The Last Human Broadcast

So, this is the letter I wrote in response to Aaron's story.



I realize that this may never be read, but as a group
who seeks so vigorously to be accurately represented
and understood, it hurts your case to misrepresent
others.

I finished reading your "x gay" letter from an ex
communicated member of the mormon church. I
sympathize with him, and understand that his struggle
must have been immensely difficult.

His struggle and obvious resentent of the church,
however understandable, gives him no excuse to
intentionally misrepresent it. I suggest that if you
use his letter as a persuasive tool, you get your
facts straight. Otherwise, you look as bad as those
fundamentalists whose beliefs and methods you protest,
and stoop to their level in combatting them with
rumors, lies, and a formative "pre existing prejudice"
(to use your site's language).

I am a returned missionary, and a life long member of
the Mormon church. While I agree that there exists
much prejudice and misunderstanding in the community
of the church as concerns gay people, we are not a
pack a sex obsessed monsters, as easy and as
convenient as that is for you to believe. And the
church is certainly not on a witch hunt. It is an
institution with beleifs and standards, which attempts
to help those with desires to live them to do so.
Your painting us in one dimension does you no credit,
and weakens your argument.

Let me correct a couple of the many misrepresentations
that Aaron (if he grew up a member of the church)
knowingly presented.

1) The church and the missionary program do not ask
and have no policy encouraging Elders to stand outside
the bathroom to wait upon their companions. While
such an arrangement could have been made at the
suggestion of Aarons fellow elders or leaders, it is
not common, and is not church policy. I served a
full, two year mission, as did many of my closest
friends, and none of us has ever heard of such a
policy being implemented. It sounds strange to us.

2) Homosexuality is in not the third most grevious
sin in Mormon Docitrine. Adultry is. Sex (hetero or
homosexual) which occurs outside the bonds of marriage
is considered grevious, and is scripturally marked as
the sin second only to the shedding of blood. Aaron's
suggesting that that particular doctrine has ever been
taught in the way he presented it is a blatant lie
that i must assume he created to shape his stories
fictional antagonaist in an image suiting his
assertions (facts twisted to justify a pre existing
prejudice). Regardless our disagreements concerning
the role of sex in human life, let us be fair to one
another concerining them.

Nowhere in Mormon scripture are gays set aside and
persecuted. Nowhere in The Book of Mormon is
homosexuality even mentioned. Aaron knows this, and
was trying to present us falsely to strengthen his
point. He does it often in his letter, and as I said,
to anyone who knows, it hurts your case. At any rate,
it makes you no better than those whose views and
methods you oppose.

Please do not paint our docrtine an off white. It is
the most cherished thing I posess. I am fully aware
of the struggle that homosexual members of my church
face. I live in the heart of San Francisco, and have
close, openly gay relatives. The church does not
approve of mistreating homosexual people, and has
implimented no policy to persecute and demean them.
Don not let your site confuse doctrine with culture.
I wish you success in your attempt to be understood.
Please assist me in mine.

Regards,

Cameron Pipkin