Timewaster's Guide Archive

And you've actually touched on one of the main things that perplexes me about this whole issue. Homosexual urges are there for a reason - yes, it's true that we can opt to act on them or opt not to, but they are present either way. If you believe homosexuality is not a choice, then I can't quite make sense of this - the God you've placed such faith in sees fit to instill homosexual urges in somebody, but these urges are less fit to act upon the heterosexual urges. Would anybody care to explain?

I'll give it a shot.

Point one, the LDS church cannot be categorized as believing that "homosexuality is not a choice." Whether it's one way or the other is not a matter of doctrine.  In the end, I don't think it matters.

So, the root question you seem to be asking is really, Why would God give us urges that are not fit to act on?  The answer is, very simply, so we can learn to control them.  The question applies to all urges, whether they be physical, mental, or spiritual.  We must learn to control our responses to these urges so that we can truly have the power of choice over them. 

An ideal example of this is smoking.  Smoking is addictive.  If you never give in to peer pressure, or whatever is urging you to smoke, your choices remain open.  You have no trouble not smoking but you could also start tomorrow if you wanted.  If you do get addicted, your choices become more difficult.  You can easily choose to smoke, but not smoking isn't easy anymore.

Our lives are not so ideal, obviously. One chooses to smoke in the first place but nobody chooses to want to steal.  We're all, probably, born with urges to act in ways that God has forbidden.  These could be anything from the urge to punch rude people in the nose to feelings of sexual love for members of the same sex.  We don't all have the same urges.  In mormonism we believe that God has given each of us challenges in this life that are precisely designed to teach us what we need to know before moving on to the next. 

I myself have some trouble seeing how this plays out.  What exactly do children born into physically abusive homes have to learn from that?  I don't know. 

But, the principle is a sound one.  Our challenges teach us things as we work through them.  And I don't think that someone who acts on urges in ways that I happen to think God has forbidden is just blowing it either.  From what you've said, you've learned a lot from working with your homosexual urges and your discourse in this thread shows that you are, at the least, far more mature than most of the 16 year olds I have known.  Which brings us back to the concept that Brandon introduced.  That each of us will be judged according to our understanding of the truth.   

Far be it from me to decide what another person is supposed to learn from their life.  I have enough trouble with my own.

Good luck Jeffe!

Seems to me that one's sexuality is entirely a matter of perception.  As discussed earlier, the defining characteristic seems to be: Who do you fall in love with?  Who do you lust after?  If these things change, one's sexuality has changed.  Thus if someone thinks it worked, it worked.  Calling them delusional is exactly as rational as calling me delusional for thinking that I'm hetero or calling Armadius delusional for thinking that he's gay.

Just a thought.

Actually EUOL is not "Mormon".  That was a mistype.  He actually follows the precepts of "Moron."

As such he looks for every opportunity to heap abuse on those he considers less intellectually astute than he is.  He's a lot like Terry Goodkind in this respect.

Beware, be very very ware.

But bravo for doing something.  Being willing to act in such situations is getting rarer and rarer in our society.  Perhaps it will add to her feeling that other people think her BF is a jerk and someday enough such things will add up to an impulse to do something about her situation.

Well done.

Yeah, I've read a book where the magic was ruled/activated/governed by emotion.  It was really good and I seem to remember it being a big name and well marketed.  I'm embarrassed now that I can't remember the title or author.

(gonna have to look into that...)

Dude.  That rocked.  I...might...buy...an album of theirs.