, from time immemorial, and that his greatest triumph is truly to “bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.” Concerning our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters as part of our human family, one of my greatest desires is to also be able to see them fully partake in the blessings of the gospel, feel the love of the Savior, and be able to return home to our God.
If and until we receive further light and knowledge concerning homosexuality in the Plan of Salvation, please consider these methods in interacting with gays and lesbians. The focus is on charity and do not conflict with current Church policy.
- When interacting with gays and lesbians, ask yourself how you would treat a child of God, as they are certainly accounted for in the Plan of Salvation under these terms, and treat them accordingly.
- Pray for our leaders. Revelation takes time, patience, humility, study, prayer, inquiry, and all the other good things that the Gospel teaches us to be.
- If you have a friend who is gay and interested in the Church, instead of testifying that the Lord has ordained marriage between a man and a woman (which He has), instead humbly let them know that we don’t understand at the moment perhaps all that God knows concerning the complex nature of sexuality but that we have a living Prophet and the ability to receive new scripture. That if we are patient, whether here or in the eternities, all questions will be answered. This is wonderful and incredibly hopeful news for former and currently gay christians and their allies, who wrestle with the question of homosexuality using only a closed canon of scripture.
- The above approach can also be used with Parents who have children who are gay, or have friends who are investigating the Church that struggle with the Church’s current position on homosexuality. I find this answer brings a strong confirming witness of the Spirit and to me falls under the charge to “be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you” (1 Peter 3:15). The Lord has restored the Church of Jesus Christ through a Prophet, the Heavens are not closed!
- When teaching the youth of the Church, consider the position the Boy Scouts of America have taken: “any sexual conduct, whether heterosexual or homosexual, by youth of Scouting age is contrary to the virtues of Scouting.” Many youth within the Church struggle with same gender attraction while their testimonies are tender and growing. Lambasting homosexuality with a broad brush might be insensitive to their very real and very valid feelings. Instead focus on the Lord’s law of chastity before marriage and fidelity after, and that right now the Lord has only ordained marriage between a man and a woman.
- Listen to and validate the hurt and pain felt by our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters caused either by members or from direct teachings of the Church. As Nephi says “I know that he loveth his children; nevertheless, I do not know the meaning of all things” (1 Nephi 11:17).The Church is not perfect, but it is true. I also find this helps me keep my baptismal covenants of effectively “mourning with those that mourn” and “comforting those that stand in need of comfort.” Christ died for all of our sins. Charity IS the pure of love Christ and we can have charity BECAUSE of the pure love of Christ.
- Elder Ashton gives an expanded definition of charity that includes “giving people the benefit of the doubt.” Listen or read the experiences of gay people without trying to fit them within your mormon paradigm. Really listen. It doesn’t mean you have to agree with their choices but trust they are trying to do what God wants them to do. If they aren’t, that is their issue and concern, not yours--judge not.
- Make local outreach a priority. Actively reach out to all Gay Mormons (that includes current, former and future Gay Mormons) within your ward family. Be proactive without turning them into a project. We must humbly assess our Sunday experience and know that even though our signs say "Visitor's Welcome" that doesn't automatically mean that people outside the Utah-Mormon stereotype feel welcome. I believe we can do better. This is also a good approach to use with less-actives.
- Have faith. When Elder Holland spoke directly to doubters of the Church, a growing number at this time of great spiritual confusion on a matter of subjects, he explained: “In this Church, what we know will always trump what we do not know. And remember, in this world, everyone is to walk by faith.” To me this is a qualitative statement more than a quantitative one. It is simply impossible to know of what God’s knowledge we do not yet know and will yet be revealed to the Kingdom of God; for we know that His thoughts are higher than our thoughts, and His ways higher than our ways (Isaiah 55:8-9). But what DO we know? We know that God is our loving Heavenly Father, that we are literally His spiritual offspring, that Jesus Christ is our Savior, that the Lord has restored his Church through a Prophet of God. These things will always trump what we do not know.
- If feelings have been hurt on either side: forgive, forget, move forward. There is much work to be done in the Kingdom.
Addendum: I've had a few people remark on the fact that I withheld any mention of Prop 8 or The Proclamation of the Family. I didn't even realize this myself until after I had posted it as I felt a great weight to finish as quickly as possible. I read through it only once personally in its entirety before posting, so great was the pressure I felt that this needed to be said to the world. I will comment on both below.
Proposition 8: Respectfully and sincerely, my singular and only regret with Prop 8 is that I didn't pray about it. I was on my mission at the time but was able to vote absentee from California. My parents were highly involved and made a point that I was aware and had my ballot. As a missionary, I didn't have the time or means or allowance to truly "study it out and ask if it be right." It also didn't really occur for me to do so at the time. I remember feeling uncomfortable that my Church was directly asking me to take sides on an issue because I have always been grateful that this is a politically neutral church (even though my views largely line up with conservative mormonism). I also don't feel comfortable saying that it was wrong and since I never studied or prayed about it at the time I simply have no testimony either way and this bothers me. I also see many great things that have come out of this conflict, including the creation of http://www.mormonsandgays.org.
