Big Hollywood: Boo-Hoo: Gays’ Lachrymose Last Resort in the War Against Mormons

I just read Charles Winecoffs piece on 8: The Mormon Proposition, the trailer for the documentary is above.
I have not watched the movie. But as a faithful mormon, I just thought it was time to share some of my views on homosexuality. The issue of Gay Marriage and the Mormon activism in defense of traditional marriage is supposedly what the movie is about.
But I think the issue goes much deeper than our church members standing up for traditional marriage during a hotly contested political debate.
President Obama has voiced his oposition to gay marriage, yet no one in the gay community is demonstrating or making movies about him and his administration.
I ache for any individual who would think of me and my family as bigots. It pains me to even consider the idea that those in the gay community who felt compelled to make this movie imagine that I spend my days teaching my children to hate.
The gospel of Jesus Christ is a message of love, not hate. Paul and I have spent considerable time and energy teaching, training, and modeling to our children family harmony and love. We have never had a family home evening lesson on “groups of people who we hate.”
We have taught our children to love and accept everyone as a beloved son or daughter of Heavenly Father.
When my oldest daughter quietly shared with me that her best friend had been raised by lesbian mothers, I did not tell her to dump her friend and never associate with her again. I encouarged her to love her friend and embrace her as the beautiful soul that she is.
Numerous times in my life, I have had others reach out to me in friendship. Men and Woman who wanted to spend time with me, associate together in our homes, and have our children spend time together. Yet over and over and over again some of those same wonderful people, upon learning of my religion, dumped me and my family as though we were plagued with leprosy. The prejudice that has manifested in my life because of my religious affiliation is not something I waste too much time worrying about or losing sleep over.
Bigotry against mormons has been a defining characteristic of our faith since its founding. In fact, it seems to be the one great thread that binds us all up together as we faithfully move through life dodging the rocks (sometimes literally) thrown in our direction for our belief in the peculiar notions of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.
So to say that Mormons are inherently bigoted strikes me as being somewhat funny. We are a people who have been the victims of some of the worst prejudice America could dish up. What other religious group had an extermination order on the books until 1976 in Missouri?
In regards to the practice of homosexuality, I have been a vocal mother in my community speaking out against gay indoctrination in our local schools. Does this make me a hater?
I simply claim the right to teach my moral values to my children, and not be undermined by what is happening in the classrooms of our local public schools.
I have talked to several activists on both sides of this issue in my community. One young gay man came to my home and interviewed me because he was so curious about my outspoken views at a school board meeting. As we talked I tried to help him understand that I did not hate gay people. I simply did not want my children exposed to a form of sexuality that they could hardly understand, and before I felt the were even ready to learn about heterosexuality.
I hoped that our conversation helped to build a bridge, but he called me a few days after the interview and told me in no uncertain terms that I was a hater and a bigot.
The deeper side of the Mormon vs’ Gays issue is tied up in one thing.
Our religion says that Homosexuality is a sin. Period. People who engage in gay sexual behavior are excommunicated and the church has never backed away from that stance. Those who are sexually oriented towards homosexuality are in fact embraced by the church collectively and by individual members based on those individuals own ability to be big hearted.
It is NOT sexual orientation that is punished by the church, its bishops, or the members. All sorts of people have all sorts of sexual orientations. But it is sexual behavior, (including immorality on the part of heterosexuals), that is disciplined by church courts.
I have known and loved several people over the years who found themselves outside of the church for one reason or another. ALL of them have described to me the loving, tender, but firm discipline that deprived them of various blessings tied to membership in the church.
ALL of them gratefully took the time, energy, and effort to repent, make things right, and return back into full membership and full fellowship in the church. Watching these people go through this process of repentance has strengthened my own testimony of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The Lords way of healing is so tender, so gentle, sometimes painful, but so very very right in the sense that it allows the person to fully heal and purge the evil from their hearts. Miracles are a big part of this healing and I have experienced the perfect love that is embodied in the Atonement of Jesus Christ.
The Savior not only suffered for our sins, he also Atoned for every single trauma and trial that befuddles us during our mortal experience on the earth.
I believe that so many who are drawn to the gay lifestyle were burned and traumetized by certain family situations and relationships. Who am I to say who someone can love, live with, and associate with during life? I understand the pain that is involved in abnormal family relationships and the ebb and pull that plays out in family life when those who abuse and make afraid are in charge of the children.
I have known loving, wonderful gay couples who are raising talented and loving children.
I am not going to step into these peoples lives and shove my worldview and religion on them.
I am going to stand up for traditional marriage in the public sector and promote laws that will enshrine heterosexuality as the best for family life, because when a mother and a father are able to love each other and welcome a family, it is the ideal situation in which to raise children.
As the Lord himself said in Leviticus 18: Abomination and Confusion are the result of sexual sin.
I believe it even goes deeper. I believe that when the souls of men and women are up in heaven waiting to be born, I believe that they plead with Heavenly Father to send them to a family where they will be loved, cherished, and taught the gospel. I believe those souls have the right to be born in a society where they will be nurtured, loved, and raised holistically.
When Father in Heaven wipes a city, nation, or people off the planet, I believe he does it for the sake of the next generation. He has a duty and a responsibility to send those souls to the parents who will love them and keep them safe. If a society is bound up in abortion, infanticide, non-baby producing forms of sexuality, and the neglect and abuse of children is the norm, why would Father send his little ones into that situation?
Those who have taught me my faith since my infancy have pounded into my brain the ideal of Mother/Father married monogamous love being the safest and best for children, and I believe it with all of my heart. Does that mean that a gay or lesbian couple have absolutely nothing to offer as they parent their own children? No. I just feel sorry for the child who is raised without a mother, without a father. I have watched the ache they experience as the “confusion” takes over. I have also observed and experienced the confusion that is present when abnormal sexual behavior is manifest in a family that PRETENDS to be bound up in normal sexual relationships. It is all confusion, dysfunction, insanity, and pain.
What is best, what is ideal? Those are the questions that everyone should ask. God makes it abundantly clear in the scriptues and in his revealed word how he expects us to behave and how he expects us to treat each other. He also provided a way for us to repent and heal when those ideals are not honored in our family life.
It is my testimony and belief that we should all strive for the ideal, in whatever situation and lifestyle we find ourselves living in.
And if we take on the responsibility of loving and caring for a child, we should provide that child with what God has ordained as ideal.
Jenny Hatch