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This is from Rabbi Shmuley who some may have seen on TV. I love his approach and think that it comes into the neighborhood at least of being consistent with traditional LDS teachings (he opposes gay marriage but favors civil unions).
http://www.shmuley.com/news/details/
A couple of quotes:
The idea here, as I understand it, is that people should learn to be more tolerant of how other people sin (we all sin of course). We would not treat anyone as a pariah on Sunday or socially because they don't pay their tithing, for example, or even if they are guilty of something much more serious like being judgmental and unloving.* I know that the "sin next to murder" thing comes in here but I think there is a good argument that doesn't actually refer to sexual sin.
In any event it is useful to rank sins for purposes of how we receive others? Is there a way we as members of the church could let go of that idea? There are certainly powerful stigmas that attach to some "religious sins," as he calls them, in Christian congregations (not just Mormon ones) but must this be so? Is it possible for us to say, as he suggests "so you don't follow this commandment, okay, that leaves you with more than 600 others to keep you busy?" Food for thought.
*My ranking of sins here is TIC to highlight how little sense I think that makes.
http://www.shmuley.com/news/details/
A couple of quotes:
Some people of faith insist that homosexuality is gravely sinful because the Bible calls it an “abomination.“ But that word appears approximately 122 times in the Bible. Eating nonkosher food is an “abomination” (Deuteronomy 14:3). A woman returning to her first husband after being married in the interim is an “abomination” (Deuteronomy 24:4). Bringing a blemished sacrifice on God’s altar is an abomination (Deuteronomy 17:1). Proverbs goes so far as to label envy, lying and gossip “an abomination to [the Lord]“ (3:32, 16:22). As an orthodox Rabbi, I do not deny the biblical prohibition on male same-sex relationships. I simply place it in context.
The excessive concern about homosexuality...stems from a fundamental misunderstanding of sin. The Ten Commandments were given on two tablets to connote two different kinds of transgression: religious and moral. The first tablet discussed religious transgressions between God and man, such as the prohibitions of idolatry, blasphemy and desecration of the Sabbath. The second tablet contained moral sins between man and his fellow man, like adultery, theft and murder.
Homosexuality is a religious, not a moral, sin. A moral sin involves injury to an innocent party. Who is harmed when two unattached, consenting adults are in a relationship? Homosexuality is akin to the prohibition against lighting fire on the Sabbath or eating bread during Passover; there is nothing immoral about it, but it violates the divine will.
Homosexuality is a religious, not a moral, sin. A moral sin involves injury to an innocent party. Who is harmed when two unattached, consenting adults are in a relationship? Homosexuality is akin to the prohibition against lighting fire on the Sabbath or eating bread during Passover; there is nothing immoral about it, but it violates the divine will.
In any event it is useful to rank sins for purposes of how we receive others? Is there a way we as members of the church could let go of that idea? There are certainly powerful stigmas that attach to some "religious sins," as he calls them, in Christian congregations (not just Mormon ones) but must this be so? Is it possible for us to say, as he suggests "so you don't follow this commandment, okay, that leaves you with more than 600 others to keep you busy?" Food for thought.
*My ranking of sins here is TIC to highlight how little sense I think that makes.
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