The Proclamation of the Family: I have a copy of this hanging in my hallway. I have always loved and appreciated this document. I won't comment about any specifics on it but when I read through the whole thing with the eye of the Spirit this past year some things stood out more clear than others. I have wondered why it is still not canonized. Gender and consummation in marriage is addressed but there is no mention of sexuality. I am not so concerned about gay marriage as I am about the potential importance of sexuality in the Plan of Salvation. Sexuality is different and distinct from gender and lifestyle and from the act of sex itself. I think when we ask the right questions we can get the right answers from God. I came at this question through the lens of homosexuality and the debate of gay marriage because it is perhaps the most hotly contested issue of our day. I also think God's chosen people have run into trouble when they have decided what God is thinking and what He will and will not reveal to his children. I believe historically gay people have born a huge burden due to misunderstanding and lack of doctrine. I truly believe in the power of pure doctrine. And since The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the only Church to claim a true Prophet and a restoration of the Priesthood for continuing revelation and an open cannon of scripture we have the means to ask this of God. Think about all the things that could potentially be cured with new scripture concerning the correct role of sexuality in the eternal scheme of things: homophobia and sexual bigotry (see John 8:3-7), pornography, frigid and failed marriages, the loneliness of spinsterhood and bachelorhood, rape culture, sexual abuse and sexual shame to name just a few.
New revelation is only received in response to a need and a question. I think we need this now more than ever and have always needed it but have been too afraid or didn't know how to ask. The question I urge everyone to begin asking for and praying about is such: What is the role of sexuality in God's supernal Plan of Happiness? The plan that has been built and taught for the purpose of obtaining and bringing immortality and eternal life to His precious children? What does sexuality mean for us then, now and in the eternities? Why does homosexuality bisexuality or transsexuality or anything else besides heterosexuality exist? Why does sexuality exist, why is it important, what is it for, what does it mean and does that alter the boundaries God has concerning it? (Please note: I have no personal agenda for seeking alteration of God's boundaries concerning sexual behavior: I am a heterosexual woman happily married to a heterosexual male). Is sexuality moldable, to what extent, and what are the ethics surrounding attempts to change sexuality? Because clearly, shock therapy or strongly encouraging mixed orientation marriages is a bad idea. We must acknowledge that we lack wisdom in these matters. To all who may read these words I repeat the scripture which prompted the Restoration of the Gospel in the fulness of times. The words of a Prophet of God written down for anyone to read and contemplate and follow: "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him." And I would add the next line (to which I am certainly not perfect at): But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering."(James 1:5-6). Let us ask, let us pray, let us have faith.
[Update: I've recently added an addendum at the end of this post that addresses my thoughts on Prop 8 and The Proclamation to the Family since I originally neglected to mention either. I feel they clarify some things and sum up my thoughts.]
As an rank and file member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints I have had to navigate my share of internal contradictions within the teachings of the LDS Church. Often the insights I gain when contemplating these contradictions reveal beautifully harmonious ideas that no longer seem at odds with each other. One such topic involves the treatment of homosexuals in the plan of salvation. I grew up in a loving LDS home with a worthy Priesthood leader for a father and doting stay-at-home mother. I’ve attended Church my whole life, went to BYU for my undergraduate, served a mission and married in the temple. I am currently a stay-at-home mother to a beautiful little boy and am constructing this essay among other projects between naps and bedtimes, dishes and dirty laundry. I’ve studied the deeper aspects of the Gospel that at best leave members feeling uncomfortable and worst lead to their eventual apostasy and removal from the Church (either by themselves or from ecclesiastical discipline) and successfully navigated and integrated them into my own personal tapestry of spirituality and worship. I have a strong testimony of the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ and His speaking to Prophets both in ancient and modern times. In other words, I know both logically and ethereally that this Church is true. I wish to make this known at the beginning of my essay so that as my words, written in the weakness of my language, are not misunderstood, misinterpreted, seen as heresy or even critical of the Church. It has come to my attention, through intense personal prayer and scripture study, larger critical study of Church history and doctrine, personal experience and personal testimony of others that the Plan of Salvation, also known as the “Plan of Happiness” as we currently perceive it, does not account for the current Church supported understandings of homosexuality. In other words: we need new revelation.
