The way the pro-LGBTQ members of the church explain this, is that a family of two married men or two married women, with or without children (adopted, surrogate, IVF) is as legitimate in God’s eyes as any other LDS married couple. No one in the church has said children are required here on earth to have an eternal family, and the eternal increase idea is so vague (on how that happens) that it really isn’t a selling point. It’s been eons since I’ve heard that only Mormons get to have sex in heaven.Lemarque wrote: ↑March 28th, 2023, 2:49 pmThe way my friend explained it is that essentially the only thing that the church exclusively offers is a promise of eternal families, and the sealing ordinance to enforce it. Plenty of other churches teach of Christ, but the eternal family has been the core 'plain and precious' truth that no one else offers an ordinance for.Dusty Wanderer wrote: ↑March 2nd, 2023, 9:49 am "...would be the only thing that would get him to not have a testimony anymore"
I've heard these kind of statements, too. For many members a "testimony" is nothing more than agreement or "alignment" with the Church. Disaffection results in the abandonment of everything perceived as being associated with the Church.
The question I have with the OP's situation in the Church is how much is complicity vs attempted mitigation. Would it be growing within the Church if they had held a firmer position on it? ("If the Church is fine with it, then it must be okay.")
Or would there just be more people leaving as parent(s) encourage their children to fall into the jaws of Baal? (If this, I can see why the Church is taking some of its positions on the issue; though, I whole-heartedly disagree and think there may be more self-preservation and some vanity in it, rather than any hope that accommodation/acceptance will result in reversal/abolishment.)
If the church allows gay marriage, then the only legitimate offering the church isn't there anymore. A family is a man and a woman with potential for eternal increase. If you change that, for him at least, the church is saying the family isn't really anything concrete. Which removes the core of church doctrine.
I don’t agree with the pro-LGBTQ members, but they seem to be 100% convinced that a gay marriage can be as righteous, sacred, holy, and can endure into the eternities, equal in every way to traditional marriage.