It’s nice to know that you have such definite ideas about what I should do with my sexual feelings. However, in the absence of any reasoning whatsoever to support your opinion, I’ll have to decline.

Honestly, I don’t really care what your God says about the family I’ve built. Just the fact that we share some moral convictions (hey, murder is bad! Stealing is bad, too!) does not automatically mean that I should be required to conform to the more specific, arbitrary restrictions of your religion.

I am in a monogamous, committed, happy intimate relationship. Our sexual practices (not that they are any of your business) are safe and not at all harmful to either of us. 5% of the population being less likely to breed is not going to kill us off. I am no more confusing to your children than the people who eat pork are confusing to the children of observant Jews, or women who wear revealing clothing are confusing to the children of Mormons.

So why, exactly - without referencing what your God says, because I am not required to follow your religious edicts, remember? - should I be celibate or “try not to have gay feelings”, even though that would be a lot like trying to like a food I simply… have never liked? It’s not that I couldn’t force myself to eat it, but why should I have to?

A friend of mine submitted his response to those many letters, asking our fellow students why they would be so judgemental, unaccepting and unsupportive, and his letter was posted 2 weeks from the original article’s printing… The backlash he experienced thereafter was excruciating. More letters were printed, attacking what my friend had written… He wanted to write a final response, but his own bishop came down on him and threatened him with probation - - I kept the original article and subsequent letters to the editor. I found them recently, packing for a move. The whole thing made me sick and still does today, remembering how tortured I felt at BYU.

Not baiting you at all. Just genuinely curious. I’ve always wondered how people balance their personal beliefs with their spiritual beliefs, especially when those spiritual beliefs are very strict and binding.

My husband grew up Catholic, but left the church when his personal beliefs could not be reconciled with the Church’s strictures.

I, myself, quit attending church at age 14 in Memphis, Tennessee when the surburban Methodist Church my family attended refused to allow some black children from the inner city to attend its Vacation Bible School where I was an assistant teacher. I just couldn’t handle the hypocrisy of that decision.

And I totally agree with you on the issue of gays and gay marriage.

Sebastian,

I was just wondering how you can judge someone else’s life so harshly, yet feel that you are a follower of God’s teachings.

Not baiting. Just honestly curious.

patatomic, this is a moral issue, and I think church leaders would be surprised to hear that it wasn’t. Homosexuality is defined by the church to be a sexual sin, akin to fornication and adultery, and therefore second in seriousness only to murder. Are you defining Morality that narrowly? Or are you making a vague distinction between the desire and practice of homosexuality?

Either way I think you’re intentionally dodging the question to appease the progressives. (I’ll bait you.) So, let’s cut to the chase, as a counselor in a bishopric, would you sign a temple recommend for an admitted practicing homosexual member of your ward? And why or why not?

One can choose to live their life as God would want them to or not irregardless of what is legal. The world will legalize as it deems fit with the ebb and flow of its “morals.” Momons have the responsibility to live their morals and the same right as anyone to influence what is legal.

Sebastian

I’m not sure if you’re baiting me here, but suffice it to say that I have absolute ZERO problem with same sex marriage, adoption or cohabitation. I view this as a civil rights issue rather than a moral one as I just don’t feel that sexual preference has much to do with one’s morals.

So, what are your personal beliefs regarding this issue?

As practicing Mormons, what are your personal bliefs concerning gays and gay marriage?

Just curious.

I have disagreements with the church (present topic included), and I stay in it. This is certainly not because I feel any connection to the culture of the church AT ALL, and I speak out against that culture as often as I can. I stay even when I disagree because of many reasons, all of them spiritual and intellectual.

On the topic of this James Neilsen’s firing, I just have to say that’s the very reason i didn’t go to BYU. Because I knew I would have to sign that honor code, and I knew I couldn’t keep my mouth shut. If I’m going to live by a certain code of behavior, it’s going to be because I want to and not because if I don’t I’m going to be kicked out or fired from a university.