I started this honest inquiry a little over a year ago, the biggest thing being the impending birth of my first born son. I wanted to know from the Lord how I should teach and treat homosexuality and interacting with His children in a post-DOMA world, inklings of which I could already sense even though DOMA was not officially repealed until a few months after his birth. I had navigated many relationships with family and friends who were homosexual while maintaining my standards (sometimes even lovingly but blatantly telling them that I supported them as a person but not their lifestyle). Even though I felt I had done so successful, I knew going forward that things would not be the same as they were when I was growing up and I wanted to know from the Lord what He would have me do concerning our growing family. I lacked wisdom, knowing that if any woman needed it at this time in her life it was me. The feelings and promptings I got were somewhat unexpected although I was not shielding myself from them: love openly and proactively, worry not about regulating lifestyle, listen intently and follow the Spirit.
The existence of homosexuality is difficult for many Latter-day Saints because it directly challenges some of our most dear and guarded doctrines on eternal families and our divine natures as children of God. But exist it does. Quoted from the Church’s website: “This complex matter touches on the things we care about most: our basic humanity, our relationship to family, our identity and potential as children of God, how we treat each other, and what it means to be disciples of Christ.”
The Plan of Salvation is the collection of Mormon doctrines that answer the larger questions about our existence: where we came from, why we are here, and where we are going. We believe that we existed before this earth life with Heavenly Parents who loved us and sent us down to earth so that we could learn and grow through experiences and trials and eventually come back to their presence through the sacrifice of their son Jesus Christ. We believe this earth life is an important part of our eternal existence and that the experiences we have here are ultimately “for (our) good” (Doctrine & Covenants 122:7).
With the Church’s introduction of mormonsandgays.org, they make the statement: “The experience of same-sex attraction is a complex reality for many people...Even though individuals do not choose to have such attractions, they do choose how to respond to them.” Recognizing the complex reality of sexuality breaks from the long held dogmatic belief that sexuality at the heart involved a choice. This raises issues with the current lifestyle options allowed to homosexuals within the Mormon Church: a life of celibacy or the infinitely more complex option of a mixed-orientation marriage. And even though I have personally and publicly known people in successful, committed mixed-orientation marriages--it is a hugely personal decision for a couple to say the least, and a difficult path to walk I'm sure.
Growing up in California I had plenty of opportunity to have my valiancy on this subject tested. At 14 I stood up in front of 30 or so classmates and terrifyingly yet proudly denounced gay marriage for a number of well researched reasons. I received an “A” even with my teacher’s contrary opinion on the matter. Yet to be humble we must be willing to review our positions from time to time. The Lord’s urgency on my studying this out has kept me up many a nights, and even with His patience I still have not prayed to ask which way be right and somewhat feeling grateful that no vote is currently being asked of me. I have felt the weight of a great moral dilemma, not unlike Saul in the Old Testament whose animal sacrifice was unacceptable to the Lord, despite it being the expression of obedience in the mosaic law and the approved cultural expression of willingness to do the Lord’s will in one’s life. The words of our Prophet from just this last April (which incidentally I had to read later since at the time I was in the hospital giving birth) have rung in my ears: “Centuries ago, to a generation steeped in the tradition of animal sacrifice, Samuel boldly declared, “To obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.”
Realizing my approach in the past may have been unwarranted and also feeling great spiritual weight to understand these things completely, I launched into a deep scriptural study through all the standard works. I also exhaustively studied Church history as well as scholarly and personal writings online and in print. Conservative faithful LDS readers who have delved into messier gospel topics can testify that “it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Hebrews 10:31). Yet knowing the voice of God in my life and eventually letting faith override the fears I had, I moved forward into the abyss. What I first thought would be a major challenge to my testimony turned out to mostly be an unpacking of the fears and anxieties I had built up around homosexuality (even though I have loved many a gay people). Removing these fears and instead leaning on the Spirit, I have found for myself that “perfect love casteth out all fear” (Moroni 8:16) and that God indeed “hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind” (2 Timothy 1:7). I found that my hesitancy to address these matters was that I “feared man more than God” (D&C 3:7), other men and women being my fellow saints. This essay is in part my repentance from that error. Even so, I was acutely aware that those smarter than me and more spiritual than I of having been deceived in the past. In the midst of my studies I discussed everything I learned with my husband who is also a faithful Latter-day Saint. He has been sublimely supportive and has been my rock, and working together we've kept firmly on The Rock. This analysis is meant to be ultimately faith promoting even though it questions some current Mormon teachings on homosexuality.
From the beginning of time God has called prophets and spoken to them, giving them inspiration and revelation that is often written down as scripture. Scripture is not received within a vacuum, and has much to do with the place and time in which it has been received. When new revelation is not being received, Prophets teach and expound scripture that has already been written. In the Doctrine and Covenants the Lord says: “Behold, I am God and have spoken it; these commandments are of me, and were given unto my servants in their weakness, after the manner of their language, that they might come to understanding” (D&C 1:24). I personally believe that God is trying to do as much good as possible among his imperfect mortal children at any given time, and that as the human family progresses in light and knowledge throughout the dispensations; so does the beauty and complexity of his commandments. This helps me understand why really appalling teachings and commandments from the Lord are found in the Old Testament including murder, mass genocide, slavery, and the treatment of homosexuals. This explains why later revelations often clarify and contextualize earlier teachings and that the Lord’s word is often described as a “two edged sword” to the “dividing asunder” of both joints and marrow, of soul and spirit (Hebrews 4:12, Doctrine and Covenants 11:2, 6:2, 12:2, 14:2, and 33:1).
