“Change for the better can come to all. Over the years we have issued appeals to the less active, the offended, the critic, the transgressor — to come back. ‘Come back and feast at the table of the Lord and taste again the sweet and satisfying fruits of fellowship with the Saints.’ In the private sanctuary of one’s own conscience lies that spirit, that determination to cast off the old person and to measure up to the stature of true potential. In this spirit, we again issue that heartful invitation. Come back, we reach out to you in the pure love of Christ and express our desire to assist you and to welcome you into full fellowship."
- Thomas S. Monson, April 6, 2008
Much has been made of this quote by the new Prisident of the LDS church in the blogger'nacle. Many people have their own ideas and opinions. I first want to say that in the spirit of this quote Church officals are meeting with an LDS gay support organization and I'm thrilled by whatever progress can be made there.
(Of course on a side note I would love to direct everyone's attention to the early church's open acceptance of gay members written about here.)
I am particularly found of *most* of this quote. I strongly believe that one of Yeshua's most important messages was "the feast is lain", the kingdom and queendom of the God and Goddess is here and now we should partake of it's fruits. Of course I stop short of believing that the fruits are only found in the LDS church.
This does grant me pause however. Personally I have stayed away from Church for about half a year now, preffering instead to recently begin attending the Lakeport UU church. However yesterday after driving home from church I was pondering the nature of things as I scanned the beautiful, rolling green hillsides of Lake county.
That vaugue sense of "what's the meaning of it all" came over me and the answer I received from the hillside was "the feast is lain" - the kingdom of heaven is here and we should all invite and be invited in the spirit of the love of God to the feast before us. Paradise is NOW.
A few minutes later Nykki asked, seemingly out of nowhere, to go back to LDS church. I asked him, "Don't you like our new church?" To which he replied, "Oh, yes, I like it a lot just not as much as Mormon church."
Then I wake up this morning to read about Monson's quote as well as the gay support group meeting and my head's a'flutter.
Should I live a spiritual life outside the LDS church, perhaps as a UUer, believing and acting as I please with no impact or ability to make the changes (women in the priesthood, the restoration of Heavenly Mother, etc.) that I believe need to be changed to bring about the fullness of the gospel. Or do I enter the fellowship of one of the world's largest church's and lobby for gentle change from within?
