Phineas

I recognize that both the Old and New Testaments refer to homosexual behavior as a sin.  I recognize that Christ defined marriage as a union between male and female.  I understand the principles taught in the Proclamation on the Family.  
However, I have a ton of sympathy for gay and lesbian individuals.  I want them to be happy and not kill themselves.  I also hate seeing the church be demonized.  So I got some conflicting feelings on the matter.  It’s why a brought up the topic.  It’s a difficult one.
I had a striking insight reading the Book of Mormon a while back.  In Mormon 6 it talks about the final days of the Nephites and all the horrible things that were going on.  At the very end of the chapter in verse 22,  Mormon says something that really hit me.  I was expecting him to condemn everyone to Hell but instead he says, 
“...and the Father, yea, the Eternal Father of heaven, knoweth your state
and he doeth with you according to his justice and mercy.”
He leaves judgement to God who is both just and merciful.  So that’s the approach I try to take.

No I do not.  Because people have the right to choose how they want to live.  The Church isn’t stopping them from doing what they want to do and loving who they want to love.  However, there are these things called commandments church members are expected to follow.  
I like to donate blood and celebrate birthdays.  I would have to give up those things if I wanted to be a JW.  But that doesn’t make them hateful towards me.
There are many gay members of the church who choose to remain faithful to the commandments.  That’s great for them.  There are gay people that choose differently.  I respect them too.
That’s my approach.

LGBT is easier to write and say.  Just like the terms LDS and Mormon😔

Yes. Very much so. To get a sense for how bad the harm has been not only to homosexuals but to others in society, see my articles on Spike in Social Ills,  Destructive Compassion,  Degraded Traditional Marriage,  Marriage in Crises,  and especially Hurting the Children. Granted, these articles were written in the context of the Same Sex "Marriage" debate, but they also relate to harm stemming from the movement as a whole.
Thanks, -Wade Englund-

I thought to respond to your post - hope you do not mind.  Jesus said that as a man thinks in their heart (meaning their core self) so are they.  I believe it to be a sin to even think of oneself as gay.  It is part of what I believe to be a learned mistake (see my above post) that requires repentance and a change of heart (at the very core) in order to stand forgiven and pure before G-d.
I was not introduced to what it meant for someone to be gay until I was in the army.  Because I was small (5'8" and 115 lbs) I looked 13; I discovered that I was a sexual target.  I quickly came to believe gays to be sexual predators and that violence was absolutely necessary to protect myself from their advances.  I have since learned that there is a vast spectrum of individuals that think of themselves in gay terms.  I have learned that someone can or will repent and change their core self into a Saint of G-d - but they cannot do it on their own (no one can change their core on their own).   I know that a person's core can change for someone that had learned to be gay (even at a very young age) I know some that have done it.  Some will say that such a person was never really gay but I have learned that whatever we have learned and applied to our core - we tend to believe it to be what we always were and will be.  But I believe we are intelligent agents that can reason and change even our core self.  We are what we will ourselves to be.  I believe it is important to believe we can do something in order to be able to do it.  I believe it is important and divine to change what we are at our very core.
I am sorry that many think that they cannot alter their core self - I believe it important to believe such to be a learned mistake and sin.  I believe humans are intelligent beings - capable of learning and changing their behaviors.  And I believe we should all help each other to be better to our very core.
 