This is why every new conference, though profoundly inspiring, does not end up in our scriptures and while only a few revelations, mainly the Manifestos and a couple others have been added to our Doctrine and Covenants since the bulk of new revelation was received in this dispensation. Revelation usually happens in response to a question or need and we do not as a Church, to quote Elder Holland, believe in “ex nihilo revelation.”
Since prophets most of the time are working with what is already there and working within the context of current times, it is possible for Church leaders to misinterpret previous scriptures and “make mistakes” as Elder Uchtdorf expressed this last conference. The most notable of this is Brigham Young’s “Adam-God Theory” which was preached from the pulpit and later denounced as non-doctrinal. This does not negate Brigham Young’s calling as a true prophet of God or the true doctrine that he did preach from the pulpit.
Understanding of homosexuality has changed throughout human history and the Church’s own past. Old testament and new testament scriptures make no distinction between lifestyle and inherent sexuality, only stating homosexuality as a sin in the broad sense. This is no wonder, considering this was in a time where the idea of same gender attraction as something inert and sexuality being something distinct from gender or the act of sex itself was about as easily conceived as the internet or airplanes or a thousand other things concerning modernity. It takes only a cursory reading of the Old Testament to gain a clear and unmistakable appreciation for modern and continuing revelation. The Book of Mormon makes no mention of homosexuality, only that sexual sin is an abomination (Alma 39:3–5). The Doctrine & Covenants also make no specific mention of homosexuality. The Church’s own policy and rhetoric has changed over time resulting in the latest iteration being the Church sponsored website http://mormonsandgays.org. In this, while there is a greater call to love and listen, the Church also made clear the distinction that this policy “has not changed nor is changing.”
It is true God’s laws do not change, however, our understanding and application of His laws and ordinances do change from time to time, sometimes in dramatic and paradigm shifting ways. This is at the heart of our foundation built on modern and continuing revelation. In the ancient Church, cultural attitudes and Church policy had to accommodate new revelation with the old cultural practices of Judaism. This is why the Savior had to clarify: “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil” (Matthew 5:17). Much of the New Testament after the four gospels is the Apostles trying to sort out within the membership old cultural practices that were perpetuating or being unnecessarily amalgamated into the new Church. Similarly, early on in the modern Church, there were huge paradigm shifts to both accept polygamy and then after the Manifesto, to discontinue the practice. Faithful Church members in Utah during the period of polygamy believed that the families involved in Church sanctioned polygamy were practicing true “celestial marriage.” This unique family unit as a higher law had to be reconsidered in the period after the revelation disbanding polygamy. Sexual relations are to be kept within bounds the Lord has set, but at times the Lord has ordained other marriages.
Homosexuality within the bonds of marriage has no scriptural precedent, which understandably has led to possible assumptions inside and outside the Church to believe that gay marriage is completely unacceptable and is also in direct opposition to traditional marriage. If new revelation were to allow gay marriage, traditional scriptures about homosexuality would still apply when considering the laws of chastity before marriage and fidelity after.
Now to be clear, this essay is NOT a clarion call for the Church to accommodate gay marriage. And not just because there are subsets within the gay Mormon community that are already doing that but because to me that approach seems more contentious than seeking. I personally feel extremely uncomfortable with directly challenging the Brethren. I do think we need to allow space for dissent within our community, but my call here today is for Mormons everywhere is to stop, take a step back, and recognize the deficiencies within our own doctrine; and at the same time, recognize and ponder on the glorious message of the Restoration: we have a Prophet of God who is authorized to receive further light and knowledge and dispel contradictions in doctrine previously understood.
And in seeking humility I understand and readily acknowledge that an expansion of the current understanding of the Plan of Salvation to accommodate our gay brothers and sisters (beyond being children of God) may not include the ordination of gay marriage. Simply saying God now ordains gay marriage would bring up a lot of other doctrinal questions: what does that mean about the importance of marriage in bringing children of God into this earth life through biological reproduction and the creation of our physical bodies in the image of God for that purpose. We need further revelation to see the broader perspective of how the existence of homosexuality fits in the Plan of Salvation, for at the moment we “see through a glass darkly” (1 Cor. 13:12). We as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints need to stop asking questions about gay marriage, and start asking questions about the role and nature of sexuality in the plan of Salvation. For in there here and now, there is currently no scripture (canonized or otherwise) directly addressing sexuality.
