Recently, I was asked to give a lesson from a Conference address in October by the new apostle Elder Renlund. The last few lessons I have taught have been a significant struggle for me to teach. My heart was devastated…
Emotional Distance
Tag: a gay Mormon reads the scriptures
Gospel Doctrine Lesson 10: Birthright Blessings; Marriage in the Covenant
This lesson has a worthy purpose: encouraging individuals to live “worthy of their birthright blessings and of eternal marriage.” I understand all efforts to be worthy as fundamentally an expression of gratitude. We desire to live in a certain way,…
Seeking God With All My Heart and Soul
In recent months, my daily personal scripture study has been from the Old Testament, specifically the Pentateuch. It’s a challenging read, if only because so much of it is a chronicle of God engaging in or commanding his followers to…
Would that All the Lord’s People Were Prophets
Recently, I went to the temple with a friend. Since I am excommunicated, I obviously can’t enter the temple proper. But I love the feeling I get when I am close to the temple. In the St. Paul Temple, there’s…
The Gay Mormon Ten Commandments
This post originated in an on-line conversation I had with a friend about LGBT community ethics in relation to coming out. There’s still tension within the LGBT Mormon community over the question of how “out” to be in the Church.…
It Was Not You that Sent Me Hither, But God
Since I was a kid, the story of Joseph in Egypt has always been one of my favorite in all of scripture. Even now as an adult, I find it intriguing, powerful and multi-layered. One layer that I became aware…
A Gay Mormon Reads the Scriptures: The Book of Mormon
I first came to the Book of Mormon with the uncritical eyes and mind of a child. Some of my earliest encounters with the Book of Mormon include my dad reading me bedtime stories from Emma Marr Petersen’s Book of…
A Gay Mormon Reads the Scriptures
One of the most profound spiritual experiences I have ever had took place in January 2006, when I felt a particularly strong prompting from the Holy Spirit to pick up a tattered old copy of the Book of Mormon and…