The Traveler

I don't see how this answers my question?
Nevertheless, I am not sure you are understanding Mormon correctly.  The fact that Mormon leaves the ultimate condemnation (judgement) to God, doesn't take away from the fact that the preceding verses, if not also chapters and books, were filled with his recognition (judgement) that the "fair ones" had "departed from the ways of the Lord."
In other words, being able to discern (judge)  what constitutes sin or not, and whether people, including ourselves, are sinning, is quite different than condemning (judging) people to hell . The former is requisite to grasping and properly operating within the gospel (how can people have faith unto repentance and be cleansed. justified, and sanctified, if they are unable to say what is sin or no?). Whereas, the later is the domain of the Father through the  intercession of the Son.
The Savior came into the world not to condemn (judge) but to redeem the world. He wishes all men to become their very best selves, even as he is.
But, to redeem the world necessitates recognizing (judging) right from wrong, sin from righteousness, good from evil., etc. One cannot activate the redemptive powers in their lives except they recognize and acknowledge those things from which they need redeeming.
Sadly, some of us have foolishly bought into the world's nefarious  illusion that not considering certain sins as sins is the merciful and tolerant thing to do.  
However, this ignores the physical and spiritual consequences of those sins (I mentioned earlier in the thread how disease and mental illness and death have skyrocketed among homosexuals since their movement began. I can provide ample documentation. The same is manifesting itself among transgenders and the like.)
Whereas, in truth, it is the gospel that is merciful, not only in helping people to avoid the ravages of sin (after first acknowledging their sins), but also to overcome them.
But, we live in an upside-down world.
Thanks, -Wade Englund-

And I think this is at the core of the "hate the sin, love the sinner" philosophy.  We aren't able to judge each other because we can't possibly know all the factors.  It may be that some people truly deserve scorn while others who have committed similar acts deserve mercy... but it isn't for us to know which is which, so our default position should always be one of compassion.  We can show compassion for each other without excusing sinful acts. 

Sometimes even a snapshot can have a lot of information.  I am a 5th generation member.  I was borne of very good parents.  Yet, just as is most often the case - I am different.  I grew up to become an engineer and scientist working the the field of industrial automation, robotics and artificial intelligence.   I am very connected to logic and science as well as religion and I believe in truth as both a scientific and religious passion.  I believe in evolution and I believe in G-d and I believe that the truth of both is completely compatible.  
My first moving spiritual experience happened when I was eight years old.  I learned that the Book of Mormon is divinely inspired of G-d when I was 13.  I joined the army when I was 17 (during the Vietnam conflict) and finished high school while in the army.  At age 19 I transfered to the inactive army reserve to serve 2 years as missionary for the church.  I have endeavored to be of service to both G-d and country.   
I have never doubted that there is a G-d, nor have I ever found reason to disbelieve the covenants, ordinances and laws (especially concerning the priesthood) taught in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  I am convinced that the kingdom of G-d cannot continue on this earth without divinely appointed living prophets to guide and direct the citizens of such a kingdom and its society of saints.  I have traveled the world in my work and have met many great and wonderful people of just about all major religions and a lot of minor religions as well.  I am well versed in the doctrines of many religions and have incorporated much of what I have learned into my own understanding of religious things.  I have a very high respect for Buddhism and Islam (mostly Shia) and most devout individuals of any religion.
As much as I do believe in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints - I would embrace in an instant a greater path to things divine and eternal should I ever encounter such truth but to be honest - I have never encountered anything even close and so sacredly witnessed by G-d to be true.  Not that there are not some members that are a little strange to me but that we are not only taught as Saints but given every opportunity to act and serve as Saints through teachings and callings.
 
The Traveler

I recognize that both the Old and New Testaments refer to homosexual behavior as a sin.  I recognize that Christ defined marriage as a union between male and female.  I understand the principles taught in the Proclamation on the Family.  
However, I have a ton of sympathy for gay and lesbian individuals.  I want them to be happy and not kill themselves.  I also hate seeing the church be demonized.  So I got some conflicting feelings on the matter.  It’s why a brought up the topic.  It’s a difficult one.
I had a striking insight reading the Book of Mormon a while back.  In Mormon 6 it talks about the final days of the Nephites and all the horrible things that were going on.  At the very end of the chapter in verse 22,  Mormon says something that really hit me.  I was expecting him to condemn everyone to Hell but instead he says, 
“...and the Father, yea, the Eternal Father of heaven, knoweth your state
and he doeth with you according to his justice and mercy.”
He leaves judgement to God who is both just and merciful.  So that’s the approach I try to take.

