maybe i'll meet a girl

I enjoyed this post.

http://jeffbenedict.com/index.php/blog/35-blog/378-maybe-ill-meet-a-girl

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.

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?

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.

Love

With all the talk about Utah gay marriage and statements from the church, I'm a little tired.  I think we as Latter-day Saints (and many Christians generally) say, "love the sinner; hate the sin" but then spend so much energy on the second half of the couplet that we don't have strength for the first, which is the more important admonition. It makes me sad. 

I wonder what our Heavenly Father thinks.

Priesthood lesson

Earlier this month we had the family lesson in priesthood meeting. This was the first paragraph from the "doctrinal section":

Family relationships are sacred and can grow stronger in eternity.

Encourage marriage, … and impress upon [others] the sacredness of that relation and the obligation they are under to observe that great commandment which was given of God to our first parents, to multiply and replenish the earth [see Genesis 1:28]. This is all the more necessary, in view of the present tendency in the world to disregard that law and to dishonor the marriage covenant. It is saddening to note the frequency of divorces in the land and the growing inclination to look upon children as an encumbrance instead of as a precious heritage from the Lord.⁴

[The Lord] has shown us that if we are faithful we will associate with each other in an immortal and glorious state; that those connections formed here, that are of the most enduring character, shall exist in eternity.⁵

As I read this, I immediately began bracing for negative comments about homosexuality and gay marriage.  I reflected on all of the lessons I've endured where people have made well meaning, but offensive comments. I began wondering what would be the right response if the derogatory comments started flying.  (I should note I have very strong opinions about marriage, opinions that wouldn't be too far out of mainstream Mormonism... but I can't stand the negative comments so many fellow members make out of ignorance.)  I wondered, if the negative comments did start should I out myself just to put in their place anyone who was making hurtful remarks.  I decided against that since the motive behind an action is sometimes more important than the action itself.  Luckily nothing was said... at least not in Priesthood meeting.  I hear that Relief Society was not so lucky.

As Paul says, we should “be ready always to give an answer to every man”.  So what is the right response?  I haven’t figured it out yet, but open to suggestions.

brains and heaven

Recently my family and I were all in the car together for a three hour drive. We were listening to a Jonathan Coulton CD. When the song "re: Your Brains" came on and everyone started singing "All we wanna do is eat your brains!" I smiled and thought, "This probably isn't what most people think of when they think of heaven, but I think it's pretty close."