Communication, gentlemen!

With kid drama, parent drama, ward and neighbor drama beating us over the head, sometimes being able to voice a concern is crucial. Communication is key. 

And not sinking.  Not sinking is good as well.

Thanksgiving Gratatude

This is a short note in blog land. First, I wanted to create a place where we could all vent without repercussions later on in church.  So here is mine. Today I heard a  talk made by a predominant woman in the church saying she is heart sick for children being raised by homosexuals.  She showed us pictures...  This was my first "have to scream" moment of the holidays.  I wanted to show her a photo taken yesterday of my own daughter raising her child in a drug house near Palisades drive in Orem with eight guys, several mothers thirteen children and a whole lot of dope going around.

Anyone else have a rant to get off your chest? Here is a place you can vent if things arn't going so well with family and friends, or if you just need to blow up at someone.  Say it here.  This blog spot used to be used by many place ,but not as much anymore, so say what you have to say under anonymous nook and use a Book of Mormon Name to stay anonymous and we'll understand.

How can we , as a people get so judgmental during the holidays? Isn't it time to make amends if only for a few days in the name of family past or present - maybe even future.

Prophets quoted "disgusting sin we can't accept"

The Daily Universe, the offical daily publication of the Brigham Young University campus, published onto its website a letter entitled “Crimes against Nature,” in which a BYU student compared gay parenting to prostituting or serial killing.

“Just as if we wouldn’t want a child to grow up with a prostitute for a mother or a serial killer for a father, we shouldn’t accept a lesbian, gay or transgender parental model for young people,” stated Taylor Petty, from Raleigh, N.C., in the November 17 issue. “As prophets have said for four thousand years, sodomy is a disgusting sin we can’t accept.”

Petty’s letter caused an uproar among BYU lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students and their supporters.  In the wake of critical response to the letter, flyer's were placed  inside copies of the Nov. 18 issue of the Daily Universe. Criticism of Petty’s letter appear in the Student Review, an  established off campus paper, and later in the Daily Universe.

From the flyer: “Gay students are in every classroom, every ward and every apartment complex at BYU and we want to reach out in love to help you better understand. The attitude represented by these articles reopens wounds that Christ died to heal. …The task of any religion is not to teach us who we are entitled to hate, but who we are required to love.”

“Regardless of your opinions on gay adoption and parenting, words like [Pattti’s] are unproductive, offending those that disagree and failing to bring legitimacy to your argument,” wrote Hunter Schwartz in the Student Review.

“The Family: A Proclamation to the World also states parents should rear their children in love and righteousness, provide for their physical and spiritual needs and teach them to love and serve one another, to name a few,” wrote Jordan Meservy in the Daily Universe.

Late Friday, November 18, Daily Universe managing editor Joel Campbell ordered the letter to be removed from the Daily Universe website.

“The Daily Universe has removed the letter originally published here after several readers complained about its tone and approach to homosexuality,” Campbell wrote on the new webpage in place of the letter. “We agree that the letter did not represent the standards of our sponsoring institution or our university community including the recent statement in the LDS Church Handbook of Instruction: ‘While opposing homosexual behavior, the Church reaches out with understanding and respect to individuals who are attracted to those of the same gender.’ The letter published in the Daily Universe did not represent the kind of understanding and respect that should accompany dialog on this issue. We regret that the letter was ever published.”

Thanksgiving Food For Thought - Republished

istockphoto)

Rugby jock says stroke turned him gay

By Ryan Jaslow

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(CBS) Strokes can have strange consequences. Some stroke victims wind up with different accents, others with different personalities. Chris Birch said he discovered he was gay when he woke up after             a stroke.

The 26-year-old Welshman suffered a stroke after breaking his neck while attempting a back flip at a gym, The Daily Mail reported. His then-fiancée and family stayed by his side, but when he woke, something had changed.

"It sounds strange, but when I came round I immediately felt different," Birch told the paper. "I wasn't interested in women any more. I was definitely gay. I had never been attracted to a man before - I'd never even had any gay friends."

Before the stroke, Birch was a banker who loved playing rugby, watching sports, and drinking beer with his buds. After the stroke, he found he had little in common with his blokes, quit his job to train as a hairdresser, and started dating a man.