For whatever reason, faults with Church leaders have never caused my testimony to waiver, knowing that God was over all and putting my faith in His plan and His power. This point has been the mainstay of my deeper study of gospel doctrine and history throughout my life. As Jeffrey R. Holland stated: “Except in the case of His only perfect Begotten Son, imperfect people are all God has ever had to work with...As one gifted writer has suggested, when the infinite fulness is poured forth, it is not the oil’s fault if there is some loss because finite vessels can’t quite contain it all.” I know that the Lord speaks to the Prophets but that Prophetic stewardship and revelation is more complex than God simply speaking out his word verbatim to the Prophet. This in no way diminishes the divinity of the work or the authority of the Prophets.
Prophets and Apostles being ordained of God and authorized to speak in His name and knowing that they can and have spoken untrue statements from the pulpit does not make these two facts mutually exclusive. In his CES fireside at the beginning of this year, Elder Uchtdorf quoted Brigham Young in saying: “I am … afraid that this people have so much confidence in their leaders that they will not inquire for themselves of God whether they are led by him. I am fearful they settle down in a state of blind self-security. … Let every man and woman know, by the whispering of the Spirit of God to themselves, whether their leaders are walking in the path the Lord dictates.” To me this places a large responsibility on us as members to be listening to the Spirit while we internalize the teachings of Church Authorities. I am sure even Elder Oak’s would agree that making the Lord a priority in our lives and not placing any other Gods ahead of the One who leads this Church would also include His anointed servants. It is telling to me of the character of Elder Bruce R. McConkie, a well known writer on theories about the “seed of cain” concerning “The Negro” to say in a BYU devotional a few months after the 1978 landmark revelation to “Forget everything that I have said, or what President Brigham Young or President George Q. Cannon or whomsoever has said in days past that is contrary to the present revelation. We spoke with a limited understanding and without the light and knowledge that now has come into the world” (emphasis added).
Perhaps the best example we have of Prophetic revelation and the revelatory process is the documentation gathered by Spencer W. Kimball’s son in a BYU Studies Article concerning the revelation to extend the Priesthood to all worthy males. President Kimball struggled for months on end, praying in the temple and importuning the brethren in considering the question on blacks and the Priesthood, which was a divided issue for a time among the apostles. He struggled with the prejudices he held growing up as a boy in Arizona and the long held cultural attitudes in America at the time concerning African Americans and with a beautiful experience involving a pentecostal outpouring of the Spirit, they were able to overturn the policy restricting Priesthood and Temple ordinances for Black members.
On one side God speaks to Prophets in the weakness of their language, while on the other side the Prophets can only give us revelation that we are willing to accept. An example of this in in the Old Testament when Moses brought down the higher law but upon finding the children of Israel worshipping the golden calf, returned to the Lord and brought down the stone tablets and what now known as “The Mosaic Law” or lower law (Exodus 32:19-20). Concerning the revelation extending the Priesthood to blacks, It is interesting to note that in meetings leading up to the announcement, there were concerns that the membership wouldn’t receive the revelation. From what I understand, we could be stopping revelation from happening simply because we don’t believe it could happen or have faith enough to ask. As Moroni states: “wherefore, if these things (miracles and revelations) have ceased wo be unto the children of men, for it is because of unbelief, and all is vain” (Moroni 7:37). We must have faith, as well as prepare ourselves, for further light and knowledge from the Lord through a Prophet of God.
Whenever the Prophet has received new revelation from the Lord, there are shifts that occur within the larger membership to accommodate and shed off folk doctrine that has built up around how things were practiced before the new revelation. This is part of the pattern of God calling Prophets from the beginning of time, his people eventually falling into apostasy, and the Church having to be reestablished and restored by calling a new prophet. Even though we are in the “dispensation of the fulness of times,” the final dispensation, and prophecy reveals no other mass apostasy before the second coming (Daniel 2:44, D&C 138:44), we can still collect folk doctrine that can inhibit us from receiving new revelation. In the words of President Uchtdorf: “Brothers and sisters, as good as our previous experience may be, if we stop asking questions, stop thinking, stop pondering, we can thwart the revelations of the Spirit...How often has the Holy Spirit tried to tell us something we needed to know but couldn’t get past the massive iron gate of what we thought we already knew?” (emphasis added). I believe homosexuality could fall under the situation of previous understanding thwarting new revelation.
Most members in the Church believe that revelation through a prophet of God is essentially a top-down program. The understanding is, “if the Lord wants us to know something, he will tell us through the Prophet” often forgetting that revelation through the Prophet is not much different for them as it is for us and the distinction is more a matter of stewardship rather than spirituality. I’ve heard many talks from the Brethren telling members that they hold the same revelatory power in their lives as the Prophet does. This does not mean members can receive revelation for the Church (this was cleared up early on with Doctrine & Covenants section 28 concerning Hiram Page) but it also does not mean members cannot receive revelation about the Church. In our lesson manual this year, Lorenzo Snow recounts an experience he had in the spring of 1840 where he received a vision dictating the doctrine we now understand as “deification of man.” His own poem sums up the revelation:
“As man now is, God once was:
As God now is, man may be.”
