What Might God Say to Us?
by Benjamin Dixon
Submitted to Affirmation following The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saint’s reversal of their November 2015 policy changes that prohibited children of LGBTQ parents from being blessed and baptized and characterized members of the church entering into same-sex marriages as apostates. These changes became known within the LGBTQ Mormon community as the “exclusion policy,” “policy of exclusion,” or “PoX.” The day after the reversal of this policy was announced, Nathan Kitchen, President of Affirmation, invited anyone willing to and share their authentic feelings and all their stories of grief, anger, relief, sadness, happiness, confusion, whatever they may be that surround the rescinding this policy. “As President of Affirmation, I want to be sure Affirmation does not hide you or your stories as we move forward,” wrote Kitchen in his invitation. If you have reactions or a story to share about the reversal of the exclusion policy, please send to [email protected]. You can also read other stories and reactions to the reversal of the exclusion policy.
As I’ve been thinking about the overturning of the Exclusion Policy, I’ve been wondering what God would say to us. I think He would say something like this to us, “Dear Children, I cannot tell you yet why this happened, but I beg you, from the bottom of my heart, to forgive me for not being there, for what happened. I feel terrible that you found yourselves in a situation that caused you additional pain. But I’m sure that whatever you said was provoked, even deserved. And everyone says things when they’re worried or stressed. You were expecting to see someone you trusted, but you met the enemy instead. The fault is mine. Someday I’ll explain everything. Meanwhile, I’m still here. Come to me.”
Even though most of this comes from You’ve Got Mail with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan, I feel that God mourns when any of His Children are in agony and pain. I bet that He’s comforting those who’ve taken their lives now and comforting their families that are living now. There are things that are happening that I don’t know why or understand. But I know God does. I’m sure that if it was for our benefit, He’d let us know everything concerning His plan. I look forward to that day when I have an answer to why terrible things were allowed to happen, including allowing the Policy of Exclusion to exist. Meanwhile, I can only hope and have faith that God knows what He’s doing and that things will work out for ALL His Beloved Children.