My Life

Just last Saturday I came out to one of my friends.  Naturally, since he was Mormon, he had many questions and did not accept this news easily.  What really startled me was this particular question he asked "How do you feel about the [mormoon] church that was burned down by gays and lesbians because [the mormon church] refused to perform same-sex marriages?"  My first thought was "I haven't heard anything about this." followed quickly by "Why are you asking me that?"  I still haven't checked the story to see what all the details are, if there is any truth to it.  But, according to this friend, a mormon chapel was burned down because some homosexual people were angry at the Church. I felt rather offended that he would ask a question like that.  I suppose, in my own mind, he was thinking that since I am gay I therefore identify with everyone else who is gay and so therefore I would take the side of the arson, since it was allegedly performed by a g...

If you have been reading my Facebook feed or my recent blog posts, you may have assumed that I am homosexual.  This assumption is correct.  I did not choose to be gay, nor do I have any recollection of a single event (or string of events) that could have caused it.  I have not been molested by anyone in my life, especially not as a child.  My father and I have a very healthy relationship--he was neither neglectful nor violent.  Neither of my parents abused me as a child.  I do have a close relationship with my mother, but she was not overbearing and I also have a close relationship with my father.  I do not know whether I was born gay, nor do I believe it matters greatly.  All that I can say for sure is that despite every conscious effort on my part to become heterosexual, I have been unsuccessful, and I am equally certain that my sexual orientation will not change anytime in the future.  And, I can finally say that I no longer wish to change...

I was just pondering the story of Adam and Eve last night and I had what I would call an epiphany.  I don't know whether Adam and Eve were kicked out of the Garden of Eden for physically eating a fruit (and I really have no idea why everyone thinks it was an apple), but whether they did or not, I do know that they did taste of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil--literally or figuratively.  Why did they do that?  Because it was necessary.  There is no other way for us to fill our purpose on this Earth, other than tasting good and evil and then deciding for ourselves which one we want to choose.  I taste my sister's homemade cheesecake and then I taste cheesecake from a store in order to know that I prefer my sister's cheesecake. So, I think that each one of us, individually, must take of the fruit.  We must learn by our own personal experience (and sometimes that can be made easier and less painful by observing the experiences of others) t...

This is something I've actually been thinking about quite a bit lately.  I've been Mormon my whole life, but what that has meant to me has changed somewhat over the years, particularly over this last little while.  So, I will talk about what being Mormon means to me. At the simplest level, a Mormon is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  As a member of that church, a Mormon is a Christian.  A Mormon believes in Jesus Christ as the Son of God, as the Savior of the World, and as their own personal Redeemer.  A Mormon views all of the humans on the Earth as brothers and sisters, since we are all children of God.  We have a loving Heavenly Father who watches over us with great concern.  When we do good, He is happy, and when we do ill, He is unhappy. A Mormon is someone who seeks truth wherever it is to be found.  In our church, we believe the Bible to be the word of God.  We also have three other books of canonized s...