The account continues, “Feeling that he had received ‘a sacred communication’ that he should guard carefully, Lorenzo Snow did not teach the doctrine publicly until he knew that the Prophet Joseph Smith had taught it. Once he knew the doctrine was public knowledge, he testified of it frequently (Teachings of the Presidents of the Church: Lorenzo Snow, Page 83). This is especially interesting, because when Lorenzo Snow received these thoughts, the idea of a God who progresses, as well as his children being able to attain godhood was in direct contradiction to the current understanding of the nature of God and man, and still is for mainstream Christianity. Where I judged them before, this account gives me pause when thinking of many faithful Latter-day saint members who currently support gay marriage. Let us have charity and give them the benefit of the doubt. If they are wrong that will weigh on their conscience, not ours.
Even though there is nothing stopping members from asking for more revelations from the Prophet, the “proper channels” for that to occur have been convoluted through Correlation and widespread growth of the Church in the 20th century. In Joseph Smith’s day, members could easily approach the Prophet and ask questions about personal or doctrinal matters, resulting in many of the revelations included in the Doctrine & Covenants. With the advent of the internet and social media, all organizations are seeing a flattening effect, including the Church. Grassroots efforts with members who have concerns about doctrine have begun to snowball, perhaps the most noted being the Mormon Feminists. Even though I myself identify as a “Moderate Mormon Feminist” I have not officially joined with any of the feminist groups, simply because social protest within the Church makes me extremely uncomfortable, even though I also have honest questions concerning doctrine and policy regarding gender roles.
To honestly contemplate gay marriage within the gospel paradigm has admittedly felt somewhat akin to an “abrahamic sacrifice” in going against my long held convictions concerning authority, revelation and eternal families. Sometimes we like to draw the proverbial line in the sand and do our best to “hide our face from sin” (Isaiah 53). Yet knowing that I could fall prey to the same overzealousness as the Pharisees, I did my best to follow the Spirit and walk the “straight and narrow path.” Feeling great urgency from the Lord I have pressed onward. The mental gymnastics that a member has to make to accommodate gay marriage in the Mormon paradigm are not much more than the call to both stand up for traditional marriage while obeying the charge to “love thy neighbor” (as I have literally, at multiple times and multiple locations in the United States had neighbors who are homosexual). This does not mean that gay marriage will be ordained in the Mormon Church, I just want to make sure I am humble and willing to receive any new revelation the Lord presents through His prophet.
Of course, if gay marriage were allowed, members who have fought long and hard for traditional marriage would see this as a very real contradiction to the most recent discourse from the Church and would perhaps suffer from a faith crisis. This would not be historically precedent, as families in my mission in Missouri were known to have left the Church after the 1978 revelation extending Priesthood to blacks. I judged them, falling to the vice of generational superiority, until I realized that up until about a year ago I would have had a faith crisis myself if the Church were to change its policy concerning homosexuality. I was further humbled when I realized that there were many statements from Apostles prior to 1978 that suggested blacks would only receive the Priesthood in the Eternities.
Our Plan of Happiness as outlined in the scriptures is a beautiful restoration that expands and clarifies what early Christians sought to understand with the scripture that was left to them. For example, the expansion to include a pre-mortal existence as well as the break from a clearly bifurcated Heaven/Hell afterlife account for greater mercy from our Heavenly Father regarding the necessary saving ordinances for those who could not receive them in this life. But as any gospel scholar within the Church knows, it does not answer all questions. For example, it does not specifically tell us HOW we lived with our Heavenly Parents or HOW our Spirits were organized. At the other end of the diagram, there are conflicting opinions from apostles about the rigidity of the tri-glory existence: namely, is “kingdom swapping” allowed? In the same vein and understandably, it was written from a heteronormative perspective, like all scripture before it. To quote the 9th article of our faith: “We believe all that God has revealed, all that He does now reveal, and we believe that He will yet reveal many great and important things pertaining to the Kingdom of God.”
One view that has been expressed from some of the Brethren is that homosexuality is a condition of mortality, that God’s children will not be gay in the eternities. I have heard accounts of some gay Mormons believing this to be true, while there are some that find this idea ludicrous. I find that when I compare this idea to my own heterosexuality and what I understand about my eternal marriage, the idea holds much less water. This idea may end up being a personal opinion of the Apostles preached as doctrine. This is not unheard of and does not challenge their status as Apostles of the Lord, especial witnesses of Jesus Christ.
If there was a major policy change regarding homosexuality within the Church, critics and non-believers might cite outside pressures as the impetus and try to use it as evidence to discount the divinity of this work. While these pressures are indeed part of receiving modern revelation (can we honestly say the Manifesto would have happened without the United States outlawing polygamy?) true believers and those with personal testimonies regarding the sanctity of this work will know that it is more nuanced than that: the Lord is directing His Church through his imperfect, mortal children.
