BYU Professor Invites “Gay” Students to Make Presentations
at Meeting on Campus
BYU Sociology Professor Charlie Morgan has scheduled a meeting on campus where students will share their stories of what it’s like to be gay at BYU. A Standard of Liberty subscriber sent us the attached picture of a flier being circulated around campus, which states that the meeting, scheduled for April 4, 2012, 7:00 p.m., in room 445 of the MARB, is sponsored by the BYU Sociology department.
SoL called and spoke with Professor Morgan and Renata Forste, the department chairman. When asked why the meeting was being held, we were told that BYU students need a greater understanding of homosexual attraction in order to be kinder and more accepting of students who experience it. We were told these gay students are keeping the law of chastity and are not acting out sexually, so there is no honor code issue involved.
We wondered how Prof. Morgan could know this, if all students who will attend the meeting have been screened for sexual abuse done to them or by them, or for wrong ideas and attitudes about sex and sexuality, or for current sexual impurity, how this is being defined, and if the gay students have told the truth. Homosexual behaviors are by nature practiced and spread in secret, BYU being no exception. Our book Captain of My Soul, the true story of a young man’s dark past experience during his freshman year at BYU ten years ago getting initiated into homosexual behaviors by older men via chat rooms and phone calls, shines the light on the grim reality of these covered sins. If there really are any innocent, clueless students jumping on the now public gay bandwagon for the novelty, youthful rebelliousness, sense of belonging, special attention, or politics of it, they had better find out quick what gayness really is –and so had Prof. Morgan – or they won’t be innocent or ignorant for long. They will be recruited in earnest.
When we suggested that giving talks promoting being gay at BYU was advocating for homosexuality we were reminded that claiming a gay sexual orientation is no longer an honor code issue. It’s true that BYU, pressured by activists, changed its honor code in 2007 to allow open homosexual self-identification, but according to the honor code itself, advocating toward unchastity of any kind (and homosexuality is always unchaste) is most certainly still an honor code issue. We quote: “As a matter of personal commitment, faculty, administration, staff, and students of Brigham Young University seek to demonstrate in daily living on and off campus those moral virtues encompassed in the gospel of Jesus Christ . . . In addition, students may not influence or seek to influence others to engage in behavior inconsistent with the Honor Code . . .” [emphasis ours]
The question is, how can homosexuality be all right in principle, as in homosexual attraction, but wrong in practice, as in homosexual behavior? If we concede that it is right in principle, isn’t the next step to accept the practice, even celebrate it? Mustn’t we?
Gay activism has done a great job presenting homosexuality as harmless, equal to heterosexuality, even virtuous, honest, praiseworthy. But homosexuality is not harmless, natural to the human body, chaste, pure, or wholesome in any form. The very nature of homosexuality is out of bounds. When SoL asserted that the basis of so-called same-gender attraction is same-sex sexual attraction, which is unchaste just as adulterous lust is unchaste, nourished by sinful thoughts and feelings, Prof. Morgan disagreed. He said there are many aspects to same-gender attraction: emotional, social, physical. This may be so for some, but it is sexuality alone that separates gayness from nonsexual same-sex relationships. Emotional and social attraction between members of the same sex is normal and acceptable; it’s called friendship. The only thing that makes “same-gender attraction” controversial is the fact that it is sexual in nature. The desire of homosexual attraction (lust) is a romantic, physically intimate, sexual relationship. Denying this is naive in the extreme. As to acting out sexually, Church resources have indicated that inappropriate same-sex behavior includes all private intimate physical behaviors as well as holding hands, hugging, kissing, etc. In addition, everyone should know that same-sex pornography, internet gay chat rooms, phone calls, support groups such as BYU’s USGA (Understanding Same Gender Attraction) and all other gatherings supporting homosexual inclinations also play a huge role in justifying and inflaming these desires.
SoL has attended meetings of BYU groups who claim to be all about helping others understand homosexual attraction. There are internet sites where interested people participate in discussions and report on these meetings. They are all about affirming anyone’s gay proclivities regardless of traumatic causes and harmful effects. Homosexual advocacy is about affirming, embracing, and celebrating the idea, the whole idea of homosexuality, including behavior. It’s about redefining marriage to include gay temple marriage. BYU teachers and students who pretend this isn’t so need to wise up.
What is striking is that these meetings and sites never talk about overcoming homosexual attraction. Speakers are invited who confirm and praise the gay orientation. No one speaks or advocates for the immeasurable worth of all souls, for purity, chastity, healing, or repentance, for overcoming the natural man. No one is invited to speak or advocate for schooling one’s feelings, seeking the Spirit to discern between absolute truth and error, or for rooting out and conquering wrong thought patterns, homosexual attractions, and sex addiction. Indeed, wisdom and knowledge and everlastingly true, gospel-based principles are taboo in these settings. Where is the kindness, support, and understanding for the valiant student silently struggling to overcome unwanted homosexual thoughts and feelings? Where are the resources?
