Still on the Plains

What a lovely surprise to see a short piece from No More Goodbyes printed as “An Olive Leaf” in issue 162.

By way of synchronicity, the mail carrier who brought the magazine today took with him a copy of No More Goodbyes that I had signed and placed on my mailbox to go to one of our dear gay young people still “on the plains” in a harsh winter. This is the note I received via Facebook this morning:

 

I live in Utah . . . I visit teach a woman who believes that she was told in general conference to kick her gay daughter to the curb. I did my best to dissuade her, but that mother believed she was doing God’s will, and now the daughter is in the hospital, stomach pumped, wrists and ankles tethered. I suppose this is a simple message to say, please keep speaking out in charity and kindness and love and acceptance and never stop. Thank you.

 

We Mormons will look back on this era with such shame. I ask that all of us do more than we are doing now. Speak to your bishop, to your stake president. Write to a general authority. Speak out in church. There is too much pain. In our “people church,” many are ready to accept our gay brothers and sisters as full members of our community. In our “institutional church,” the tiny steps forward are shamefully insufficient.

Blessings as you carry on your good work.

Carol Lynn Pearson

Walnut Creek, California

App Rocks

Hey, I downloaded Sunstone’s new app on my iPad, and I must say, it rocks! The color is stunning, the text is crisp, and I love the embedded video and links. You’ve just made a subscriber for life.

My church activity has definitely increased since getting the app. No longer do I play Plants vs. Zombies when the lesson is boring. Instead, I righteously open the Sunstone app and do a bit of reading. Once, I even lifted a quote from an article to share during a class discussion. They were very impressed with its insight.

May the Sunstone app roll forth and fill the earth!

Jon Fenster

Tallahassee, Florida