I've always appreciated the comments steve2 shares in this forum, and this one is among his best. I have also said that LGBT people should get out of the WTS organization because there is no place for them. They are regarded at best as second-class Christians whose rights must and should be abridged. That will never change because they are involved with a fundamentalist sect, and such groups by their very nature are rigid and uncompromising. It is not only LGBT people who are marginalized; women, youth and the elderly also have clearly assigned roles from which no deviance is allowed.
Because the WTS requires LGBT people to deny their true nature and so lose any self-respect they have a right to possess, they should leave and not cast a backward glance. It can be just as difficult for them to do this as for anyone else leaving this religion for other reasons. It was very hard for me, as I left behind more than a few people who genuinely loved me and whom I will likely never see or speak to again. But the price for remaining was simply too high. It would have cost me my soul and as Christ said so pointedly, gaining the whole world is not worth the loss of one's soul.
I was glad to read yada yada 2's hate-filled harangue because it only confirmed that my decision to leave the WTS was the right one. His position--held by many others in the organization--perfectly reflected what steve2 talked about above: a complete lack of empathy for and understanding of others as well as an abhorrent lack of love for those who are decidedly "different". Very well. It may be easier for him to feed hungry children than to extend humanity to another person whose desire for love and acceptance is much more challenging to fulfill. That is his choice, and also his loss for it is possible to do both.
As for the WTS, it has walked down the same ruinous path that other persecuted fundamentalists have tread. The Puritans, also known as the Pilgrims, fled England to found a "New Jerusalem" in America. After surviving the rigors of a New England winter, they went from being pious, God-fearing settlers to hate-filled, intolerant persecutors of others. The colonies of Connecticut and Rhode Island were founded by those who had had enough of Puritan tyranny and broke away to enjoy a freer society.
It was likewise with the Latter Day Saints, the Mormons, who, driven out of New York state and then Illinois, settled in the empty lands around the Great Salt Lake to build their own theocracy. They too faced a test from natural forces that threatened to destroy them, but having survived that turned from being humble colonists to vicious oppressors of any and all who did not practice their religion. We now see the WTS repeating this sad history within the bounds of its so-called "spiritual paradise", the only difference being the WTS does not have the power to inflict corporal and capitol punishment on those it considers deviant.
I am a firm believer that eventually "as ye sow, so shall ye reap". The Puritans eventually were driven from power and the religious order they sought to impose on others was secularized, much to their dismay. The Mormons have been corralled in the American West and though their power is still strong in states like Idaho, Nevada and Utah, they are outside the mainstream of Amerian life, Mitt Romney's candidacy for the American presidency notwithstanding. And the Salt Lake City gay pride march demonstrates that people are chafing under Mormonism and are mounting grass roots challenges to it even in the heart of its realm. I strongly believe the WTS will suffer a similar fall from grace. It has sown the wind of intolerance and will eventually reap the whirlwind of rejection and irrelevancy. I only hope that I am around to see it, and that I can then extend the hand of love and friendship to those survivors who will be in great need of it.
Quendi
P.S.
Sorry about the length of this post, but this is a subject I have strong feelings about.
Q
