Mormon Church: Sexuality Is Not A Choice

[DonViejo]

With a new website reaching out to gays, the church makes its most definitive statement yet that people don't choose to be gay. Gay “lifestyle,” it says, is still a sin, though.

Posted Dec 6, 2012 12:33pm EST

In an evolution from its past teachings, the Mormon Church launched a new website Thursday asserting that sexuality is not a personal choice.

An official statement at the top of the site reads:

The experience of same-sex attraction is a complex reality for many people. The attraction itself is not a sin, but acting on it is. Even though individuals do not choose to have such attractions, they do choose how to respond to them. With love and understanding, the Church reaches out to all God’s children, including our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters.

The church maintains its longheld position that it is sinful to "act on" homosexuality, a range of actions that runs from romantic hand-holding to gay sex. But the church's unqualified statement that "individuals do not choose to have such attractions" represents a departure from past remarks by church officials.

As recently as 2008, Mormon apostle Elder Dallin H. Oaks said the church had no position on the "nature or nurture" debate and emphasized that "susceptibility or inclination to one behavior or another" could be resisted by faithful individuals.

More:
http://www.buzzfeed.com/mckaycoppins/mormon-church-sexuality-is-not-a-choice

[maximillian1974]

1. hmmmmm

So they are reach out to gays by telling them anything gay they do is a sin. Good try, but I don't celibacy (to the point of not holding hands!?!) Is a great selling point.

[lalalu]

2. In other words they still don't support the freedom of choice in

expressing sexuality. Screw them.

[rocktivity]

3. So they've decided that being born gay is okay

but living gay isn't...THAT'S "definitive outreach?"


rocktivity

[dbackjon]

4. First step towards a "revelation"

Like on polygamy, etc.


Mormons are smart, politically.

They can see that anti-gay stance will hurt them in long run.

May not be for decades, but eventually they will have a "revelation from God"

[joeybee12]

8. And in 1978 God changed his mind about black people!

A line from The Book of Mormon.

[Kurovski]

5. For teens trapped in areas where they dominate...they are responsible for many a suicide...

now and in the past. And yes, for the future.

When will religion actively divest itself of its insistant ugliness, which flies in the face of the body of Christ's teachings?

[closeupready]

6. That's false revelation. God isn't cruel, and didn't create me gay

to watch me suffer through a lonely lifetime. Have ZERO use for that nonsense.

[pinto]

7. What a transparent waffle...

[FreeState]

9. That is not a new stand at all

thats what they have said for close to 20 years.

[mitchtv]

10. Thanks for nothing

still looking for tithes

[Zorra]

11. Well, no sane person would ever accuse the Mormon Church of being logical, reasonable, or rational.

I personally don't put much credence in what RW conservatives who are clearly out of touch with reality believe about us. I just wish they would stop persecuting us by voting en masse against us gaining our equal rights.

[Iggo]

12. Prop H8, motherfuckers!

:middlefinger:

[Fearless]

13. The further we push toward equality the more people

Will come with us, kicking and screaming, dragging their feet, yes, but still progressing in a forward direction. In the case of the Mormon Church... money (and members) talk.

[Initech]

14. Time to tax the fuck out of this political org... er, "church".

[FreeState]

15. Wonder how actual former Mormons think of this site?

Meaning the site referenced in the OP(http://www.mormonsandgays.org).

Here is a response: http://www.mormonsandnegroes.org