As you probably have heard, Russel Nelson, the current president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, recently called Patrick Kearon to be the newest member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, filling the vacancy left following Russell Ballard’s death in November.
Peggy Fletcher Stack, senior religion reporter at The Salt Lake Tribune, recently sat down with Kearon to interview him on his new calling.
As a queer member of the church, there were a few of Kearon’s remarks regarding marginalized and queer people that I felt prompted to comment on.
There are lots of margins and we’ve probably all experienced margins of our own by some degree. But the message to anybody on the margin is: You’re not. You might feel it, and there might be reasons for that. But, again, we turn back to Heavenly Father, who sees none of that and to his son, Jesus Christ, who is infinitely loving and compassionate and wants to see all of us healed. I was thinking this morning about the early astronauts who went up into space and even to the moon and looked back and what did they see? They saw the earth but they didn’t see peoples [or] orders and it changed them. And that’s just from that distance. How does it appear from heaven? He doesn’t want anybody to feel on the margin.
Whether its disabled members, queer members, racialized members, or any other members who find themselves on the margins of society (including within the church), we aren’t marginalized because of God’s view of us. We already recognize that God considers our souls to have great worth (D&C 18:10).
No, we’re marginalized because we live in a world, a society, even a church, not designed for us. And that exclusionary design is what pushes us to the margins.
Black people couldn’t hold the priesthood or attend the temple for over 100 years in the church, not because of how God views them, but because of the policies established by church leaders.
Trans men can’t hold the priesthood, not because of how God views them, but because of the policies established by church leaders.
Sitting in the temple endowment ceremony is uncomfortable for disabled people like me, not because of how God views us, but because of how church leaders designed the temple and its ceremonies.
The marginalized people in the church are marginalized because of how the church, as an institution (including its programmes), is designed. Telling us that God doesn’t want anyone to feel on the margin doesn’t change that we are on the margin.
And it’s not something we feel. Marginalization isn’t an emotion. If it were, then we could just feel a different emotion and make the marginalization vanish.
One more thing from that particular quote: “Jesus Christ, who is infinitely loving and compassionate and wants to see all of us healed”.
It’s the church that needs healing, not us.
Racialized people don’t need healing from the racist policies and practices of the church. The church needs to heal.
Queer people don’t need healing from the anti-queer policies and practices of the church. The church needs to heal.
Disabled people don’t need healing from the ableist policies and practices of the church. The church needs to heal.
And so on.
The problem doesn’t lie with us. We aren’t the ones responsible for our marginalization.
We need to treat [LGBTQ people] like everybody else, treat them as the Savior treated those he ran into. … He blessed them. That’s our model. The invitation to all of us is to get better at being like him. When we treat people the way he would have us treat them, we feel more peace, we feel more joy. And that’s what we want for them.
Queer members don’t need blessings. We need change. If you want to treat us the way Jesus would have you treat us, perhaps you should consider that we have no recorded words from Jesus that say queer people should be treated differently in any capacity. There is no canonized declaration from Jesus to oppose marriage equality, to practice conversion therapy, or to prohibit the children of queer parents from being baptized.
The practices and policies of the church hurt us. Jesus did not establish a gospel of harm; he established a gospel of peace, one built on unconditional love. There’s a reason why the prophet Mormon defined charity as the pure love of Christ (Moro. 7:45).
I’m not sure what is meant by “And that’s what we want for them.” Everything prior to that was about what non-queer members and leaders should do, and how they will feel if they do those things. So what you want for us is for you to feel more peace and more joy? I can assure that is not what we want.
We want full membership in the church, in every capacity, governed by established guidelines, so there is consistency from ward to ward and from stake to stake. That’s more important than whether you feel peace and joy in the process.
It’s time for us to feel peace. It’s time for us to feel joy.
People seem pretty excited about Kearon’s appointment. As a queer member of the church, I’m not holding my breath.
