Hope in those 21 hours: Part 2/4
Part 2 of a 4-part series about hoping for change for the LGBTQ/LDS intersection.
Follow me on this one. You may remember that originally the Israelites were strictly forbidden from mixing with the gentiles. In fact, God drove it home with an object lesson: they couldn’t even wear a blend of wool and linen (Lev 19:19 and again in Deut 22:11). No mixing. God wanted the Israelites to be separate.
All that changed in the New Testament — but the president of the church was not the first to know.
Watch for the time stamp in Cornelius’s story in Acts 10 about gentiles being welcome in the church. Cornelius sees an angel in the 9th hour (3 pm) who tells him he is accepted by God, and sends him to his priesthood leader. Then at the 6th hour (noon the next day), Peter received a vision of a sheet letting down unclean animals. The revelation was clear: “God hath shewed me that I should not call any man common or unclean,” said Peter (Acts 10:28).
Let me say that again — an angel appeared to a gentile (a Roman centurion). Then 21 hours later, God gave the president of the church a vision that changed the world: the gospel was going to not only Cornelius but to all the gentiles.
What if we’re in those 21 hours between the time that God tells us we’re okay and when institutional leaders get the memo? Like Cornelius, perhaps you might know about change coming, even before the president of the Church. Here’s how Evan put it in Chapter 2 of Gay Latter-day Saint Crossroads:
Don’t suggest that a hope for change in church doctrine is a bad thing. Few church messages have been more consistent than that “the Restoration of the Lord’s gospel [is] an unfolding Restoration that continues today.” (Russell M. Nelson, Prophet, https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/president-nelson-invites-sharing-gospel-restoration, 2020). Never try to take away the hope for change in the Church, because that hope [may be] what allows people to both truly love themselves or their LGBTQ loved one and still believe in the Church. As the parent of an LGBTQ child, as I’ll describe further in Chapter 5, I think it is impossible for me to be both a loving parent and a believer in the church without hoping for change.
Keep hoping with us.
-Marci marcimcpheewriter.com
PS: For an update on Evan and his thinking, read his Afterword on pages 24-29 here.
Parts 3-4 in this series about hoping for change are coming soon.
Also see Part 1: Hope? or rebellion?