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 LDS Rhetoric on Homosexuality
Symposium Panel Takes a Look at New Pamphlet
November 2007
The new LDS-produced pamphlet “God Loveth His Children” was analyzed by three panelists during an LDS symposium held recently in Seattle. Clark Pingree, a gay returned missionary, took issue with a specific state ment in the new pamphlet: “As we follow Heavenly Father’s plan, our bodies, feelings, and desires will be perfected in the next life so that every one of God’s children may find joy in a family consisting of a husband, a wife, and children” (page 4).
“I struggle with this statement,” Clark said. “As I look back on my life and contemplate the struggle and despair in reconciling my homosexuality, this attitude has been the most damning to my soul through inflicting feelings of inadequacy, anguish, and despair. To me this statement is one from a heterosexual majority to a homosexual minority, affirming that because I’m not like most, I must be deformed.”
“For years I lived under this premise, accepting that I was indeed a spiritual and physical abnormality because of my homosexuality,” Clark added. “This state of mind is a horrible way to live. I cannot express the turmoil that existed inside of me as I lived under this cloud of ‘Who you are is not good enough, but keep looking forward to the resurrection to fix your soul.’”
“Not only am I biologically programmed to be homosexual, but also my soul is programmed to be homosexual. Because of this, I don’t believe my homosexuality will convert to heterosexuality at my physical death nor at the resurrection.”
Fellow panelist Ron Schow expressed some concerns about the new pamphlet, but he also emphasized some positive aspects. “One of the issues is that [the new pamphlet] really doesn’t go beyond those who are still in the fold. I think it’s designed for people who are younger and for people who are still responding to the authority of the Church. But there’s this wonderful statement in the last paragraph of the pamphlet, which I think is a way to reach out: ‘No one is, or ever could be, excluded from the circle of God’s love or the extended arms of His Church, for we are all His beloved sons and daughters.’”
“My question,” Schow concluded, “is how will the Church and how will the Lord extend his arms to those who have stepped away from the Church and who maybe have found a same-sex partner, and how will we as members extend our arms to those folks.”
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© 2012 Affirmation: Gay and Lesbian Mormons
www.affirmation.org
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