Sabbath Devotional :: Opening Doors and Hearts Through Curiosity and Compassion

I value maintaining curiosity and compassion for people with a wide spectrum of viewpoints. The gift of curiosity to understand more deeply starts with a desire to understand. The Book of Mormon prophet Alma taught, “if ye will awake and arouse your faculties, . . . even if ye can no more than desire to believe, let this desire work in you” (Alma 32:27). Proverbs encourages curiosity: “incline thine ear unto wisdom, and apply thine heart to understanding;” (Proverbs 2:2).

I desire to incline my ear and apply my heart to understanding by listening to diverse perspectives, especially among those within the Christian world and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Some claim I cannot be a faithful Church member who believes in restored latter-day doctrine yet is uncertain about and waiting for more light surrounding my queer brothers and sisters and how they fit into God’s plan when the current status quo seems unfair. They dictate that if I choose to stay in a family or church, I must fight for for the view they think is right with a loud voice. Otherwise, I must leave my family or church. However, I believe seeking to be tolerant of the spectrum of perspectives will allow us to find more open doors and hearts as we seek to do the work of Christ.

I have come a long way toward increased compassion and love for LGBTQ people. What started with me as curiosity to understand LGBTQ Church members became a profound spiritual experience as I read and listened to many voices of LGBTQ Church members over the course of a few years. I was amazed at their diversity of experience while feeling deeply moved by commonalities regarding the tremendous relief they would feel at being reassured of love and acceptance after coming out to close family and friends. I was changed and enriched by their testimonies of discovering for themselves God’s love for them. My desire increased to create more love and acceptance in my church spaces for queer people who choose to stay. I wanted my arms to be more ready and able to embrace LGBTQ people in my family and community. I distinctly felt the Lord was preparing me for specific experiences ahead in my life.

Sure enough, experiences began to confirm some of the purpose of why the Spirit had been driving my preparation:

running into a dear friend in the temple who had moved away and whose daughter had come out as lesbian months earlier. I was the first friend she felt prompted to tell. I immediately connected her to loving resources and later invited her to and met her at a local event by Richard Ostler. She later mentioned she felt I could be trusted because of the nature of my social media posts over the years and felt our crossing paths that day was a direct answer to her prayers.

speaking up in Relief Society when I felt there were particular women present who needed to hear about how I hoped they felt there was surely a place in my Relief Society for them.

helping a teen son realize the unique position he was in to give love and support after discovering a close friend was gay.

reaching out with increased love toward a closeted family member.

replying immediately with comments and messages of love when a missionary who served in our area and then a former ward member came out to Facebook friends.

attending a high school No Place for Hate committee meeting wherein student leaders of a club for LGBTQ were given the opportunity to be heard and valued.

These sacred person-to-person experiences have been powerful, and I know more will come.

It’s easy to be prescriptive on how others approach any given social issue. It’s also much easier to be compassionate for those being judged than it is to be patient with those casting judgment. However, hearts don’t usually experience real change in response to compulsion or force, and learning from our own experiences is part of God’s plan. Our experiences in mortality involve learning from the diversity of our brothers and sisters.

Elder D. Todd Christofferson has said,

“The diversity we find now in the Church may be just the beginning . . . . It’s not just diversity for diversity’s sake but the fact that people can bring different gifts and perspectives. And the wide range of experience and backgrounds and challenges that people face will show us what really is essential in the gospel of Christ. And much of the rest that’s been, perhaps, acquired over time and is more cultural than doctrinal can slip away, and we can really learn to be disciples. So we’ve, on the one hand, got to be better as a people at receiving and helping and walking together with everybody. And on the other hand, every individual needs to be determined that they’re going to have a place in the kingdom of God, they’re going to have a place in the body of Christ. And others who are thoughtless or careless or worse, can’t prohibit that, can’t drive them away, can’t take it away from them” (Is There a Place for Me?).

There is a place in the body of Christ for a wide spectrum of personalities, volumes, gifts, and paths toward positive change through Christlike love. We may each choose how much work and energy we want to put into maintaining curiosity and deepening compassion as we listen to and encourage others with love and toward love along the complex three-dimensional spectrum of human perspective.