I've been thinking a lot about Elder Holland's recent remarks. As I was pondering, this passage of scripture from The Book of Mormon came to mind. It's Alma 4:9-15.
9 And thus, in this eighth year of the reign of the judges, there began to be great contentions among the people of the church; yea, there were envyings, and strife, and malice, and persecutions, and pride, even to exceed the pride of those who did not belong to the church of God.
10 And thus ended the eighth year of the reign of the judges; and the wickedness of the church was a great stumbling-block to those who did not belong to the church; and thus the church began to fail in its progress.
11 And it came to pass in the commencement of the ninth year, Alma saw the wickedness of the church, and he saw also that the example of the church began to lead those who were unbelievers on from one piece of iniquity to another, thus bringing on the destruction of the people.
12 Yea, he saw great inequality among the people, some lifting themselves up with their pride, despising others, turning their backs upon the needy and the naked and those who were hungry, and those who were athirst, and those who were sick and afflicted.
13 Now this was a great cause for lamentations among the people, while others were abasing themselves, succoring those who stood in need of their succor, such as imparting their substance to the poor and the needy, feeding the hungry, and suffering all manner of afflictions, for Christ’s sake, who should come according to the spirit of prophecy;
14 Looking forward to that day, thus retaining a remission of their sins; being filled with great joy because of the resurrection of the dead, according to the will and power and deliverance of Jesus Christ from the bands of death.
15 And now it came to pass that Alma, having seen the afflictions of the humble followers of God, and the persecutions which were heaped upon them by the remainder of his people, and seeing all their inequality, began to be very sorrowful; nevertheless the Spirit of the Lord did not fail him.
Even though it may not be intentional, I see a lot of contention. I see malice. I see persecution. I know we may not mean for it to come across that way, and I do believe Elder Holland himself did not mean for his words to hurt and cut the way they did. But his words hurt those in the LGBTQ community regardless of whether he meant them to or not. For me, it's hard to listen to what he said (while putting myself in the shoes of a member of the LGBTQ community) and feel Christ's love. His words did not feel loving.
That's what we ALL need and deserve to feel. We need to feel Christ's love and his understanding. We are all children of God. All we are asked to do is love one another. We are all different. We all have things to carry. I don't pretend to understand why we are born the way we are or why we must struggle against so many different challenges in mortality.
What are we to do when a leader of the church says something that hurts those we care about? Well, all I can think to do is turn to Christ. Because even if no mortal person knows what we or others are feeling, he does. He does perfectly. For every single one of us.
I just know that Christ knows each of us perfectly. He suffered for us. He wants us to succor those around us. All he asks is that we love. He is the only one worthy to judge others. Let's keep loving and seek first to understand and be kind. Let's all be succorers instead of stumbling-blocks.
Love this. Very well said.
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