Over that past few months, news reports have surfaced about same sex attraction advocates and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints (often inadvertently called the Mormon or LDS Church). This is a sensitive topic for sure, and some church members are in a quandary as to where they should stand. From God’s point of view, families will continue on indefinitely if the basis of the family is created by a man and woman.
New LDS Website Deals with Same-Sex Attraction
A few months ago, The Church of Jesus Christ launched a website called Love One Another: A Discussion on Same Sex Attraction with the idea of bringing all people together on an emotionally charged topic and discussing how we, a part of the human family, can better treat each other as children of a loving Heavenly Father.
As it was reported on this website, The Church of Jesus Christ continues its stand as the following:
The experience of same-sex attraction is a complex reality for many people. The attraction itself is not a sin, but acting on it is. Even though individuals do not choose to have such attractions, they do choose how to respond to them. With love and understanding, the Church reaches out to all God’s children, including our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters.
The survival of the family depends on our stand in this matter. Though we are all loved by God, our society needs to promote and protect the marriage between a man and a woman as this institution promotes morality and virtue as written in the “The Family: A Proclamation to the World.”
Being committed to a marriage between a man and a woman and inviting children into the family provides a secure setting for families to grow in righteousness and virtue and enables the future of righteousness in the family in our society.
Church spokesman Michael Purdy was quoted as saying:
Being committed to marriage between a man and a woman does not mean that we do not love and care for all of God’s children.
We all do care for one another as a people. We want the best for each other in education, employment opportunity and entertainment. We enjoy freedoms within the borders of our country which allows the American people life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The LDS Church is not the only religious organization who believes that a man and woman constitute a couple in matrimony. There are many others who have spoken out in defense of traditional marriage.
Earlier this year, other church leaders from different faiths joined The Church of Jesus Christ in advocating traditional marriage in an open letter to all Americans. In this letter, titled “Marriage and Religious Freedom: Fundamental Goods That Stand or Fall Together,” it was stated that “the promotion and protection of marriage — the union of one man and one woman as husband and wife — is a matter of the common good and serves the wellbeing of the couple, of children, of civil society and all people.”
Which Way Is God’s Way?
As devoted Christians, we need to remember the plan our Father in Heaven has for us. We can love one another and yet still remember the importance of continuing the institution of the family and marriage between a man and a woman. From a wonderful article posted in the Meridian Magazine, “A Letter to Same Sex Advocates,” Jim Smith makes a valid point when he says: “No matter the intellectual acrobatics one might undertake to avoid it, marriage is God’s eternal standard and it is His to define. Any action or philosophy we may espouse to the contrary in this ignorant present can only be seen as the whining of a petulant child or the height of arrogance”.
Jim Smith says: “A man cannot replace a mother without robbing a child of a mother’s love. A woman cannot replace a father without robbing a child of a father’s love. They are not the same, and to argue that they are, or that children do not need one or the other, is intellectual dishonesty of the highest order.”
We need the institution of marriage to carry on forever into the future. We need men and women to be legally and lawfully married and understand the importance of their powers of creation. We need to ponder these important decisions and understand what God has in store for us to save our society regardless of how politically charged it is.
Additional Resources:
Valerie Steimle’s Website – Strengthen Your Home
The Divine Institution of Marriage