Our Loving Heavenly Father

In 2010, Boyd K. Packer famously stated that it is impossible for people to be born homosexual because Heavenly Father would never do that to anyone.

Let's look at the circle around me:

• My best friend had a son who was born with cystic fibrosis, and passed away before he turned 15 years old.
• I had severe endometriosis that, in the year before I finally had a hysterectomy, caused me constant, unrelenting pain.  I was never able to have children.
• My maternal grandfather was physically, emotionally, and sexually abusive to his children.
• My home, growing up, was rife with physical and emotional abuse.  One of us never broke free, and to this day is incompetent to care for himself, although he is brilliantly gifted at persuading others to support him until they realize they've been burned, at which point he moves on to another victim.
• My youngest sister was born addicted to drugs, and in the end her own drug addictions cost her her life.
• One of my cousins had a drug-addicted prostitute for a mother, and helped her shoot up as a child. He died of AIDS because of using dirty needles.
• My beautiful border collie died of a heart attack at 11 years old, when we'd hoped she would be with us for at least a few more years.
• My beautiful dachshund-lab mix, along with all his litter mates, were abandoned by their former owners who just packed up and moved away, leaving the dogs to starve in the back yard.  All but one of his litter mates were placed for adoption, but the last dog is too damaged to be placeable.

Either God is a sick, sadistic asshole, or else sometimes, shit just happens.  I don't necessarily believe in some great, overarching plan where all the pieces and lessons are woven together into a beautiful tapestry.  I think that if there is a God, he (or she--I don't know which) is greater and more loving than the best that we can possibly imagine.  And I can imagine a lot of "best" there.  Last night as I was crying over losing Molly, and thinking how much I love her, surely if there is a God s/he loves us at least as much as my husband and I love our dog.

And I don't think being homosexual is a bad thing. I think it just is.

I think that if we stop judging people, and focus on loving people, this world would be a wonderful world to live in.  And I must add that I've never felt more judged than by members of the so-called church, generally.  Not because they're bad people, but because that's the culture, the culture that:

• makes Boyd K. Packer's vitriolic rantings against homosexuality acceptable,
• feels it's within their rights to take away the rights of others with whom they do not agree,
• teaches that people who leave the church do so only because they're offended or because they want to sin,
• teaches people to "fake it until they make it",
• preaches that lying for the Lord is absolutely acceptable,
• teaches women are to place their home and their family above their own needs,
• subjects women always to the dominion of men. 

What makes life good or bad is how we deal with the shit that gets dealt out to us. Love. It all boils down to love. Respect, acceptance, kindness--all these things will follow if we just love everyone.