The Salt Lake Tribune published an article over the weekend that detailed an LGBT event for LDS-oriented people. Apparently one self-invited speaker–Bishop Kevin Kloosterman–gave an inspiring talk that the Trib has titled “Mormon bishop says church responsible for gays’ emotional wounds“.

Some commentators are saying that the Trib is making too much of this and has missed the gist of his comments. To those, I submit a transcript of his remarks.

For me, these were the most confirming:

And as I read these stories and as I learned more about these issues, I began to see the emotional wounds and the scars that many of you still have today. And I seem to ask the question, “Where did you get these wounds?” and unfortunately the answer was, “In the house of my friends.”

Interesting story in today’s Salt Lake Tribune about a “gay BYU filmmaker”.

A lifelong member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the 41-year-old Wilcox has been the epitome of a good Mormon. He served a two-year mission to Barcelona, Spain, earned a degree from BYU, worked and taught Spanish at the church’s Missionary Training Center in Provo for five years, then joined the staff at BYUtv, where he has produced documentaries, talk shows and reality-based series.

He did it all secretly knowing he was gay.

I suspect that he will quickly find incompatibility.

LINK

In response to an online treatise on gay Mormons and how the church deals (or not) with them, a friend responded with the following (JNR — let me know if its okay to post this; I only steal from the best):

The part of Mormon cosmology that claims an exalted destiny involves at least one heterosexual marriage is pretty hard to get around

I agree. And you’re right that it would be a disservice to not address that fact, so I’ll just say this (again this is just my personal belief):

Mormon belief/doctrine/dogma/cosmology is pretty messy and has changed an awful lot since 1830. We’ve changed our position on things like polygamy, blacks and the priesthood, the doctrine of tithing and the organization of church leadership. We’ve changed our policies on what members can/can’t eat and drink (no coffee/tea/alcohol, but it used to be okay to drink beer though not anymore). We no longer observe the doctrine of gathering, and we’ve even changed the content of our most sacred ceremonies several times and so dramatically that people who had been alive 50 years ago wouldn’t recognize our current iterations. We barely even recognize the doctrine of common consent, even though it was pretty obvious that it was a big part of the early church.
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After finishing The Book of Mammon (see earlier review), the remnants of my Mormon mind seem to be quivering as if a lump of dead flesh were receiving electric shocks; just enough to make it seem alive, if not wholly yet.

All of a sudden I have a renewed interest in the church and its history. I guess this has lain dormant for many years now because it was easier to ignore than address the pain.

A friend recently asked me, “If the church’s stance on homosexuality were different, would you still be active?”. I didn’t hesitate to say yes — which actually surprised me, and which probably was a different answer than it would have been a month ago.

Strange.

Had dinner last night with family-in-law and Maxine Hanks (one of the infamous “September 6″ who were excommunicated as ‘heretics’ in the early 1990s).

Fascinating discussion around religion, belief (or lack thereof) and LDS church history. It’s a good thing my honey was in Milan; he would have been bored to tears.

It made for a pleasant evening to have like-minded souls conversing about the great mysteries. The food was outstanding as well, which didn’t hurt the overall sense of well-being and feelings of kinship.

I guess Elder Packer wasn’t involved in the revisions to the ‘handbook’.

Updated LDS handbook softens language on gays

The Salt Lake Tribune

A newly published compilation of LDS guidelines — used by all church leaders worldwide when dealing with their members — has softened the language about gay Mormons.

The book, known as the Church Handbook of Instructions, lays out the Utah-based faith’s policies on everything from baptism to running a worship service to counseling troubled marriage partners.

The updated reference book is scheduled to be presented to thousands of LDS lay leaders in a giant, televised training session Saturday. Any language changes, then, will set the tone for church interactions for years to come.

Like most recent LDS Church statements, this new handbook makes a clear distinction between same-sex orientation and behavior. It eliminates the suggestion, mentioned in the previous 2006 edition, that same-sex relationships “distort loving relationships” and that gays should repent of their “homosexual thoughts or feelings.”

