Show trays Days in church over my dead body bod v 1 Leslie Conder opinion Editor Most lost conservative churches churches' stance toward h homosexuals participating n- n can be summed up up with the very familiar offensive a phrase God created Adam and Eve not notI I IA A Adam am and Steve The Mormon Mormon church allows homosexual l 1 members in int In- In Inthe the church as long as th they not y are practicing their homosexuality This This' stifling standard is very h hard rd on gay Mormons a awell as aswell aswell well as the ones who love them Growing up I felt felta a massive amount of pr pressure pressure to be perfect N Neither ither my mom nor norm normy m m my Mormon leaders told m me me outright that I had to be perfect It was just understood because of the amount of pressure to todo todo todo do well in every aspect of my life It came to a point where I became very depressed Now take the stress of trying to be perfect add the stress of a secret multiply that secret with the damnation that with that J ecret ecret cret and pd y youve ot v o got the equation for mass gay gay depression and suicide I have many gay and lesbian friends Man Many of my friends grew up Many of them m share the common bond bend of having attempted suicide which they luckily didn't succeed at accomplishing Its It's very sad to me that my friends felt it would have been better for them to be de dead d than to tell anyone their dreadful secret Im I'm glad that their attempts failed but I am saddened by the community that led them to believe that suicide was the answer to solving their problem What does that say about us as Christians I love you but only if youre you're not gay Im I'm pretty sure Jesus unconditional love for pM t w i everyone that he lie doesn't pick and choose whom he hc will love My mom taught me to have what she calls Christ- Christ like love like Christ-like love is to love everyone because we are all brothers and sisters Not once did she ever say Love everyone except for gays people with different skin color than yours and people who dont don't share share your same religion My life would have been so empty had I not opened my heart to everyone and hope for their love lovein lovein lovein in return Just like my life would have been empty Mormon Monnon churches are empty without those believers who dont don't feel welcome just because of the way they were born It Itis Itis Itis is not oot not a choice I repeat It Itis Itis Itis is not a choice Why woul d someone choose to be ostracized from family an and d friends and the religion they deem to be true Many religions believe that homosexuality is a choice and that if gay and lesbian people would repent and seek counseling g for this reprehensible choice they could live normal righteous lives In Mormon Monnon terns terms that means they would be able to find a woman or a man get married in the temple and multiply their seed I know a few Mormon men who thought this plan of action would work Who felt that if they just pretended for long enough that they were not gay then they wouldn't wouldn t be gay It worked for a while but I after they had kids they couldn't pretend anymore l and got a divorce That kind of counseling does not work Pretending that homosexuality is either some sort of disease or like an addiction to gambling alcohol or porn is down downright right ludicrous These gay brothers and sisters have grown grownup up loving the gospel and are now feeling betrayed by the same thing that used to give them so much hope I feel sorry that many gays and lesbians dont don't 1 feel feci welcome to participate in church life Religion is supposed to be about learning and love for everyone These brothers and sister cannot learn leam because we wont won't let them These brothers and sisters cannot feel loved because we wont won't give it to them Unless they repent for being vho they are I hope one day we can get off of our and love and accept these wonderful brothers and sisters in our I churches and especially in our hearts I |