Northern Lights

In the most recent installment of the Mormon Stories Podcast, and in part one of a series on the Spirituality of the rising LDS generation, John Dehlin interviews John Kovalenko, a musician, a current BYU student majoring in Violin Performance, and church believer. John also discusses same-sex attraction as a young, believing Mormon and BYU student.

NOTE: A link to the audio of this interview has been added to the North Star website to the News & Society Podcasts & Radio Interviews page, and the embedded video has been added to the Library Videos & Documentaries page.

Spirituality of the Rising LDS Generation, Part 1 — “Flexibility”: An interview with John Kovalenko
Host: John Dehlin
Mormon Stories Podcast and Blog - September 28, 2007

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The October Ensign article by Elder Holland is now online, for those of you who haven’t had the chance to read it yet. It’s also now been added to the North Star Library articles page:

Helping Those Who Struggle with Same-Gender Attraction
Elder Jeffrey R. Holland
Of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
Ensign, October 2007, 41-45

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Last fall, a biochemist and scientific research consultant from New Zealand, Neil Whitehead, co-author with his wife of My Genes Made Me Do It, was in the United States to give a presentation at NARTH on some research he’s done regarding genetic contribution to homosexuality—primarily through twin studies. His wife, Briar, is the author of Craving for Love: Relationship Addiction, Homosexuality, and the God Who Heals.

While Dr. Whitehead was in the US, he was invited to come to Salt Lake City to give a fireside presentation—an abbreviation of his NARTH presentation—sponsored by Evergreen International, which I attended. In some of the discussions on here about the etiology of homosexuality, some of the info he presented kept coming to mind, and I wanted to be able to see a copy of his slide show to re-examine his stats. A copy of that slide show is now online.

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The following ABC News article relates a story of a formerly-married LDS couple featured in the recent “20/20″ exploration of ”Love Won Out,” ”Love in Action,” and “ex-gay” conversion therapies:

The Toughest Call: Conversion Therapy
Jennifer Lee Had a Tough Choice to Make When She Found Out Her Husband Is Gay

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So, apparently there are no gays in Iran. Who knew?

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/09/25/2042189.htm 

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Beck’s latest two posts have inspired me to get around to posting something that’s been forming in the back of my mind for a while. Over the last few years I have come to realize that most of the change I’m ever going to effect in my life is going to happen in a small arena. I used to be pretty idealistic and I wanted to “change the world”. The world, however, is a pretty big place. It will only change gradually, and it might just be better to focus on things that are a little more manageable. It’s also easier to see the small, local changes and rejoice in them. So, while “the Church” may or may not be amenable to homosexual members, I’m heartened to notice attitudes changing in many areas.

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The first to reason by way of analogy was the devil.

- Shiite saying

A recent comment affirming that being gay does not equal being handicapped reminded me that this draft has been sitting around for a while waiting to see the light of day. I’ve heard similar objections more than once, and each time I’m left with the question: what’s so wrong with being handicapped?

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Article runs soon after ‘unwanted homosexuality’ group meets
LDS Church to publish new look at same-sex attraction
By Peggy Fletcher Stack
The Salt Lake Tribune - Sept 18, 2007

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A friend of told me today that the October Ensign will have an article on same-gender attraction written by Elder Holland. They wrote:

“I read Elder Holland’s article in the October Ensign, which I just got in French (I guess the languages come out before English does). I think you will be pleased. His emphasis seemed to be on inclusion and was addressed to all the members as much as to the ssa individual. I may have missed some nuances in the French, but overall I think the tone was very positive.”

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A few weeks ago, I attended a conference where Terryl Givens gave a presentation related to a new book he’s working on, When Souls had Wings: Preexistence in Western Thought. His focus was primarily on non-LDS sources. Since then I’ve spent most of my personal gospel study time focusing on the concept of pre-mortal existence in Mormon thought—scriptural statements on, or allusions to, the concept; the historical evolution of its introduction into the Latter-day Saint theological framework; etc.

I came across one statement recently that I’ve been chewing on. In the Proclamation on the Family, it talks about the eternality of gender. Joseph Smith, while he did make some specific statements about the eternal nature of matter and of man’s existence—that s/he was never created or made and has co-existed eternally with God—none of the early published statements that talk about a “spirit birth” came from him, if I understand correctly. There is evidence that he taught the idea privately to some, and they’ve then openly taught it, but it wasn’t until shortly after his death that the idea of a concept of a premortal “spirit birth” started to be more openly published.

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