Where to begin?  I believe there are great concerns about attempting to come to "conclusions" based completely in what we can discover between birth and death.  Nevertheless, let us reason together and work towards some understanding.  In Science there are two ways we make intelligent decisions.  Most think only in terms of one but the reality is that there are two methods in humans - and we are humans.  Both processes involve learning but the expression and understanding is different.  I will try to explain.
One method of learning has to do with what I will call decision learning.  That is a cognitive recognition - a process of cognitive choice and then a response based in current time and place.  This is what most of us think of as a intelligent choice where we cognitively consider the possibilities in our field of view and determine an action.  The second method is a little different.  Perhaps the best way to express this is what we call "muscle memory". Muscle memory becomes a automatic wired in choice based in previous experiences, learning and choices.  It is a process of discipline sort of speaking.  Another way of saying this is habit or even addiction.  But addiction carries with it something beyond habit.  What many do not realize is that basically 99% of our intelligent choices are made utilizing our second method.  Very seldom do we sit and ponder for a time about what we want to do next.  Most of what we do happens almost without us thinking of it and the moment.
During our mortality - our brain is in its most important development and learning stage up until we are about 25.  But even more important - we humans develop most of our "intellectual" skills as infants.  Our most important time of learning takes place when we are very young - there are some (myself included) that believe, we begin learning during and wiring our future actions in mortality while we are still developing in our mother's womb.   AT THIS PLACE IN MY POST I WANT TO MAKE A VERY IMPORTANT POINT - it concerns the importance of a man and a woman working together in the highest possibility of love to sacrifice for the next generation to conceive and bring children into mortality that begins, not with the birth of the child but with conception and perhaps - even with preconception preparations.   I would go as far as to say this is the most important intelligent choice we humans can work towards.  It is the most divine and loving (intelligent) possibility we mortals can achieve or hope to achieve.  It is the most important and intelligent choice we will ever make in all eternity.
Some of us will find this intelligent choice a part of our birth and childhood experience and thus a seemingly logical endeavor.  But for most of us - there are mistakes in our learning experiences - some of our own making and some from our very early childhood caused by the mistakes of others.  Regardless of the origins of our learning experience mistakes - G-d love us all and we are intelligent and can work towards fixing (repenting) of our past learning mistakes.  Religiously we know that small children are not responsible (yet) for their learning mistakes - but when we reach accountability we do become responsible for our learned mistakes to do something to better ourselves and as much as possible rewire and fix our learned mistakes.
One of our worse learning mistakes (perhaps) is thinking we must face moving beyond our mistakes 100% on our own.  We should help others and we should be open to help others regardless of how habitual, embedded or our addictive our learned mistakes are (in ourselves or in others).  I personally believe that writing off our own or other's learning mistakes - is itself a fatal learning mistake that needs to be overcome (by repentance) as much or more so than any other possible learned mistake.
I believe there are a lot of learning mistakes - especially when it comes to sexual behaviors.  And as I have said - I also believe it is a learned mistake to not lovingly help someone (anyone) overcome whatever learning mistakes regardless of how difficult it may seem to us or them.  Also I cannot imagine a more important and loving endeavor than to help someone (anyone) overcome their sexual behavior based learned mistakes.  As Latter-day Saints we have a conventual obligation to lovingly assist everyone to complete their eternal purpose and I see no reason for us to create an atmosphere of bitterness or condemnation - but rather a "safe place" for everyone to overcome their learned mistakes.
 
The Traveler

About 10 years ago I had a co-worker who was gay.  We got along fine because we shared interests in things like comic books, gaming and Star Trek.  One day I was telling  him about a friend I have who is gay but lives celibately because he's LDS and faithful.  My co-worker said:  "What a shame he has to suppress who he is to follow his church."
One of the downsides of being an introvert is that we really suck at quickly coming back with the right thing to say.
I didn't really respond to that, but what I should have said was: "He is being exactly who he wants to be.  He's not defined by who he's attracted to."  'course... I only thought of that answer later.

