chris leedlelee wrote: ↑January 9th, 2020, 8:34 pm
I think that the church places so much emphasis on the sin of homosexuality for a few reasons:
1) Homosexuality is pushed so heavily in our society, with a magnitude truly unlike any sin in our modern American culture.
This, to me, is the big problem among young people today (believers and non-believers alike). Does everyone remember when the "sea change" happened, and literally overnight, the country went from a majority opposing gay marriage to a majority supporting it (and this sentiment continued steamrolling from there)? This saddened me, but it was breathtaking how fast the change was ---- like a switch being flipped. And from that point, societal pressures aggressively insisted not on tolerance and kindness, but on absolute intellectual and moral acceptance and support of homosexuality (married or not). The societal pressures are now heavily directed towards thoughtcrime enforcement ---- you have to not only treat people in a Christian manner (with dignity, kindness, and respect), but you also cannot personally believe that fornication (hetero or homo) is wrong.
I'm in my 18th year of public school teaching (currently German, but I've also taught English and science). Over the last 3-4 years, there has been a massive explosion in students who identify as gay or trans. Most of them actually aren't, they're confused kids being tossed to and fro by the societal pressure --- including the massive glorification and promotion of it in the media (music, film, news, social media platforms, etc.). Many kids end up "figuring it out" over the years, and re-orienting themselves. I've served as a Mormon bishop twice, and I once had a student who was meeting with the missionaries and preparing for baptism. She started identifying as gay, and held hands with her girlfriend in the hall. I got a phone call at a baseball game in Tucson while we were warming up (I coached at the time) from her friend in our congregation who was distraught. In her baptismal interview with the missionary, she had disclosed that she was pregnant. This delayed her baptism so that she and we could ensure that she was repenting and understood and committed to keep the commandments following baptism. This is not a one-off; it happens frequently where supposedly "gay" students then decide that they are "bi," and you find that they tend to prefer the opposite gender . . .
I read an article, and have it somewhere, discussing the extremely high rate of teenage pregnancy and heterosexual sex among gay teenage girls and boys compared to "straight" girls and boys. The rates of promiscuity of all kinds is much higher among gay teens than straight teens (anxiety, depression, and suicide, too --- and while activists insist that this is because of homophobia, this isn't my experience at all. Society is very accepting and supportive of them. I think homosexuality correlates strongly with mental illness struggles, and there is inherent guilt that impacts all areas of life).
I firmly believe that most homosexuality among young people is because many of them are lost souls seeking acceptance, and mirroring the currents and trends pushed in society. I don't think many are actually gay to start with, but "wagon ruts" can be worn into the road through persistent sin, and it can definitely be ingrained. There are also some people who seem to have the proclivity from an early age, too, but I find that the vast majority have experienced abuse, pornography, drugs, etc. or are mimicking social trends.
We once had a youth fireside in our congregation with an "ask anything" Q&A. There were several non-Mormon friends present, and one of them asked why Mormons hate gay people. I asked everyone who had a gay friend or family member to raise their hands, and almost all hands went up. I told them to look around, and that was the answer to the question "**Do** Mormons hate gay people." What the question was really asking was "Why do Mormons teach that homosexuality is a sin, and why do they teach that all unrepented sin will bring unhappiness now and in the hereafter." That was the real question, and it's important that Christians of all kinds make it clear that we don't "hate" sinners, and that teaching the truth does not equal "hate." The best missionary tool all of us have is our own example and interactions, within our own spheres of influence.
To get back to your point that I quoted, yes, the gay agenda (not just gay marriage, but the "de-criminalization" of homosexuality --- and all forms of sexual sin, frankly, within the church) has a big pull among people, and is a challenge within our churches. That's why believers must continue and not shirk their duty to teach the truth.