Jeffrey Nielsen, a part-time instructor at Brigham Young University and a practising Mormon, will lose his job after he questioned the leaders of the Mormon church on their stance against gay marriage (The Salt Lake Tribune : BYU instructor let go for questioning LDS stand on gay marriage).
Leaders of the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (wikipedia) want members to support a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, something Jeffrey believes is immoral and wrong. He stated his views in an op-ed work he wrote for The Salt Lake Tribune: LDS authority and gay marriage.
A perfect God does not require blind obedience, nor does He need unthinking loyalty. Freedom of conscience is a divine blessing, and our privilege to express it is a moral imperative.
I agree with his viewpoint and think his article is great, and respect Jeffrey for publicly standing his ground over his beliefs. As Jeffrey says, Science is well on its way towards proving that same-sex attraction is biologically based (see news article "Sexual orientation of men determined before birth" - Reuters, 27th June 2006)... and the Mormon church has in the past overlooked it's own polygamy issues despite what the Bible says about a union between a man and a woman (singular), so surely this is hypocritical?
Truly, God would be unjust if He were the creator of a biological process that produced such uncommon, yet perfectly natural results, and then condemned the innocent person to a life of guilt, while denying him or her the ordinary privileges and fulfillment of the deep longing in all of us for family and a committed, loving relationship.
I am a Christian (but definitely not a Mormon :-) who strongly believes that God deliberately created and loves each and every one of us - straight or gay, sinner or saint - and His kingdom is open to all believers.
From Blurbomat - Mormons to Professor: “Later” (the comments are worth reading :)
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If only more of the religious people in America, hell, what am I saying, more in the world were as tolerant as you. The world would be a much, much safer place on so many levels.
Hi Ewan. We have met. I work at Sesalos (where Claire used to work) and am married to Caron (Oxford now Crundwell ie Alistair's friend) Firstly, I have applied for a position od sound composer at Derivco, something I am very excited about! I know you do get asked this a bit but if there is any advice you could give me about my application, I would appreciate every word of it. Secondly, I stumbled over your blog quite by accident and really like your open, non-judgemental attitude towards this very sensitive issue. I think this is the love all non-Christians should see when they see us.
Thaks for your time, I hope to hear from you.
Best
Dave Crundwell