Shulem wrote: ↑Wed Jul 12, 2023 4:10 pm
Understandable, in what way?
Perfectly understandable within the wider context of an evolutionary process. I believe in evolution, don't you? I used to believe in magical young-earth creationist fables until it dawned on me one day that God must be the greatest scientist of all with forever to play with. So he has no reason to fast-forward any part of the great plan. And four billion years of evolution take care of the first five days of Moses's creation allegory (which he may have borrowed from someone else).
And finally homo sapiens emerge, and God says to a prominent one, "Hello Adam, I have a job for you".
So if we evolved from wild animals (the natural man), it makes sense that we learnt to reject those of our group who didn't fit in — like other animals still do. That'll be the ones at the centre of the jocks and Barbie-doll false binary, such as the effeminate boys and butch girls.
We forget how little our progenitors understood pretty much anything at all. That's why we still have flat-Earthers and a bunch of principles that make no sense under scientific scrutiny yet people believe them because they were decreed by a wizard-like prophet when no one understood any better.
So Moses comes along and documents into faith-based society layer upon layer of justification for exiling those who didn't fit. Several more followed in his footsteps adding yet more layers, like the insidious apostle Paul.
And that brings us to the 20th century. Well-meaning general authorities saw what was considered debauchery and simply added yet more layers — because no one had counter-information to challenge them. And they did it with a toxic flourish.
Since then, it seems that few if any have been able to step far enough away from the issues to assess them impartially.
My take on it is what I have posted in a few places recently, that
biology loads the gun —
and society (family, faith, secular) pulls the trigger.
I'm a same-sex attracted man, but I don't believe I was born gay. In fact, I don't believe "gay" and other gender and identity issues are really anything more than a response unintentionally taught by society in a botched attempt at avoiding its greatest fear of being unacceptable and ostracised.
This has gone on too long, sorry. I can't help myself. It positively spews out of me.
I feel contempt for the so-called inspired messages of the past in this respect — such that I did the usual thing of writing a lengthy protest letter to the Office of the First Presidency. But I understand why things happened as they did.
I can also understand why "God' in the personification of my stake patriarch, instructed me to marry a woman and have children. I also know why I was obedient. And now I know why my emotional state continues to be one long slow-motion train-wreck.