Please accept my apology for this, Roy. It was fuelled by my simmering frustrations and disenfranchisement, which will become clearer in due course. I am happy to edit my post to remove the offending adjective. To complete the removal, we should then both delete all references to it to avoid confusion for any third party. If, however, you prefer the comment(s) to remain to indicate forum practice, I will take the hit and try to avoid re-offending.
Perhaps the title of a new thread could be "Can individuals who identify as LGBTQ+ truly find peace in the Gospel of Jesus Christ?"
OK, so I'm still unsure about this. What about referring to information in the public domain (if you dig deeply enough) that reflects badly on specific senior priesthood leaders (living or deceased) in a 21st-century context? It is easy to say, "hang on, you can't evaluate decades-old teachings in the context of our current day," but what if, in my case, the negative ramifications of those teachings have only recently become apparent to me? To consign them to history is to invalidate their aggregated effects on me (and others). I have searched the past to understand my present, and I have subsequently found myself reminded of many troublesome things. Basically, I have emerged from the figurative cave in which I felt obliged to hide for decades only to be confronted by a tsunami of pejorative comments that shaped who I have become. I was thinking I would need to obfuscate the identity of those individuals. I wish to avoid drifting into ad hominem territory.
Please assess the following illustration. Several sections of a certain GA's talk delivered in a past General Conference have been redacted in the transcript found on churchofjesuschrist.org because they contain content that is now considered inaccurate and offensive. Most Church members would probably consider the comments to be unfortunate, but for me they represent a single strand of damaging emotional conditioning — so hiding them only adds to the injustice. For someone in my position, it feels like gaslighting. The video of the GA's talk hasn't been edited, however, so the content is readily verifiable.
The purpose of examining past comments isn't to question the integrity of individuals who believed they were offering inspired counsel; that is for them to deal with on judgement day. Rather, it is to unravel the tangle of unresolved negative outcomes that such comments caused. We can easily say, "let's forget the past and move on," but that leaves unaddressed the damage that continues to drive people like me from the Church. I feel we must be honest and own it — and accept the repercussions to allow the healing process to begin. Until then, it smacks of an aggressor silencing its victims.
