Affirmation: Gay & Lesbian Mormons

Law Clerk Foams at the Mouth

By Tony Collette

Earlier this year in our Ward's Priesthood Meeting, a visiting law clerk taught the lesson at the request of the EQ President. He's a young guy, early-to mid-twenties, really outspoken, articulate, with a very solid sense of self-worth.

The point of his lesson, shot completely from the hip, was our need to develop a passion to do good. In trying to clarify his intent, he contrasted a good passion with an evil passion, and used Romans 1:18-32. Although these verses are Paul's scathing denunciation of straight people who have left the truth and gotten mixed up in all sorts of evil, including murder, our lively law clerk interpreted them as a rebuke of homosexual activity—an evil passion. He railed on the members of the Church for going along with the world in its accepting attitude of gays and suggested that those who practiced tolerance or acceptance of gay people were in need of an attitude adjustment. In his mind gay people are real serious sinners, and he made the point bitingly clear.

To my total surprise no one in the room said anything. Slightly upset, I raised my hand and mentioned that these scriptures have little to do with the average gay person we would know today and asked him why he stopped reading at the end of the chapter. I asked him to read one more verse, "Therefore thou art inexcusable, 0 man, whosoever thou art that judgest: for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things." I reminded the Quorum of our belief that we have absolutely no right to judge anyone else, that because we as humans are so terrible at judging, the Lord has taken that privilege sway from us and commanded us, in the strongest language, not to judge anyone.

Immediately other guys in the room added their comments, agreeing that when we judge someone else we stand on very shaky ground. One member of the Ward went on to share his experience working in a resort in California one summer where he was the only straight waiter. He talked about how the gay men he met there were some of the most loving, caring, kind people he'd ever known, and how he considered it a privilege to work with them and become their friend. The whole texture of the meeting changed from confrontational to conciliatory. There was a nice feeling as the meeting ended.

I got to know that law clerk a little better. He's really a nice guy. "I don't want you to think that I'm a big homophobe or anything. I've got lots of gay friends," he said later that day at a dinner. "You seemed pretty upset at what I said. You seemed kinda offended. Really, you brought the whole thing up, anyway," he suggested. Impossible to hold back an amused chuckle, we agreed to let the issue go.

--Tony Collette
P.O. Box 60288 - Oklahoma City, OK 73146
(800) 552-3135 - (405) 748-3119/fax

Update Sept 2001: Since writing these articles, Tony has terminated his membership with the church on his own terms and is no longer affiliated with it.