The Mormons just can’t seem to get it right when it comes to the gay community.
A recent online survey distributed among Brigham Young University students inadvertently suggests gay people don’t exist.
“The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is conducting a focus group to better understand your views on marriage and same-sex attraction,” the survey, which was obtained by The New Civil Rights Movement, reads. It then asks a series of questions about respondents’ thoughts on social and moral issues, how comfortable they are expressing their opinions to others, and more.
The questions are pretty simple and straight-forward, until it comes to the topic of sexual orientation.
How about we take this to the next level?
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Originally, the survey asked the following question:
What is your sexual orientation?
• I am heterosexual, but I struggle with same-sex attraction.
• I am heterosexual and do not struggle with same-sex attraction.
• Other, please specify:
No option for gay, lesbian, or bisexual people was given.
So either the church would like to deny the existence of homosexuals, or they’ve relegated them to the category of “others.” Or maybe it was just an honest mistake? Who knows?
Shortly after The New Civil Rights Movement broke the story, the survey was updated to include a third option:
What is your sexual orientation?
• I consider myself heterosexual and I struggle with same-sex attraction.
• I consider myself heterosexual and I do not struggle with same-sex attraction.
• I consider myself homosexual, bisexual, or transgendered.
• Other, please specify:
(For the record: It’s transgender, not “transgendered.” Furthermore, transgender is a gender identity, not a sexual orientation.)
That question was quickly scrubbed away and replaced with a more general but no less offensive one:
Do you experience same-sex attraction?
• Yes
• No
• Other, please specify:
Now we’ve reverted back to the original problem: Suggesting that gay people, in the minds of the Church leaders, don’t exist. They are merely straight people who “experience” gay feelings.
A Church spokesperson for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints sent an e-mail to The New Civil Rights Movement explaining the kerfuffle, saying that the “original wording of the question in the survey was unclear, so the question has been reworded to better convey the intent of the question.”
He added: “[It’s] important to us that people understand that the doctrine of the Church has not changed and is not changing … and all members are taught and encouraged to live according to God’s laws of moral conduct.”
Which begs the question: If the Church has no plans on changing its views on gay people, why conduct the survey in the first place?
The New Civil Rights Movement reports that there are 34,000 students at Brigham Young University, and estimates that approximately 700 of those students are gay, lesbian, or bisexual… Maybe… If they exist… It’s still unclear.
Ogre Magi
Mormon,Catholic,Protestant….No matter what group they are Christians are turds
Cam
Of course the Mormon church doctrine is that gays don’t exist. They are still pushing the idiotic notion that
“Same sex attraction is something people struggle with becuase of immoral activities such as porn drinking etc… and that the church and prayer can correct it.”
They are a dangerous organization. Remember, they would not allow blacks full membership until after it became a massive scandal around 1980 with schools threatening to boycott playing against BYU over it. Suddenly there was a “revelation” and their doctrine changed “Officially”.
They still hate blacks, they will eventually change their doctrine on gays, but only after they have been further damaged by their bigotry, and then they will continue to quietly torment gays within their church.
Dakotahgeo
I would be very comfortable if the entire CJC-LDS would hold a “Jonestown” Event! ASAP!
toberlin
Organised Crime should be illegal…
Mezaien
@Dakotahgeo: Hahahahaha man you are, so funny. Organize Church is just like organize crime. And yes for the last time: Christianity is a mental illness.
Dakotahgeo
@Mezaien: It’s so nice of the Staff to let you out of your padded cell for a few minutes every day. Now take your meds, and bwankie, and take your nap like a good little patient!
DickieJohnson
@Mezaien: “For the last time”??? REALLY & TRULY? Christ, I certainly hope so!!! Did you say your degree was in Behavioral “PSYCHO”? Why did they let you out, or did you escape?
Dakotahgeo
@DickieJohnson: The asylum more than likely kicked him out… they couldn’t even stand the rat terrier in an enclosed facility! Now THAT’S BAD!
denvermtnbiker
Don’t underestimate the capacity of the Mormon church leadership to change. Their “revelation” in 1978 about God deciding to accept blacks into full membership was driven by feedback from Mormons who could no longer stomach the policy. This focus-grouping of the brightest of the Mormon church’s millennials is a clear indicator that the leadership is worried about losing that generation of tithe-paying members. And the only thing the Mormon church hates more than changing it’s tune is the prospect of losing tithe-paying members. And yes, I know that makes it essentially a greedy corporation without a social conscience, but it’s important to remember that there is some thinking and strategizing about the issue going on at the highest levels, even though the wouldn’t admit that forthrightly to the base membership.
AxelDC
Anyone who is attracted to their same sex is not straight. They are either gay or bi, whether they accept it or not. Heterosexuals don’t struggle with their sexuality because society pushes us in that direction. If it comes naturally to you, it’s no struggle.
I don’t “experience same-sex attraction”; I’m gay.
toberlin
AxelDC:
You said it!
NateOcean
Very poorly constructed survey. Should have at least contained symmetric questions such as:
“I consider myself homosexual and I struggle with opposite-sex attraction.”
etc, etc.
EGO
@denvermtnbiker: Right on! I am a gay man, married to my partner and I was once a Mormon when I was raised in Idaho. I was excommunicated in 1975 because I never paid tithing, although I had not attended church since 1958. The Mormons have a lot more homosexuals than they care to admit, just check the history of “The Fall of ’55” in Boise, Idaho when a witch hunt against the gays occurred and nine out of ten gays caught were Mormons.