Correct. The correlation to Eve , among other things, was that both women were forbidden to touch, causing them to face a difficult situation . And, both women made the choice to touch the forbidden.  However, the outcomes are reverse. Smith's article explains further.
You are correct. Smith states" Because menstruation was regarded as one of the results of Eve’s sin10 and was linked with sin in general (Lamentations 1:17 and Ezekiel 36:17-18),11 the hemorrhaging woman is associated with Eve. More broadly, the woman’s condition of ceaseless menstrual hemorrhaging is a magnification of the normal female condition. These associations make the hemorrhaging woman the ideal narrative re-creation of Eve in her fallen state."
It does indeed. She is not only an example of the cleansing power of Christ, but also metaphorically an example of Christ's power to redeem from the fall.
Fantastic stuff!
Thanks, -Wade Englund-

Ugh.  I'm actually writing a book on this topic.  The short and easy answer is:  When looking at the journey that was my conversion and taking in the mountains heavenly father moved to put the right people in my path, there is absolutely zero possibility that this isn't His will for me or that He doesn't exist.  It doesn't matter that there are many things I don't have a testimony of.  It doesn't matter that there are many things I don't understand.  It doesn't matter that I very much struggle with some things relating to being a member of this church.  What matters is there isn't the slightest doubt in my mind that in spite of all those things, I can't deny that He brought me to this place and went above and beyond to get me here.

No it isn't. It's a lie they're telling themselves or others to justify something pleasing to the carnal mind.
The stumbling block is, as it has always been, things that are pleasing to the carnal mind. It is not "the whole LGBT issue". That's merely the current trendy excuse.
Also a lie people like to tell. Well...the harmful part is. The church IS intolerant* -- and well should be. The idea that such intolerance is harmful is nonsense.
*Of course the way it is intolerant and what, exactly, it is intolerant against matters. 
It's been well explained by others...but it's a bit of a silly question if one steps back and looks at it more broadly. It's essentially asking how love and compassion are reconciled with sin and/or sinful drives.
The answer isn't complicated.
Sin is an intolerable thing BECAUSE of love and compassion.

I agree with all these, but in my mind they miss the central mark. The sexual act is the combining of two people to be "one flesh". It is a merging not only of bodies but of spirits. This must only occur within the bonds of marriage, and must only happen between the two fundamental types of people: male and female. Life itself is the result of such a union. If sexual intercourse is not holy, nothing is. (Which is precisely why we see so many today for whom nothing is holy.)
The act of sexual intercourse between individuals of the same sex is, of course, a mockery of sex, and thus a mockery of something intrinsically holy. But God is not mocked. The sexual power we have been granted in mortality, miraculous as it is, is but a shadow and a prefigurement of the power wielded by the exalted.
It is a sign not only of the wickedness of our times but of the willful ignorance of our peoples that homosexual relations are widely accepted and celebrated, to the point of mocking marriage itself. Not even the ancient Greeks, unabashed homosexual pederasts that they were, made a marital relationship of homosexual interactions. Even they understood that marriage is something different from a sexual license or a mere social contract, but rather is the fundamental unit upon which society is built, the formalization of the very union of the sexes.
How we as a society can have lost sight of this, I don't understand, but I strongly suspect it has to do with selfishness and willful blindness. But of course, gravity doesn't stop working just because we say it doesn't, or even pass a law against recognizing gravity. As we step over this cliff edge and celebrate our new-found "freedom", it is only a matter of time until we hit ground.

That's true, they don't see it as sinful.  Then again, there's plenty of things that Christians in general view as sinful that others don't, but the gay community is the only one that seems bent on attaching the worst possible motives to it and playing the victim.

