Perry Ekimae

  Tyler Perry Note: I get a little sweary at the end.   But it’s fine.   I’m fine.   We’re all fine here.   How are you? Because 2020 sucks, Jacob Hess has delivered a Part 2 to his eloquent and well-written dissertation on Mormons Building Bridges (MBB) and their ilk that is certain to convince all wayward souls to return back to the fold of Mormonism.   In an absolute stunning display of excellent pacing, smooth prose, and entertaining education, Jacob Hess has solved Mormon bigotry, cured the divide between LGBTQ people and the church, and offered up a stunning solution to world hunger.   He also included the chemical formula to a 99% effective COVID vaccine that is going to be available on the market next week. The above is what sarcasm looks like.   Sarcasm is my defense mechanism when I have decided that beating my head against the wall until either the wall breaks or I do is an improper strategy for coping with ignorance, condescendin...

 Tyler Perry I want to preface this essay by saying that the Church has removed this talk from its website, as of August 2019, and the associated pamphlet was discontinued in 2016 [1].   The intent of this essay is not to air the dirty laundry, but to give insight into the influences of how many church members view sex, sexuality, and LGBTQ issues.   The pamphlet was distributed for almost forty years, and it has undoubtedly had an impact on the language, beliefs, and culture of many church members. It was shown to me almost as a joke.   I had never seen the pamphlet before, and when another Elder showed it to me, it seemed silly that this was spoken over the pulpit at General Conference.   The opening of the talk was deliberate and unequivocating, while the body of the speech was filled with corny metaphors and unhelpful, though familiar, advice. “To Young Men Only” was the transcript of a talk by Boyd Packer in the Priesthood Session of the October 1976 Ge...

Tyler Perry The short answer to the question in the title is: no. However, I think that there are some things that are worth looking at and discussing.   Overall, this is some of the most sex positive writings I have seen from the church, but there is still a lot of work to be done in rooting out the harms of purity culture and the lack of queer affirmation. Before getting into that, I want to reference a scripture that is often at the front of my mind when discussing sex and sexuality with members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.   This is a scripture that defined much of my negative attitudes toward sex, masturbation, and my own gay identity for many years. In Alma 39, the prophet Alma, having just given counsel to his two faithful sons, has a longer conversation with his more rebellious son, Corianton.   Corianton had, during his time as a missionary, gone a little too “missionary” on a woman described as “the harlot, Isabel”.   Isabel w...