Mike Griffith wrote: ↑February 23rd, 2020, 2:15 pm
This is not apostasy. I think this falls under the Lord's counsel to be wise as serpents and innocent as lambs. This is a very wise, tactical move.
I think we need to keep in mind that gays constitute a very small minority in the U.S. as a whole, and an even smaller minority in the Church.
Gay students will still be subject to every rule that normal students are required to follow, and if they break those rules, they can be suspended or expelled.
I believe that the fear that this will lead to same-sex temple weddings is unfounded. There is no slippery slope here. The Church has been emphatic and clear that genuine temple marriage can only be between a man and a woman, and they are never going to abandon that truth.
Now, I could actually see a scenario, an unlikely but possible scenario, where 10 years from now the government would threaten the Church with prosecution if it did not allow same-sex temple weddings. And I would not be shocked if the Church, in order to survive, bent to that threat and allowed such sealings. But they would not be valid sealings. They would have no force in the next life. They would be repudiated by the Lord as false ceremonies that were done under coercion and threat of destruction. But allowing them would allow the Church to continue to function openly and allow temples to continue to operate. The number of gay temple weddings would most likely amount to a small fraction of temple weddings. Most temple patrons probably would never see a gay couple in the temple. Again, I think this scenario is unlikely, but possible.
“Lovest Thou me more than these?” asked the Lord to Peter.
Truth inspired from heaven has away of steeling our convictions vs crumbling / compromising. I see the church compromising because there is a form of godliness but the power / truth that sustained Peter and the like ”Light and truth”(the actual reception / gift of the Holy Ghost) is missing. The Lord promised us and warned us In D&C 93:
1 Verily, thus saith the Lord: It shall come to pass that every soul who forsaketh his sins and cometh unto me, and calleth on my name, and obeyeth my voice, and keepeth my commandments, shall see my face and know that I am...
...19 I give unto you these sayings that you may understand and know how to worship, and know what you worship, that you may come unto the Father in my name, and in due time receive of his fulness.
20 For if you keep my commandments you shall receive of his fulness, and be glorified in me as I am in the Father; therefore, I say unto you, you shall receive grace for grace.
21 And now, verily I say unto you, I was in the beginning with the Father, and am the Firstborn;
22 And all those who are begotten through me are partakers of the glory of the same, and are the church of the Firstborn.
23 Ye were also in the beginning with the Father; that which is Spirit, even the Spirit of truth;
24 And truth is knowledge of things as they are, and as they were, and as they are to come;
25 And whatsoever is more or less than this is the spirit of that wicked one who was a liar from the beginning.
26 The Spirit of truth is of God. I am the Spirit of truth, and John bore record of me, saying: He received a fulness of truth, yea, even of all truth;
27 And no man receiveth a fulness unless he keepeth his commandments.
28 He that keepeth his commandments receiveth truth and light, until he is glorified in truth and knoweth all things.
29 Man was also in the beginning with God. Intelligence, or the light of truth, was not created or made, neither indeed can be.
30 All truth is independent in that sphere in which God has placed it, to act for itself, as all intelligence also; otherwise there is no existence.
31 Behold, here is the agency of man, and here is the condemnation of man; because that which was from the beginning is plainly manifest unto them, and they receive not the light.
32 And every man whose spirit receiveth not the light is under condemnation.
33 For man is spirit. The elements are eternal, and spirit and element, inseparably connected, receive a fulness of joy;
34 And when separated, man cannot receive a fulness of joy.
35 The elements are the tabernacle of God; yea, man is the tabernacle of God, even temples; and whatsoever temple is defiled, God shall destroy that temple.
36 The glory of God is intelligence, or, in other words, light and truth.
37 Light and truth forsake that evil one.
38 Every spirit of man was innocent in the beginning; and God having redeemed man from the fall, men became again, in their infant state, innocent before God.
39 And that wicked one cometh and taketh away light and truth, through disobedience, from the children of men, and because of the tradition of their fathers.
40 But I have commanded you to bring up your children in light and truth.
