hwilson1119

To me it's not such a controversial issue. To an investigator coming to sacrament meeting with us for the first time, it might be. We are supposed to give milk before meat, but explaining this tenet of the Gospel is difficult to do without giving some meat first. It is a confusing issue for someone who has never heard more than a single missionary discussion (sometimes not even that!) to take in- that's why I'm looking for appropriate ways to explain it to any friends my husband and I invite to church with us.

I have prayed to know if the prophet is acting under the will of God, and I feel that he is. For that reason, I don't believe this is crossing the line. I can't make anyone else believe that without having received the same witness, however, so I can't really debate this with you. I wish I knew what better to say, but as you can see from the original post, I'm still fairly confuzzled about it all.

My husband and I live in California. He was called last Sunday to be a ward missionary, a calling about which he is scared to death. He was just baptized last October, and was unable (due to the military) to attend church regularly until January. He wants to do his best at this calling, so he often turns to me for help on doctrinal issues and how to approach them with investigators. So here's the biggest issue at the moment. Here in California, due to the Supreme Court ruling legalizing same-sex marriage, the Church has joined a coalition of churches and other groups supporting Proposition 8- a ballot measure that would define marriage as a union of one man and one woman only in the State Constitution. President Monson has asked that we give of our time and money, if possible, to support this cause. A letter from him to the members of the Church in California has been read in sacrament meeting and auxiliary meetings regularly for the last couple of months. So, to my question: How do you lovingly explain to someone visiting our meetings (member or non-member alike) the Church taking a stance on this legal issue? The questions we most often encounter are "Why don't homosexuals deserve to be happy? Why don't homosexuals deserve the same rights as heterosexuals? How does it affect you if they get married? If God made them that way, why would He want them to be punished for the way they are?" I can think of many answers for these questions, but I am struggling with coming up with answers that don't make me sound judgemental and bigoted. The best I can suggest to my husband at this time is to bear testimony of the prophet and divine revelation, and allow the Spirit to do the work. Any other advice that might help us in this situation would be greatly appreciated.

Ok, I'm not in the military, but my husband is. I'm incredibly shy, so the moving around makes it hard to make friends in any new area- thus I turn to message boards for comfort and good society! I am a (fairly) newly reactivated member of the LDS church, and my husband was baptized last October. We have a 9-month-old son, and would love to have another baby ASAP! I hope to get to know people here and engage in good discussions in allll my spare time as a SAHM. :)