October 3, 2010

Packer's Talk

Audio:


Writ:

I missed the original airing of this talk so I have gone through and watched it twice since. Heres my notes.

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- To begin, I have heard angry, hateful things from those in the moho world directed at Packer, so I though, wow, I better watch this.

- I love the song the choir sings before the talk! I love a lot of choral music, and MoTab always does an awesome job.

- Procreation is a sacred gift given to us.

- If we are denied the blessing to have sex and children in this world we are promised that blessing in the world to come.

- Sex is only meant for husband and wife.

- We are free to ignore these commandments.

- Pornography is like a plague. Coming into the homes to disrupt families, usually tempting the father.

- Priesthood holds power (fathers hold this power) and can be used to repel the temptations of pornography.

- Any relationship not in accordance with these commandments is wrong.

- Some believe that these attractions were given to them at birth. God would not do that.
(This would have to be the most confusing statement. The church's official stance is that there is no stance on Nature vs. Nurture. That being said I think what Packer was saying here is God would not make us gay because he wanted us to BE gay. Like he doesn't give someone cancer to be cancerous. There are other reasons we are given the things in life we have.)

- We will not be temped above that which we are able.

- We can escape the temptation, so we can bare it.

- Voting cannot change God's laws.

- God has both physical and moral laws.

- You can stop acting on those feelings. Priesthood leaders and angels will help you.

- Repentance can wash away the addictions of pornography and past mistakes.

- Lot's wife was not turned to salt because of wickedness, it was because she looked back.

- Ignore and avoid any unclean thing (porn).

- When you become clean, don't look back.

- My prayers are with you who struggle with this plague.

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Let me say this, those of us who are gay probably got really offended by this talk. When I listened to it the first time, having heard others complain of it, I was confused, but not angry, with his premiss. Since we are gay, and most of us are attune to sensitivity to negative things in that subject, we, as I did at first, took offense to many of the things in this talk.

Then I listened a second time, with the intent to really listen to his words, and what he was saying. I realized that only a portion in the middle was directed at gays. the rest of it was directed to those who struggle with porn. It really is the same things we have been hearing from the church for years.

The calls that this will lead people who have gay attractions in the church to suicide or anything are really puzzling. Those who ask for more love and understanding from the church and then say they want harm to come to Packer, are a little hypocritical. I understand this isn't going to make me liked in the moho world, but I have to call it how I see it.

I know some of you on a more personal level, and so I would like to ask you to share with me what was hurtful and hateful that he said, because I didn't hear it.

5 comments:

  1. It's all sorts of offensive, if you don't come at it from an LDS perspective. And since those three gay minutes were obviously directed toward those who have doubts about the church and don't fully believe the LDS perspective (why would this even need to be said, if the audience were solidly believing and unquestioning?), it seems almost purposefully inflammatory.

    Calling someone's cherished relationships "immoral"? Them's fightin' words.

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  2. Oh, also, how tacky is it to put three minutes on homosexuality in the middle of a talk on porn? Porn addiction and homosexuality are so different that I have to assume Packer meant to taint the concept of homosexuality with the same stigma the Mormon world has for porn.

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  3. I have said elsewhere that I wasn't personally affected by it, as I've learned to grow pretty thick skin towards such declarations. There is no malice towards Packer on my end. He can say whatever he wants. However, there are many young gay folks that would have missed the pornography part and focused on what "applied" to them. Also, the talk might be used as a rallying call by the anti-homo portion (key word: portion) of LDS membership. Those are my only 2 concerns.

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  4. The calls that this will lead people who have gay attractions in the church to suicide or anything are really puzzling. (How can this be "puzzling", it is a fact of cult behavior.) Those who ask for more love and understanding from the church and then say they want harm to come to Packer, are a little hypocritical. (This has been stated frequently. Mormonism is filled with hypocrisy...but it is certainly not alone as a religion in this regard. Intolerance BREEDS hypocrisy. ) I understand this isn't going to make me liked in the moho world, but I have to call it how I see it. (Just repeat Packer's speech out loud while standing in front of a mirror. You may "call" it differently after such an experience. Moderate on.

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  5. President Packer's talk wasn't anything new. But when taken in context of the past week's events, it can take on a whole different meaning. I have been staring at a facebook feed everyday that is littered with posts about suicide, notes from friends begging for more understanding, and all sorts of different announcements from the Trevor Project. It seems like every time I pull up NPR, CNN, or the LA Times, there is another article about the bullying epidemic, the recent explosion of gay suicides, and all of the different celebrities who are speaking out to try and do something about it.

    So when gay people have had all this circling around in their heads for a week, and then President Packer comes out and says that you could be straight if you just "tried a little harder, and had a little more faith", they are understandably upset. To put it another way, it feels like everyone else is doing everything they can think of to try and stem the tide of suicides, while all President Packer cares about is scaring anyone with "same-sex attraction" back into the closet.

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