Prof. Morgan related that the BYU counseling center no longer works with students on overcoming homosexual attractions, but merely on learning how to deal with them. So, according to this professor, young people are being told, without the benefit of knowledge and understanding as to how this came about and the spiritual, mental, and physical health dangers, that gay is the way they are, and here’s how to accept it. There is no concern for the mortal testing, temporal future, or eternal soul of the young person, no understanding of their impressionable, impulsive, and fallen human nature, no interest in past or future suffering, and no cheering for righteousness, excellence, and nobleness, only what appears to be a perverse motivation to advance the current worldly whim. Can this travesty be true? Perhaps partly. But we happen to know there are still some right-thinking people at BYU, including at the Counseling Center and send them our prayers.
Suicidal feelings and attempts, and depression are always mentioned by those promoting the social acceptance of youth homosexuality. Our conversation with Prof. Morgan was no exception; these serious problems are always ridiculously simplified to putting the blame on others. A victim mentality passes off personal responsibility and never helped anyone. Young people who feel suicidal or depressed are immature and easily persuaded, distracted, and recruited into all sorts of escapist causes and addictions. These problems may have less to do with sexuality than with the terrible conflict between right and wrong raging in the soul. There may be mental illness, as in the famous but misrepresented case of Stuart Matis. Many may desperately need clinical and medical attention. Tragically, the deep core issues are not being emphasized or even addressed. Instead, all is focused on the popular and politicized, self-identified gayness of the sick person.
Apart from mental illness, it takes humility and repentance and an abandonment of sinful desires possible through Christ in order to change and improve ourselves. This can happen to everyone. In fact, thousands of people with homosexual tendencies and lifestyles have left it all behind. And yet BYU is embracing the lowest common denominator by fostering the idea that this probably cannot and therefore need not be done, that once an impressionable young person growing up in our oversexed, pro-gay environment has thought, felt, or experimented with homosexual sexuality to any degree, they are to be labeled and identified by authority figures, not as a human being with sins to overcome like everyone else, but as a special person who gets a pass from natural man sinfulness and will be gay for the rest of his or her life.
We asked Prof. Morgan if he had anyone scheduled to speak who had a story to tell about successfully overcoming homosexual attraction. He said no, that he could not find any. It was suggested to him that he had not tried to find any, which he did not deny. SoL wants to know why someone would invite people to talk about a heart-breaking, soul-destroying situation some suffering people find themselves in, and not at the same event have someone there to give hope that they can leave the misery behind and live a normal life?
This meeting, where young people with homosexual attractions will talk about how okay SGA is, and how bad they have it at BYU, is ill-conceived. Not only will it not be helpful, it will be harmful, harmful to the souls of those giving the talks, harmful to those young minds listening who will be supported in covering both inward and outward sins and initiated further into homosexuality, and harmful to all those these people come in contact with.
SoL remembers that just a couple of years ago, being openly gay and advocating for homosexuality was considered against the honor code. Apparently it’s perfectly fine now, no matter what the honor code still states about unchastity. This shows that rules and codes and laws don’t matter so much as the popular consciousness does. Where is our will? Is it with God, with teaching His timeless correct and saving principles no matter how unpopular, or is it with the sycophantic political correctness of the day?
Ironically, our books promoting traditional values, God’s plan, teaching children proper attitudes about sexuality, the why of chastity, and a true story of overcoming homosexuality are available at the BYU Bookstore:
My Darling From the Lions
Me Tarzan, You Jane
Chased by an Elephant, the Gospel Truth about Today’s Stampeding Sexuality
Captain of My Soul
If you are concerned about this trend at BYU and the influence it is undoubtedly having on young people, we encourage you to write and call any or all of the BYU/LDS church officials listed below and ask them to cancel the meeting. Tell your friends about this and ask them to call and write. You could also call offices of General Authorities of the Church, 801-240-1000, and alert them. Letters are good, but phone calls are the fastest way of getting through.
Professor Charlie Morgan. 801-422-3652
BYU Sociology Department
2025 JFSB
Provo UT 84602
Renata Forste. 801-422-3146
BYU Sociology Department Chairman
2008C JFSB
Provo UT 84602
Dean Ben Ogles. 801-422-2084
BYU College of Family, Home and Social Sciences
990C SWKT
Provo UT 84602
Carri Jenkins. 801-422-1166
BYU Communications
C-341 ASB
Provo UT 84602
Janet Scharman. 801-422-2387
BYU VP of Student Life
A-333 ASB
Provo UT 84602
Cecil O. Samuelson. 801-422-2521
BYU President
D-346 ASB
Provo UT 84602
LDS Church Public Affairs
801-240-1000
--Stephen and Janice Graham, Standard of Liberty
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