God is an unchanging God

I want to be less formal in this blog regarding the events surrounding the latest general conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and solidify my view, opinions, and thoughts about what happened.

I am a member of the aforementioned church, and have been my entire life. However, it is not for this reason that I believe the way I do. I believe because I have studied it, I have lived the teachings, and I have personally received a confirmation of its truthfulness by the power of the Holy Ghost through study and prayer. (For more information on the basic beliefs of the LDS church, visit lds.org or mormon.org.)

Following the general conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake City, Utah on October 2-3, 2010, Human Rights Campaign (“HRC”, the largest national lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender civil rights organization) sent a petition to the church responding to comments made by Boyd K. Packer, member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. HRC sent the petition, along with 150,000 signatures to President Packer; which came after various teenagers in the United States committed suicide as a result of anti-gay bullying.

President Packer made comments on many morality issues, including sexual relationships, and the topic of marriage. He specifically mentioned same-sex marriage as being immoral and wrong, and that it can be corrected.

I believe the petition by HRC was to further their cause of passing laws to give those with same-sex tendencies the same rights as those without (such as same-sex marriage.) They wished President Packer to take back what he said and say that he was wrong so as to not "[put] millions of lives in great danger." (See the HRC article here.)

I feel that the Church's response to this petition was to a much larger audience, for example even to the very members of the church. Speaking for the church, Michael Otterson said,

"Our parents, young adults, teens and children should therefore, of all people, be especially sensitive to the vulnerable in society and be willing to speak out against bullying or intimidation whenever it occurs, including unkindness toward those who are attracted to others of the same sex. This is particularly so in our own Latter-day Saint congregations. Each Latter-day Saint family and individual should carefully consider whether their attitudes and actions toward others properly reflect Jesus Christ’s second great commandment - to love one another."

With all the commotion surrounding the petition and the debate over whether his remarks are true, whether they are discriminative, etc. has caused a general interest in many people, not just of the parties involved. Some who were not interested in learning about the beliefs of the LDS Church now are, many members of the church have become interested in the topic, and many of those who struggle with same-sex attraction must look to this as a ground-breaking moment as a result of both the petition and the Church's response. I believe the response was inspired, reaches out to many of these diverse audiences, solidifies the church's views on this delicate topic and shows that God is an unchanging God, as President Packer said:

"...there are those today who not only tolerate but advocate voting to change laws that would legalize immorality, as if a vote would somehow alter the designs of God’s laws and nature. A law against nature would be impossible to enforce. For instance, what good would a vote against the law of gravity do?...History demonstrates over and over again that moral standards cannot be changed by battle and cannot be changed by ballot. To legalize that which is basically wrong or evil will not prevent the pain and penalties that will follow as surely as night follows day."

I stand with the church and know to be right what was said in the official response by the church: "our doctrinal position is clear: any sexual activity outside of marriage is wrong, and we define marriage as between a man and a woman. However, that should never, ever be used as justification for unkindness." The church responded with inspiration to all the topics at hand - the unkindness towards and judgments passed on the teenagers who took their own lives, the petition by HRC, and the growing interest around the world in the highly debated topic of voting to change the current "gay rights laws". The church stated its unchanging and stoutly declared position on the matter while reaching out to a wide audience - answering many of the questions that many people will have had on the matter.

I trust firmly in my belief that President Boyd K. Packer is a prophet, seer, and revelator - a true servant of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is called of God, and has the authority given to him to declare unto the world the commandments of God. He cannot revoke what he has said, because he knows it is true. Those of HRC are bold to speak out for what they believe, and I admire them for that conviction, however, I agree with the Church's statement, and I know that God has declared that sexual relations must only be shared between man and woman, lawfully and legally wedded in holy matrimony. I stand by President Packer in that conviction.