jtavington:
If we’re going to reach actual gay humans, we’ve got to drop the “gay lifestyle” canard because it’s just not reality in 2018.
Indeed. Language like that serves only to drive people away from the Church. Not only gays and lesbians, but anyone else who has friends or family members that are LGBT.
I know quite a few people who have drifted from the Church over the years, and the Church’s treatment of LGBT people factored into a lot of their decisions. One of them told me, “Who wants to be around a bunch of homophobes?” I know where he is coming from. On this forum alone, there is no shortage of posts that are dripping with hatred of LGBT people, justified under the name of religion. I wouldn’t want to be around any of the posters like that, either.