Christopher Bradford

The problem with radical acceptance in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints: Although there is no movement that is immune to moral drift, we as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints need to do better at recognizing movements and sentiments that are not compatible with our shared faith. Could you imagine devout followers of Jesus Christ during his mortal ministry promoting the idea that God does not care if you continue in sin or reject his teachings as long as it makes you happy? That the most important thing to God is that you are free to “express yourself” in a way that is praised by the secular world? Even if at its core it is a denial of God’s divine hand in creation of the spirit and body? It is obvious that Jesus Christ would teach that we should not judge those that have gender dysphoria, but that is only half the story. He would teach those with gender dysphoria that He loves them, but also that gender is an eternal and immutable characteristic that should not, and more importantly cannot, be changed or altered. We should love those that are confused, but we should not encourage, support, or promote confusion. The Family Proclamation is doctrine and the Lord’s revealed answers for questions regarding gender identity, same-sex marriage, and those that seek to identify as transgender. These are not open questions in the faith and they are not subject for debate. They have been settled for thousands of years. Without fully getting into the weeds this post, I’d like to ask why those who claim to be devout members such as Richard Ostler (@Papa_Ostler) would be reposting the Salt Lake Tribune’s (@sltrib) article about “LGBTQ latter-day saints” trying to find space within the church to live outside the bounds the Lord has set? Would those same members repost a puff piece about a middle-aged man seeking to find space within the church to worship multiple deities at the same time? Probably not. They would recognize that practice as a rejection of one of God’s fundamental teachings, yet they are unable to draw the same conclusion about promoting the LGBTQ movement, especially the transgender movement. According to God’s teachings, there is no such thing as a “transgender” individual, there are individuals who are confused about an essential part of their identity. They need our love and support, but both of those should be grounded in supporting and encouraging them to live according to God’s law, not participating in the game of pretend that the modern left has engaged in. This is another example of the subversion of Christlike love into a modern, and secular, idea of inclusion. If we are to love as Christ did, we ought to start by both living and teaching the principles that He teaches. There is room for all to come unto Christ and we want everyone to feel welcome at church and other social gatherings, but that does not require members to pretend that God’s laws are not eternal and that individual’s feelings supersede God’s laws and teachings. As for policies regarding bathroom usage and other sensitive areas, the feelings of the women who use them should be what is taken into account. It is not transphobic to state the reality that there are only two genders and that one's gender is eternal and that is what dictates who can use what facility. Though an individual may struggle with that identity, it is far more loving to encourage them to live according to the truth. The article by the Salt Lake Tribune contains several logical fallacies, misrepresentations, and a willful ignorance of basic church doctrine. The most egregious of which is likely the claim that there is no scriptural basis for the belief that you cannot change your gender (a biological fact) or for the belief that engaging in homosexual activity is sinful. Both of these claims are unequivocally false and I would invite all of those that reposted this article to explain why modern liberalism should supersede revelation and scripture? I would hope that those that engage in this activity in good faith will come to see that it should not, and in turn, do more to keep modern secularism out of Christ’s church.