Response to Supreme Court's Ruling on Same-Gender Marriage & LGBTQ+

It's a horrible thing to bully or mistreat people of non-standard sexual orientation. It's evil to mistreat or make people feel less important or free when there exist enough challenges in the world.

God will take into consideration the biochemical reactions that cause attraction and judge according to the heart and goodness of each person.

God revealed that marriage is to be between one man and one woman. Men and Women produce offspring that continue the species. Same-gender couples cannot produce offspring with each other and share in the God-given creation of life that shares the DNA from both parents.

Evens so, love thy brother as thou loveth thyself. How lonely would someone feel, insecure because of a different sexual orientation? Would anyone want to worry if he or she has friends because he or she is different?

Society can be different.

LGBTQ+, like all people, can explore sexuality and find out things about themselves. Normal heterosexual men and women also can potentially explore sexuality that leads them to bisexual or homosexual relationships, though there is no need to open up that area creating unwanted inclination to the psychological surface. A psychological implication exists that if someone is open to a possibility, it can become acceptable, and then reality.

God sanctions only marriage between one man and wife. Anything outside of this dynamic does not constitute the arrangement decreed from Heaven despite the laws of one or all nations.

LGBTQ+ people have great lives in Western society nowadays. The stereotype for men in the past was the wimpy effeminate males, untrue then and evident now. Some of the most attractive and athletic men and women consider themselves LGBTQ+.

Men generally respond well sexually to visual stimuli, so, of course, the majority of Gay men may desire physically fit and robust males. Heterosexual males are the same way, mostly. Heterosexual males may not be sexually attracted to muscular and strong men, but most admire them and even dream to be like them when they grow older.

Males tend to brag about their strength and how superhuman and bigger than life these men seem. Amazingly, some of those people heterosexual males admired as youths or applaud as adults are Gay. Why mention this? Understanding those of different beliefs and standards is how Saints can minister to each person. Showing love and concern for others brings in the Spirit of God.

In order to have Charity, which is the pure love of Christ, we must know something about all people, even people who disagree with God's prescribed standards. Christ knew them. He FELT the shame, and the pride, of being LGBTQ+.

For as much then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin; That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God. 1 Peter 4:1

Christ suffered for humankind in the flesh so that those who desire to serve as He did can arm themselves with His grace and protection, accept that suffering and stop sinning in this life by repenting daily and changing daily for the better. Openly crucifying Christ by claiming to follow Him, while persecuting and defiling neighbors for being different brings shame upon the Master!

He suffered every sin and felt every pain of humankind, enduring as He bled from His pores! Christ knows how it feels to be gay. He knows how it feels to have strong emotional and sexual desires that seem hard to control because He chose to suffer for our sins and feel those things. He did this to be able to succor us in our needs.

If we are to live like Christ, we must willingly explore and bear the burdens of our LGBTQ+ brothers and sisters. We must willingly forego judgment and show love and compassion. We cannot allow prejudice based on our understanding of scripture to pollute our minds to think that LGBTQ+ people are more horrible than other people who commit sin and need to repetn.

Bishop Gérald Caussé, First Counselor in the Presiding Bishopric of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints instructed in the October 2013 General Conference of his church that

Throughout time the people of God have been commanded to care for all individuals who are strangers or who may be seen as different.

In ancient times a stranger benefited from the same obligation of hospitality as a widow or an orphan. Like them, the stranger was in a situation of great vulnerability, and his survival depended on the protection he received from the local population.

The people of Israel received precise instructions on this subject: “But the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt.” Ye Are No More Strangers

They are the same as any person, a sinner in need of a savior--a stranger to be treated as one of the family. I am not saying that Christ is homosexual. I am saying that homosexuality in practice is a sin and Christ suffered for the sin of homosexual practices and felt the pains, shame, pride, and lust of these men and women so that if they repent, they would not suffer.

There is a hymn, "Brightly Beams Our Father's Mercy" that speaks of how as Christians we are to point all to Christ as the main source of Light to avoid the jagged cliffs of destruction that wait along the shore for ships.

We are the lower lights that remind the ship captains that shallow water is a danger. Christ is the way, but we are here to warn all as fellow saints on the journey of life to Christ. "Behold, I sent you out to testify and warn the people, and it becometh every man who hath been warned to warn his neighbor" Doctrine & Covenants 88:81."

As followers of Christ, we may warn of the pitfalls of confusion that political issues that teach selfish practices, but we are to do so as lights of warning not fires of burning!

We must then allow our brothers and sisters room to heed our counsel or disregard. Then, and even more, we are to be there when they fall and suffer. There is no need for any more children to die because a Christian sought to persecute rather than to console and love. Any person who would justify destroying the unrepentant soul of a man does not know the worth of souls unto the Lord. "Remember the worth of souls is great in the sight of God" Doctrine & Covenants 18:10.

How great is the worth of souls? So great that "the Lord your Redeemer suffered death in the flesh; wherefore he suffered the pain of all men, that all men might repent and come unto him," D&C 18:10.

Why does He want men to come unto Him? Jesus revealed Himself that, "...I will work a marvelous work among the children of men, unto the convincing of many of their sins, that they may come unto repentance, and that they may come unto the kingdom of my Father," Doctrine & Covenants 18:44.

We who claim to follow Christ must follow His teachings and be willing to point people to Christ as a light of hope. We must not be like Jonah and hope these people "get justice as they deserve." What they deserve is our love and fellowship.

Women tend towards emotional connections despite sexual orientation. Most women care little about physical appearance in the long haul--that's a predominately male attribute.

There is a vicious lie that the adversary wants all LGBTQ+ people to believe; that lie is that God is not mindful of their sorrow and trials. If the adversary can get them to believe and accept that, Satan has won their souls.

I would like to see a society where an LGBTQ+ person can say that their parents loved them enough to say, "This is not what we expected in you, but we love you as you are, beautiful and a child of God." Maybe LGBTQ+ people wouldn't feel they have to describe themselves by sexual orientation. Maybe then they would rather live life out and experience it rather than snuffing it out because they feel different.

True followers of Christ represent the lower lights along the shores of life, burning warning of the things along the way to the shores of healing salvation in Christ that may destroy the boat of life. Followers of Christ have an invitation to help all people avoid getting caught up on a sandy bank when there is so much deep water out in life to navigate.