The Old Days and the Love of Christ

I try to never speak “ill of the Lord’s anointed”. I try to keep my tongue held and my comments to myself. But, when it comes to Spencer W. Kimball and homosexuality, I can’t stay quiet.

I recently stumbled upon an article about Steven Fales, an apparently open gay ex-mormon who served his mission in Portugal (strangely the same place I served). I then Wikipedia searched for him and found an article about Homosexuality and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. While there, I found an old pamphlet entitled, “New Horizons for Homosexuals”.



This pamphlet has been scanned from the original document onto the Internet. I read it and was sort of appalled. There is some very interesting and uplifting council written here. There are kind and loving words coming from a Prophet of God.

But…there are some…not so kind words as well.

Repeatedly, Spencer W. Kimball uses the words “perversion”, “sick”, “wrong”, “that way”, “NOT from God”. On this page, right under the heading It is Curable, Kimball makes a reference to homosexuality as an octopus. He then says, “…the sin is curable and you may totally recover from its tentacles” (New Horizons 10).



Curable? Really? With what kind of treatment?

Homosexuality in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has changed for the better. In the new pamphlet called, “God Loveth His Children”, we read: “[many people] overcome same-gender attraction in mortality; others may not be free of this challenge in this life” (God Loveth His Children 4).

These two statements, one from the 1970s and the other from our day and age completely contrast each other. Kimball states that we can be free from homosexuality. Other prophets and apostles of our day say that we may be not free from this challenge. What is going on here? Does this mean that the Church is no longer…gasp…true?

I beg to differ. What we see here is proof of a living Church. We know that the world is changing. People are changing. Time is changing. The Church cannot stand idly by and let hundreds of thousands of its members feel like horrible sinners by not changing their stance on homosexuality.

The reason I talk about this is because one of my new friends told her parents that I was gay. I am told the conversation went like this:

“Yeah, my friend Andy is gay.”
“Did he serve a mission?”
“I think so. He went to Portugal.”
“Really? That just doesn’t happen. A gay missionary?”
“But…times are different now.”
“No…they’re not.”

In response to that…times are different now. We cannot be the Anita Bryants of the world anymore. We cannot be the Spencer W. Kimballs of the Church anymore. “Some people with same-gender attraction have felt rejected because members of the Church did not always show love. No member of the Church should ever be intolerant” (God Loveth His Children 9 emphasis added). We have to show our love to everyone and especially to those who feel like they are not loved, for they are.

What needs to happen? We need to help members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints realize that we exist. We have to help them understand that we are not sick. We need them to know that we really are born “that way”; that this is something God given.

We need to help them become like Jesus Christ, for He is no bigot. I am 100% sure that if I were to have a boyfriend and walk over to Jesus Christ, He would hug us both and say how much He loved us. He would not turn his back on us. He would not close his doors to us. He would love us.

If members of this Church are striving to become like Jesus…than they need to BECOME LIKE JESUS. They need to throw off this sham of being the “perfect Mormon”. They need to realize that they are not going to be saved in the worlds to come if they cannot truly become as He is. Why can’t stupid, bigoted “Utard” members of the Church get this through their thick skulls? Jesus loves everyone!

Why can’t you?