And so I wait patiently, urging all to pray for ourselves and our leaders and to pray for inspiration and the courage to follow it. I am humbly petitioning our leaders to examine the role that homosexuals play in the Plan of Salvation, a undertaking that has yet to be examined in the context of seeking prophetic advice. If that revelation comes tomorrow, in 10 years, 50 years, or never, I continue to support the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and sustain our leaders because I know this is God’s Church on the earth once again. In the meantime I continue to pray and follow inspiration of how I can both support the plan as we currently understand it, including the traditional family and our religious freedoms while also following inspiration on how I can better love and support our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters around us. These days that includes an increase of love, listening, charity, and friendship which unfortunately has not always been my highest priority.
To the current and former gay Mormons and their allies: I honor your pain and your patience. You are effectively navigating a doctrinal desert and many of you in my eyes are “spiritual pioneers.” The scriptures that can help you and bring you comfort far outnumber the scriptures that might confuse you or bring you pain. My thoughts are drawn to the Gentiles who approached Peter before the revelation was received to bring the gospel to all the world and to those faithful African Americans who lived and worked in the Church prior to the 1978 revelation. I pray that further light and knowledge come sooner rather than later. In the meantime, please stay with us as much as possible: We need you and the Lord needs you.
As a woman in the Church I have no ecclesiastical authority or aspirations for such beyond my family and my calling. I am simply and most profoundly: a mother. I have made the sacrifice of mind and body, spirit and soul to bring a child into this world, in a tabernacle of flesh, in order to experience mortality. I will raise him in a righteous loving home surrounded by the Gospel and caring parents, and the hope he and the children to come will make correct decisions through their agency that will lead them back into the arms of loving Heavenly Parents. Becoming a parent makes you realize the sublime love of our Heavenly Father towards all of his children, from time immemorial, and that his greatest triumph is truly to “bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.” Concerning our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters as part of our human family, one of my greatest desires is to also be able to see them fully partake in the blessings of the gospel, feel the love of the Savior, and be able to return home to our God.
Megan Knobloch Geilman
November 18, 2013
BYU Campus, Provo, Utah.
If and until we receive further light and knowledge concerning homosexuality in the Plan of Salvation, please consider these methods in interacting with gays and lesbians. The focus is on charity and do not conflict with current Church policy.
- When interacting with gays and lesbians, ask yourself how you would treat a child of God, as they are certainly accounted for in the Plan of Salvation under these terms, and treat them accordingly.
- Pray for our leaders. Revelation takes time, patience, humility, study, prayer, inquiry, and all the other good things that the Gospel teaches us to be.
- If you have a friend who is gay and interested in the Church, instead of testifying that the Lord has ordained marriage between a man and a woman (which He has), instead humbly let them know that we don’t understand at the moment perhaps all that God knows concerning the complex nature of sexuality but that we have a living Prophet and the ability to receive new scripture. That if we are patient, whether here or in the eternities, all questions will be answered. This is wonderful and incredibly hopeful news for former and currently gay christians and their allies, who wrestle with the question of homosexuality using only a closed canon of scripture.
- The above approach can also be used with Parents who have children who are gay, or have friends who are investigating the Church that struggle with the Church’s current position on homosexuality. I find this answer brings a strong confirming witness of the Spirit and to me falls under the charge to “be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you” (1 Peter 3:15). The Lord has restored the Church of Jesus Christ through a Prophet, the Heavens are not closed!
- When teaching the youth of the Church, consider the position the Boy Scouts of America have taken: “any sexual conduct, whether heterosexual or homosexual, by youth of Scouting age is contrary to the virtues of Scouting.” Many youth within the Church struggle with same gender attraction while their testimonies are tender and growing. Lambasting homosexuality with a broad brush might be insensitive to their very real and very valid feelings. Instead focus on the Lord’s law of chastity before marriage and fidelity after, and that right now the Lord has only ordained marriage between a man and a woman.
- Listen to and validate the hurt and pain felt by our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters caused either by members or from direct teachings of the Church. As Nephi says “I know that he loveth his children; nevertheless, I do not know the meaning of all things” (1 Nephi 11:17).The Church is not perfect, but it is true. I also find this helps me keep my baptismal covenants of effectively “mourning with those that mourn” and “comforting those that stand in need of comfort.” Christ died for all of our sins. Charity IS the pure of love Christ and we can have charity BECAUSE of the pure love of Christ.
- Elder Ashton gives an expanded definition of charity that includes “giving people the benefit of the doubt.” Listen or read the experiences of gay people without trying to fit them within your mormon paradigm. Really listen. It doesn’t mean you have to agree with their choices but trust they are trying to do what God wants them to do. If they aren’t, that is their issue and concern, not yours--judge not.