As expected, the thinking is upside-down on several levels.
First, the issue isn't created by the Church, but is manufactured by influential forces in society. The restored gospel has been around since 1830, whereas LGBT et al. sprung up less than 50 years ago.
Second, the primary question is morality rather than love and tolerance. Indeed, morality is the reference point by which love and tolerance ought to be assessed.. It isn't loving or tolerant to any party involved to promote immorality. Quite the opposite. And, vice versa.
Third,  while the forces behind the cultural movement make a pretense of love and tolerance, they could care less about the groups they selectively target, and view them instead as "useful idiots" to manipulate  into creating cultural strife, with the end goal of fomenting proliferating government dependency and  accruing power to themselves. Whereas the Church cares deeply about the eternal welfare of all individuals and enabling them to become their very best selves. 
In spite of the pretense of love evoked by the PR sculptured image of happiness within the LGBT... community,  disease and mental illness and deaths have skyrocketed since the movement began, not to mention the noticeable degradation of Western civilization. The o-called progressive  agenda is anything but...
On the other hand, the source for true joy as well as the power to counter destructive influences, is Christ, and this through his Restored Gospel. It is the true and proven plan of progression and salvation. It is the real way of love.
Thanks, -Wade Englund-

No I do not.  Because people have the right to choose how they want to live.  The Church isn’t stopping them from doing what they want to do and loving who they want to love.  However, there are these things called commandments church members are expected to follow.  
I like to donate blood and celebrate birthdays.  I would have to give up those things if I wanted to be a JW.  But that doesn’t make them hateful towards me.
There are many gay members of the church who choose to remain faithful to the commandments.  That’s great for them.  There are gay people that choose differently.  I respect them too.
That’s my approach.

If the church is intolerant towards people who choose to identify as LGBT, then one could also say that they are intolerant towards those who choose to use drugs for recreation, or who steal. Sin is sin, and while anyone may be inclined to commit certain acts that are wrong, the inclination in and of itself is not wrong. It is only when we entertain such thoughts and act on them that the sin occurs. The issue with the LGBT crowd is that they personalize their behaviors, and claim that it is a part of themselves...that they have no say in the matter. Other people have other weaknesses and are tempted to act on them, and they too need to learn to temper and control themselves. The biggest issue I believe revolves around marriage, which by definition is between a man and a woman. There is no such thing as gay marriage...it is by definition impossible. One cannot choose to alter something that was instituted and defined by God himself. So, although we love and care for everyone, that does not mean that we have to accept and sustain their life choices. If for example one of my young children ever chooses to become a criminal, or to use drugs, I will be sure to let them know that their actions are not right, and I do not approve nor support them. But I will still love them, and if they want to change I will help in any way I can. 

This is legit.  Seriously.
My point is that I don't really have a stumbling block with LGFBT-whatever.
To each his/her/its own.  I try not to judge.  And furthermore, I don't want to be in your bedroom or wherever you choose to do whatever it is that knocks your socks off.  
Come to church.  
“The church is not a place where perfect people gather to say perfect things, or have perfect thoughts, or have perfect feelings. The Church is a place where imperfect people gather to provide encouragement, support, and service to each other as we press on in our journey to return to our Heavenly Father.”  ― Joseph B. Wirthlin
 
Mark 2 16 And when the scribes and Pharisees saw him eat with publicans and sinners, they said unto his disciples, How is it that he eateth and drinketh with publicans and sinners?
17 When Jesus heard it, he saith unto them, They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
Come, Join with US.  Uchtdorf, Oct 2013

The problem is that our culture is drifting toward the idea that the only way to show compassion and love toward someone is to support every single thing they do.  "Love the sinner, hate the sin" is an idea that people are forgetting in alarming numbers.
What makes it worse in the case of LGBT issues is that instead of someone's sexuality being an aspect of their personality, it's  treated as the core of their being... so if you disapprove of homosexual behavior, our culture interprets that as hating the person himself/herself.  "It's who I AM!!!!"
It's a completely illogical notion, but one that has taken in a LOT of people.

Perhaps, or in a sense, a part(s) of Him died in Gethsemane Thursday night (His lifeblood was spilled into the ground) and afterward on His way to the cross.

It’s a state of being.  We can live a celestial life here on this earth.  

I would disagree to a degree. It's impossible to live a Celestial life without having a fulness of joy. That is only obtained when the spirit and body are inseparably connected after resurrection.

This movie won't top the animated version. Not by a long shot.