Thought-provoking commentary on life, politics, religion and social issues.
You know how every time Pride Month comes around with the parades and coloured crosswalks, you start seeing comments like, “I don’t care if you’re gay, just don’t shove your sexuality in my face.”?
?Well, I’ve been thinking about that. Continue reading Why straight people are uncomfortable with gay people
Jesus certainly did preach peace, but he didn’t preach peace and pacifism at all costs. Continue reading The violent Jesus
I was in grade 6 (about 11 years old). I think it was early in the school year. My family and I had just moved to the area, so I knew no one at the school. Continue reading My earliest memory of masculinity and peer pressure
A little over two years ago, Russell M. Nelson was speaking to a group of young single adults during a broadcasted fireside. During part of his remarks, he discussed the “will and mind of the Lord” and used the 2015 policy of exclusion as an example of the “will and mind of the Lord” in action.
I’ve been contemplating his remarks on this second anniversary, and I have a few thoughts, some of which I’ve expressed elsewhere over the last couple of years.
First, here are his remarks. I have left them intact, but have added bold for emphasis. Continue reading “The exclusion policy and the will of God: two years later”
During my scripture study earlier this week, I was reading Luke 13:24
Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able.
One of the footnotes sent me over to 2 Ne. 9:41
The way for man is narrow, but it lieth in a straight course before him, and the keeper of the gate is the Holy One of Israel; and he employeth no servant there; and there is none other way save it be by the gate.
Continue reading “The keeper of the gate is the Holy One of Israel”
Having two LGBTQ+ children makes me hyper aware of the challenges they face growing up in the LDS church.
Growing up gay in the LDS church is problematic enough. Identifying as a gender outside of the conventional binary of either male or female adds even further complexity to the challenges queer youth face in the church.
The LDS church strongly adheres to the typical gender binary. It’s reflected in their scripture stories, in their temples, in how they approach parenting, in leadership responsibilities, and so on. Segregation of the sexes begins at 8 years old, with boys being shipped off to weekly Cub pack meetings and girls being shuffled to biweekly Activity Days. This segregation continues into adulthood, right to the day one dies.
This is problematic for people who don’t identify as male or female. They feel out of place when forced to segregate, and the discomfort (to put it mildly) can lead them out of the church ultimately.
Few resources are provided to youth leaders to help them address the unique experiences of the non-binary youth they are asked to lead. This goes not only for young men and young women leaders, but bishops and stake presidents, too. So, it’s not surprising, then, that leaders do little to accommodate their non-binary youth.
I reached out to our gender-fluid child, Ash, who will be entering the youth programme next month, and we worked together to compile these 11 tips on how leaders can make non-binary youth feel welcome at church. Continue reading “11 ways leaders can make non-binary youth feel welcome at church”
In 2016, I marched with and organized a group of local Mormons in the Lethbridge Pride Parade. We marched under the Mormons Building Bridges banner.
My reasons for marching were varied. Our child had publicly come out the previous summer. The LDS church had released their divisive and damaging policy update on marriage equality just months before. I thought it might be an act of solidarity to show the local LGBTQ community that some Mormons wanted to be supportive. I also considered that marching openly as a Mormon was an act of protest, co-opting “Mormon” from the church and redefining what it meant to be Mormon.
I realize now that marching was wrong.
Continue reading “Why I was wrong to march with Mormons Building Bridges”
If your Facebook News Feed was anything like mine during the second week of July, you probably saw a lot of posts about Teen Vogue’s article on anal sex. Most of it probably in opposition to the article. There were even progressive voices criticizing it.
But this post isn’t about anal sex. Well, not really.
Last week, I was discussing the article after a Facebook friend posted a popular video of a woman criticizing the article. In this discussion, someone labelled anal sex as unnatural, using phrases like “against how the body is constructed” and “the anal (sic) is not made for that purpose”.
And it’s that idea of nature that I want to discuss. Continue reading ““But it’s not natural . . .””
If you’re Mormon, you’ve probably seen this scripture before:
“Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation. Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.” (Mal. 3:8–10)
It’s a scripture mastery. It’s in the Preach My Gospel manual that full-time missionaries use. It’s in the Gospel Principles manual. It’s the the Gospel Doctrine manual. It’s been used by many leaders in General Conference talks. It’s one of the most popular scriptures used in Sacrament Meeting talks on the topic of tithing.
Despite it’s ubiquity, I wonder if perhaps we’ve been getting it wrong all this time. Continue reading “Will a man rob God?”
Elder Larry R. Lawrence of the Seventy wrote an article titled “The War Goes On”. It appears in the April 2017 issue of The Ensign, an official publication of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Here is a quote from that article:
“Marriage between a man and a woman is ordained of God, but same-sex marriage is only a counterfeit. It brings neither posterity nor exaltation. Although [Satan’s] imitations deceive many people, they are not the real thing. They cannot bring lasting happiness.”
See? This is just more proof that even in 2017, the LDS church just doesn’t get it. They can think they’re all clever and progressive by dropping the S from mormonsandgays.com, but stuff like this just reiterates how out of touch leaders are on the topic of its LGBTQ members. They literally don’t get it.
There are a few problems with this statement: Continue reading “The LDS church is wrong about same-sex marriage. Again.”