It also says that celibate gay Mormons who are “worthy and qualified in every other way” should be allowed to have “callings,” or church assignments, and to participate fully in temple rituals.
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First Presidency trumps Quorum of the Twelve President.

High-ranking LDS leader weighs in on same-sex attraction

The Salt Lake Tribune

Mormons may not know until the hereafter what causes same-sex attraction, but “God loves all his children” and expects everyone to do the same, an LDS Church leader said Sunday.

While the message — delivered to more than 200,000 Utah Mormons — may not seem significant, the messenger was.

As second counselor in the governing First Presidency, Dieter F. Uchtdorf is one of the highest-ranking leaders in the hierarchy of the nearly 14 million member Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to address the thorny topic of whether same-sex attraction is inborn.

The gentle tone and emphasis of Uchtdorf’s remarks — spoken at the Conference Center in downtown Salt Lake City and beamed to dozens of church buildings — came in the wake of an earlier speech by Boyd K. Packer, senior member of the LDS Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
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This quote from the larger article below speaks to the issue from an LDS perspective. I suspect he is correct and that most church members would give their institutionalized homophobia high marks, because they believe it divinely inspired.

“Eric Ethington, a gay-rights activist who organized the protest of Packer’s speech, says messages from the pulpit clearly cause stress for gay and lesbian LDS youths. But he suspects most Mormons would give their church high marks on the issue.

“Only members actually affected by it can recognize the [negative] effects,” he said.”

Survey links gay suicides to religious messages

The Salt Lake Tribune

Nearly two-thirds of Americans believe that messages from U.S. religious pulpits are connected to the rising rates of suicide among gay youths, according to a new poll.

And though Americans are split about whether they see homosexual activity as a sin, 72 percent say religion contributes to negative views of gays and lesbians.

The survey includes breakouts of some faith traditions, but too few Mormons took part to draw conclusions about how members of Utah’s predominant faith regard their own leaders’ handling of the homosexuality issue, said Daniel Cox, research director for the Public Religion Research Institute, which conducted the survey in partnership with Religion News Service.

The Salt Lake City-based Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been the target of anger from lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender advocacy groups after its high-profile role in passing the Proposition 8 gay-marriage ban in California and, more recently, a sermon by senior apostle Boyd K. Packer.

Speaking at the church’s semiannual General Conference this month, Packer referred to same-sex attraction as “impure and unnatural.”

Demonstrators surrounded Temple Square for a silent protest in the wake of those comments, and the church later issued a statement strongly condemning bullying of, and unkindness toward, those harboring same-sex attraction.
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Barb Guy’s op-ed piece in today’s Trib reflects the world into which many LDS/gay youth are thrust. “Eternity” is a difficult timeline to work with.

Gays can choose — to put trust in themselves

The Salt Lake Tribune
by Barb Guy

You are the only you that there will ever be. You are unique and irreplaceable. You are beautiful and rare and exceptional and the world is better because you’re in it. You are gay because God made you gay and he loves you very much. All of us love you, too.
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I can’t help but imagine the conversations and “reproving betimes with sharpness” that took place to make this happen. If anyone thinks “The Bear” actually had voluntary second thoughts, they are deluding themselves.

Apostle’s speech on gays changed on LDS website

The Salt Lake Tribune

Senior Mormon apostle Boyd K. Packer has modified his General Conference speech for the LDS Church’s online publication to more closely reflect the faith’s view that the cause of same-sex attraction is unknown and that the only sin is acting on those desires.

Packer’s speech about gay marriage, same-sex attraction, pornography and addiction ignited a firestorm of critiques, conversations and protests, particularly the suggestion that gays could “overcome” their attractions with enough faith.

Perhaps the most controversial paragraph in Packer’s text that he read Sunday said, “Some suppose that they were pre-set and cannot overcome what they feel are inborn tendencies toward the impure and unnatural. Not so! Why would our Heavenly Father do that to anyone? Remember he is our father.”

Now the word “temptations” has replaced “tendencies” and the question about God’s motives has been removed entirely.
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