Monday, March 17, 2014
Stake Dance
On Saturday I chaperoned a Stake Dance. At one point I looked up and saw two boys dancing. Granted they were being a little goofy, but it made me smile to think that we live in a world tolerant enough to realize that this is ok. When I was growing up, I think most boys would have been ashamed to try this for fear of being labeled gay or fag or queer.
Sunday, March 9, 2014
is it wrong?
I had lunch with a coworker and the subject of Boy Scouts came up. I expressed my support as an Eagle Scout and a father of a Boy Scout. I could sense my coworker (and friend) who knew I was Mormon wanted to ask if I thought homosexuality was a sin. Thankfully he didn't verbalize this question and the conversation turned to other topics. But the incident has given me pause to consider how I would respond. I think I would respond with a question or three.
If God wants me to be a teacher and I become an accountant, have I sinned? What if He wants me to be a teacher, but He gives me amazing accounting abilities?
What about the couple next door who decides not to have kids because they are not the parental type? Surely if God had wanted them to become parents He would have blessed them with some parenting gifts, no?
Was it a sin for Jonah to go to Tarshish when the Lord commanded him to go to Nineveh?
It is easy for us in the comfort of our modern Babylon to read the story of Jonah and judge, but should we? Surely this story has been included in the scriptures so we can learn, but can we sit in our Laz-E-Boy recliners and say, "Jonah was a lousy prophet"? Are we overly quick to judge Jonah based on one episode from his life?
How about our neighbors who decide not to have children; how should we look on them? We are of course told to be our brother's keeper, but where is the line between brother's keeper and busybody? How can we be more Good Samaritan and less Nosy Neighbor?
And what of me, the wayward accountant?
If God wants me to be a teacher and I become an accountant, have I sinned? What if He wants me to be a teacher, but He gives me amazing accounting abilities?
What about the couple next door who decides not to have kids because they are not the parental type? Surely if God had wanted them to become parents He would have blessed them with some parenting gifts, no?
Was it a sin for Jonah to go to Tarshish when the Lord commanded him to go to Nineveh?
It is easy for us in the comfort of our modern Babylon to read the story of Jonah and judge, but should we? Surely this story has been included in the scriptures so we can learn, but can we sit in our Laz-E-Boy recliners and say, "Jonah was a lousy prophet"? Are we overly quick to judge Jonah based on one episode from his life?
How about our neighbors who decide not to have children; how should we look on them? We are of course told to be our brother's keeper, but where is the line between brother's keeper and busybody? How can we be more Good Samaritan and less Nosy Neighbor?
And what of me, the wayward accountant?
Sunday, March 2, 2014
Abram and Lot
Today was the Sunday School lesson. Once every four years we get to it: the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. It almost always devolves into 40 minutes of gay bashing and the world is going to hell in a picnic basket because it is embracing homosexuality. I went prepared with one of my favorite OT scriptures, Ezekial 16:49, which totally describes the world in which we live. (I totally think of "fulness of bread" every time I go to the supermarket.)
Luckily there was not one mention of homosexuality. The teacher spent the entire lesson comparing Abram and Lot. In the end, I began to wonder if I am more like Lot than Abram. Have I pitched my tent towards Sodom (or moved into the city itself)? I hope not, but it was refreshing to spend Sunday School in introspection instead of rebutting the homophobes.
Luckily there was not one mention of homosexuality. The teacher spent the entire lesson comparing Abram and Lot. In the end, I began to wonder if I am more like Lot than Abram. Have I pitched my tent towards Sodom (or moved into the city itself)? I hope not, but it was refreshing to spend Sunday School in introspection instead of rebutting the homophobes.
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