- Make local outreach a priority. Actively reach out to all Gay Mormons (that includes current, former and future Gay Mormons) within your ward family. Be proactive without turning them into a project. We must humbly assess our Sunday experience and know that even though our signs say "Visitor's Welcome" that doesn't automatically mean that people outside the Utah-Mormon stereotype feel welcome. I believe we can do better. This is also a good approach to use with less-actives.
- Have faith. When Elder Holland spoke directly to doubters of the Church, a growing number at this time of great spiritual confusion on a matter of subjects, he explained: “In this Church, what we know will always trump what we do not know. And remember, in this world, everyone is to walk by faith.” To me this is a qualitative statement more than a quantitative one. It is simply impossible to know of what God’s knowledge we do not yet know and will yet be revealed to the Kingdom of God; for we know that His thoughts are higher than our thoughts, and His ways higher than our ways (Isaiah 55:8-9). But what DO we know? We know that God is our loving Heavenly Father, that we are literally His spiritual offspring, that Jesus Christ is our Savior, that the Lord has restored his Church through a Prophet of God. These things will always trump what we do not know.
- If feelings have been hurt on either side: forgive, forget, move forward. There is much work to be done in the Kingdom.
Addendum: I've had a few people remark on the fact that I withheld any mention of Prop 8 or The Proclamation of the Family. I didn't even realize this myself until after I had posted it as I felt a great weight to finish as quickly as possible. I read through it only once personally in its entirety before posting, so great was the pressure I felt that this needed to be said to the world. I will comment on both below.
Proposition 8: Respectfully and sincerely, my singular and only regret with Prop 8 is that I didn't pray about it. I was on my mission at the time but was able to vote absentee from California. My parents were highly involved and made a point that I was aware and had my ballot. As a missionary, I didn't have the time or means or allowance to truly "study it out and ask if it be right." It also didn't really occur for me to do so at the time. I remember feeling uncomfortable that my Church was directly asking me to take sides on an issue because I have always been grateful that this is a politically neutral church (even though my views largely line up with conservative mormonism). I also don't feel comfortable saying that it was wrong and since I never studied or prayed about it at the time I simply have no testimony either way and this bothers me. I also see many great things that have come out of this conflict, including the creation of http://www.mormonsandgays.org.
The Proclamation of the Family: I have a copy of this hanging in my hallway. I have always loved and appreciated this document. I won't comment about any specifics on it but when I read through the whole thing with the eye of the Spirit this past year some things stood out more clear than others. I have wondered why it is still not canonized. Gender and consummation in marriage is addressed but there is no mention of sexuality. I am not so concerned about gay marriage as I am about the potential importance of sexuality in the Plan of Salvation. Sexuality is different and distinct from gender and lifestyle and from the act of sex itself. I think when we ask the right questions we can get the right answers from God. I came at this question through the lens of homosexuality and the debate of gay marriage because it is perhaps the most hotly contested issue of our day. I also think God's chosen people have run into trouble when they have decided what God is thinking and what He will and will not reveal to his children. I believe historically gay people have born a huge burden due to misunderstanding and lack of doctrine. I truly believe in the power of pure doctrine. And since The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the only Church to claim a true Prophet and a restoration of the Priesthood for continuing revelation and an open cannon of scripture we have the means to ask this of God. Think about all the things that could potentially be cured with new scripture concerning the correct role of sexuality in the eternal scheme of things: homophobia and sexual bigotry (see John 8:3-7), pornography, frigid and failed marriages, the loneliness of spinsterhood and bachelorhood, rape culture, sexual abuse and sexual shame to name just a few.
New revelation is only received in response to a need and a question. I think we need this now more than ever and have always needed it but have been too afraid or didn't know how to ask. The question I urge everyone to begin asking for and praying about is such: What is the role of sexuality in God's supernal Plan of Happiness? The plan that has been built and taught for the purpose of obtaining and bringing immortality and eternal life to His precious children? What does sexuality mean for us then, now and in the eternities? Why does homosexuality bisexuality or transsexuality or anything else besides heterosexuality exist? Why does sexuality exist, why is it important, what is it for, what does it mean and does that alter the boundaries God has concerning it? (Please note: I have no personal agenda for seeking alteration of God's boundaries concerning sexual behavior: I am a heterosexual woman happily married to a heterosexual male). Is sexuality moldable, to what extent, and what are the ethics surrounding attempts to change sexuality? Because clearly, shock therapy or strongly encouraging mixed orientation marriages is a bad idea. We must acknowledge that we lack wisdom in these matters. To all who may read these words I repeat the scripture which prompted the Restoration of the Gospel in the fulness of times. The words of a Prophet of God written down for anyone to read and contemplate and follow: "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him." And I would add the next line (to which I am certainly not perfect at): But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering."(James 1:5-6). Let us ask, let us pray, let us have faith.
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