Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Imagine a World

Imagine a world where the Puritan version of chastity won out, and people taught and believed that all sexual thoughts were evil (it was the original sin, after all, according to traditional Christianity).  Teenagers, with their raging hormones, were not to be told anything about dealing with their feelings other than they needed more penitence if they kept thinking about romantic relationships.
Boys were never to touch girls (except, perhaps, in a proper family setting).  Anyone who spoke about these kinds of feelings would likely be ostracized from their community.  I imagine that in such a world, an over-sexualized counter-culture would arise.  The established community would detest it for all the wrong reasons and fight against it, yet that counter-culture wouldn't really be a healthy culture, either.

Of course, the Puritan movement didn't win out.  My religion, Mormonism, does not accept the traditional doctrine of original sin.  For as long as I can remember growing up in the church, there have been attempts to communicate with adolescents about their sexual development and encourage a healthy maturation process.  Positive social interactions, dances and group dates, are organized and strongly supported.  But if your orientation happened to be gay, it could feel more like the first situation.  Granted, I had a largely happy childhood and adolescence.  But there was a big taboo against talking about that certain aspect of my life.  There was no direction provided for me like there was for straight oriented boys.  The church didn't officially say much at all, so most people went with whatever seemed right, extrapolations of miscellaneous general authority quotes, and popular opinion which was decidedly Puritan in feel.

I don't find it surprising that some of us, sometimes even after being married and having children, reject the organization, or at least their perception of it, and leave the church.  I have always wondered when the church would finally start to try to deal with this particular issue in an official manner.  I'm so glad it has begun.  The website mormonsandgays.org is a great way to start.  But so much more needs to happen.  People's attitudes need to change.  I've seen that some stake leaders in various places around the church have started to address these issues with Bishops and even in the adult sessions of stake conferences.  This is wonderful progress.  But it really needs to get down to the youth.

There needs to be some kind of good direction given to the youth of the church.  We need a channel of communication so that the youth who have gay orientations do not feel left on their own.  Their needs and development need to be addressed better in official church publications.

Look, we aren't all that different.  We have the same chemical hormones in our bodies as everybody else.  We have the same kind of temptations.  They just pull us in a different direction.  It doesn't have to be all that big of a deal.  We just need to be acknowledged.  It needs to be safe for us to talk, to turn to leaders when we have needs, to discuss issues and work them out.  And it's time to get going on it.

1 comment: