Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Stake Conference nad Great Friends

Ok so I really need to recap Stake Conference here because, Oh boy was it interesting!

First off, I was asked to be a member of the Stake Priesthood choir which was a neat experience, but the two songs, I need thee Every Hour, and I’ll go where you want me to go, really were kind of interestingly placed lol!

So I went to the Saturday session, which was really good. While there, a comment was made that those who’s calling and elections are made sure are those who come to the Saturday session so that was kind of ironic. The best part of the session was the final talk given by a brother in a different ward about addictions. His focus was that we are all addicted to something and that the best way to insulate ourselves from this addiction was to focus on others instead of focusing on not-ourselves. It was a really moving talk.

On Sunday I woke up early and knowing that I would be really tired grabbed a CS Lewis book entitled The Weight of Glory and other addresses to read so that I didn’t become a high councilman on the stage by falling asleep. I say this because I wasn’t always paying strict attention to every nuance of the talks and so some of it may be simply paraphrased.

The second counselor of the Stake Presidencies talked on answering difficult questions in an appropriate setting. It was a really good talk because it addressed the concern of facing that first trial of your faith in stage 3 Mormonism. Well as you can imagine, the question of Gay marriage was one of those difficult questions and his response was along the lines of the following. “When people ask you ‘Why do you repress the Civil Rights of Gays?’ don’t you think it is fair to fully examine the question and ask ‘shouldn’t we promote relationships that yield the highest outcome of a strong family, being a marriage between a man and a woman?, After all, the same concept is used by the IRS Tax Code which promotes certain products over others.’”

This answer, as was discussed on my Facebook status on Sunday, was kind of pathetic as a secular case against gay marriage. First of all, since when does religion get its format from government? And since when does a republican voice support government regulation in the Tax Code? And since when should it matter especially because the Constitution “promoted” slavery and Misogyny. Should God follow the precedent of the US Tax Code? I think not! Lol

The next talk from the first counselor mentioned how from this pulpit many great men including Marion G. Romney, Boyd K. Packer and others including some of the early pioneers. This was kind of Ironic because he mentioned that marriage between one man and one woman had been “Set in Stone” back in the Garden of Eden. It was funny because from that very pulpit some polygamists had spoken and yet marriage was set in stone as 1 man and 1 woman. It was oddly funny to see the contradiction happen the instant words were spoken. However, it was kind of sad to see one of the other choir members, whose son is gay, tense up and get visibly frustrated when both items were mentioned.

After conference I had a game night with some of the guys from my LDS frat IOTA, and yes I am aware that the acronym for the LDS fraternity system is LDSSA for Latter Day Same Sex Attraction lol. Well at this game night I was with 4 other guys and two girls and of the 4 guys, 2 know fully about me and one might know, for the purposes of this conversation we will call them Hollywood and Iceman (those who know) Don Quixote (for the one that might know) and Chairman Mao (for the one who didn’t have any clue.

Well somehow the conversation got onto the topic of homosexuality and “the gays” as it seems to do quite often. It started off with a discussion about American Idol and I and one girl said that Adam Lambert had the best voice and I thought he should have won, then Chairman Mao decides to say “But he is GAY!” to which I replied, “So! He has a great voice.” This shut him up for a bit but set the stage for discussing gays and homophobes in a rather decent manner. Well after discussing the topic for a while, Chairman Mao says “I hate Gay people.” I waited for the punch line and when none was given, I was kind of shocked and saw Iceman and Hollywood’s eyes on me seeing how I was going to react.

Don Quixote then spoke up saying, are you going to really condemn an entire group, what did they do to you? Mao then promptly held out his forearm and indicated that while on his mission in Anaheim during Prop 8, he was attacked by two black gays. I was still kind of in shock but mentioned well there is a difference between gays and activist militant gays but I was surprised by the Don’s response of well you can’t condemn a whole group for the actions of a few, after all I know a lot of cool gay people.

Mao then began a witch-hunt and asked if Don was gay. Don quickly replied no but Iceman stepped up and stated, “What would you do if I were gay? How do you know that I am not? I haven’t had a girlfriend.” I was so moved and proud that my straight friends were sticking up to me to Mao. It was really great. This continued on for a little bit and when Iceman took Mao home, Mao got a talking to and was informed that there was a Gay in IOTA and so he had better cool his chops.

Can I just tell you how wonderful it is to have friends like these who stood up for me in the middle of a discussion. It really rocked and showed me that there are still good humans about.

Well that was kind of a tangent but hey that was my weekend.
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3 comments:

  1. What a great snapshot of where the Church currently is on this issue David: declamatory officialdom marshaling all its (dissipating) strength to denounce the "abomination" that is homosexuality, but at the grass roots, those with true Christian charity standing up against any ignorance and bigotry within the Church and actually implementing the values that the organization teaches but doesn't seem capable of yet. Loved it.

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  2. It's times like this when you learn who your true friends are. I've always been amazed when non-gay friends are able to stick up for me better than I ever could.

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  3. Being Gay is a Choice LOL!

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