"I went back to my job in the bank and tried hard to fit back into things but it didn't seem right anymore," Birch told The Mirror last month. "Suddenly, I hated everything about my old life. I didn't get on with my friends, hated sport, and found my job boring."

He also focused more on his appearance, lost a lot of weight - and became more confident.

Birch's neurologist told him the changes in his personality could be from the stroke "opening up" a different part of his brain, according to the Daily Mail.

What do experts have to say - can a stroke really turn you gay?

Dr. Ira G. Rashbaum, professor of rehabilitation medicine and chief of stroke rehab at NYU Langone Medical Center, wouldn't speculate on this specific case since he wasn't involved in Birch's care, but he told CBS News that it's quite common to see personality changes in patients following a stroke.

Rashbaum said some recovering stroke patients might experience anxiety, depression, or difficulties paying attention. In some cases if a stroke affects the brain's frontal lobe - which controls inhibition - a previously quiet person might become angrier, suddenly telling others off.

But a full-blown personality change?

"This is a more rare circumstance, certainly not a common thing" he told CBS News. He added that profound personality changes usually aren't permanent following rehabilitation with a team that might include psychologists and social workers.

Joe Korner, director of communications for The Stroke Association in the U.K., told CBS News in an email that he's never personally heard of a stroke changing someone's sexuality, but he doesn't doubt the stroke had some impact on Birch's life.

"Strokes are traumatic, life-changing experiences, which can make you reassess life and your feelings so perhaps that's the reason behind it," Korner said. "Whether or not the stroke turned Chris gay, or whether he was gay anyway but unaware of it, his experience seems to be a positive one, which is great."

US passes law allowing SGA couples to marry - PART TWO

Continued from last blog, US passes law allowing SGA couples to marry

Who is it we are talking about when we speak of those who oppose human rights for all? Why does the LDS church pop up in these discussions?

Recently I finished the novel, The Help, which I followed up with Crazy in Alabama and now I am re-reading To Kill a Mockingbird. In these books that focus on  civil rights, sometimes there are clear lines drawn and one grouping of people is placed on one side and another is placed on side two. Good here, bad there.  Also contained are written characters who are conflicted, or don’t know what to think. They open their doors to all in an emergency, but would rather keep the status quo if given their druthers (love that word.)

To lump Latter-day Saints together in any of these characterizations is misguided and inaccurate.   

Sometimes what is not said in a church meeting is said over the back fence, or on an anonymous note in a blog.  Some are closet liberals and others are more conservative than they want you to know.  Others say, lets talk turkey.  What is the truth here?, and I mean, everybody’s truth.  I would like to take some time to hear it all and allow readers the same opportunity.

Based on doctrine, and based on fruits – or results (better said for this blog) - the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been moderate on the subject of equal rights – all things included: slower than the norm with blacks and the priesthood and “not currently” on the women and the priesthood, but fast in every other way.

The LDS church has a policy of not differentiating between OSA and SSA  - has even published its say. Culturally, status, class, background, education,etc. It is commonly believed the church actually seeks out poorer, and the ethnically diverse. 

Yet, the LDS church has come out against Gay marriage by its declaration of marriage being between a man and a woman.

But look at these several statements. There is no question about sexual preference in the temple recommend questions.

The LDS church believes in being morally clean,.  Yet there is a strong support group established – and on the Church payroll – for pregnant mothers and their partners, with choices not as conservative as many think.

Latter-day Saints believe in the word of wisdom, and yet, once again, there are well established programs for alcoholics or those who drink, smokers, drug addict and casual users.  At every turn there is a way in the LDS church to deal with problems that have arisen for a magnitude of reasons.

It believes in being honest in every interaction, yet church meetings are held in jails and prisons in areas of substantial LDS population.

It asks the members to have temple recommends, and has classes and assistance to get members from A to B.

Does anyone who has had interaction with the Church believe that Homosexuals would be left high and dry – without assistance or support simply because of the belief that marriage is between a man and a woman?  Does the LDS church currently support/assist families of every makeup and means?  The answer is yes.

The question then, understanding church policy and procedure, is not necessarily one of why the church gays can't marry in the LDS church, but why, when push came to shove, the LDS church during a state election came out in support of man/women marriage only - essentially casting a "no" vote for gay marriage. 

And, is the assumption that the LDS church was speaking politically for its members individually or collectively, or both?

Or is there a greater question? What say you, reader?

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