Gays on the fringe

I expect this weekend to be an issue free zone for general conference -- if there is such a thing. I do not think that hot topic political issues will be brought up. Nor do I think that they should. I think that this conference will be about family's (natural and created), and the Savior.

It has been a political six months since the last conference. Church leaders said in a recent press conference that they would not -- and could not -- alter opposition to gay marriage. They called such unions, "contrary to the laws of God."

Sister Neill Marriott, a leader in the church's women's organization said that the commandments and doctrines come from sacred scripture and "we are not at liberty to change it".

I understand this view. If, as we claim, we belong to The Church of Jesus Christ, then He is the one who would give instruction to change or adjust. That she states that He would need to make the change is right.

I wondered at the statement that "it is written in scripture".  That as the sole reason for the status-quo would seem to exclude revelation -- on which the LDS church is based. Some of LDS doctrines do not come from scripture but by revelation from the Lord to the prophet.

But that wasn't the important part as far as I am concerned.

"But, God is loving and merciful," Marriott continued. "Jesus ministered to marginalized outcasts, she said by way of example, while also obeying religious commandments." Read - He hung out with those who needed him, and those weren't the upper class, best dressed, magnificently smelling bunch.

Jesus ministered to the people on the margins, on the fringe, on the verge. To the insignificant and the peripheral. He served those who were relegated to being unimportant or powerless in the society.

I am one of these, by the way. I don't have any social status. My bank account is laughable. I am in political no-mans land by being a gay married Mormon with a temple recommend.  I think I am a little fringe-ie.

Sometimes I sit in the temple wearing the same thing as everyone else and I feel camouflaged for a brief moment. All my issues are made the same - at least on the outside. I could be anyone of the tall, graying dudes there. The only real differences are the ones that the Lord knows about, and He alone is the judge. 

Oh, that we had more of that in the world - a better way to look at ourselves and others.  A safe place to raise our friends and hang out with our families - as is the case in my little circle.

That's a new goal of mine: to make the decisions that count for me, and to be supportive of others when they do the same. regardless of how fringe-ie.