BYU Devotional with President Russell M. Nelson
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What the LGBT 2015 Policy and a BYU Devotional Taught Me about Choosing Faith

Sarah Jane Weaver
09/20/19 | 3 min read
If I could return to November 5, 2015, my prayers would be different. I would simply ask my Heavenly Father to know if the prophets and apostles had sought His will regarding His law. I would ask to feel His love for me and for my LGBT friends and relatives. And then I would wait, knowing that it would work.

On November 5, 2015, I was driving on Interstate 15 in Salt Lake City when I first learned of changes to Church handbook policy regarding same-gender couples and their children.

My coworker spoke quickly. I could tell he had run to the telephone. He did not have all the information, but he had heard that the Church would “not bless or baptize children of LGBT parents.”

“That can’t be right,” I said.

I pulled off the road and read a news article that I found on my phone.

Then something happened to me. First, I questioned. Then I cried. I called my husband and told him that the Church, for the first time in my life, felt unfamiliar. He listened as my mind rushed. Finally, we determined to put my doubts in a theoretical box and deal with them at a later date. He insisted on that day that we choose faith over fear.

I returned to the office and wrote a Church News article on the policy.

A few days later, my cousin—who is gay— called me to talk. He mentioned the policy, but I had stored my feelings away in the theoretical box and did not respond to his comments. Women in my Relief Society also wanted to talk about the policy, but all I could do was quote the Church’s statement. My high school friends got together for lunch, and for three hours they talked about the policy and our testimonies. “I have a box,” I told them.

“We choose faith over fear.”

I remember how it felt when, on November 13, 2015, I read a First Presidency letter clarifying in the policy their concern about the “current and future well-being” of children. And I remember how it felt when I watched a video interview of Elder D. Todd Christofferson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles speaking about the policy. He said, “This is about family; this is about love and especially the love of the Savior.” I also remember learning that Elder Quentin L. Cook of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles loved and supported many people in the LGBT community as a stake president years earlier when living in San Francisco.

This year I cried again when President Dallin H. Oaks, First Counselor in the First Presidency, announced on April 4 that children of parents who identify themselves as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender may now be blessed as infants and baptized in the Church without First Presidency approval. I realized that while I was in my theoretical box, the issue had changed for me. Understanding had come slowly and completely.

BYU Devotional with President Russell M. Nelson

This week, as I sat in the BYU Marriott Center and listened to President Russell M. Nelson speak, I quietly rejoiced. It wasn’t that I needed clarification on the policy; that had come already. It wasn’t that I had felt a prophet’s love for me and for young adults in the Marriott Center and all across the globe. And it wasn’t that the Church that felt unfamiliar to me on November 5, 2015, now felt like the only home where I could or would ever safely reside.

It was a simple, profound thought that consumed me. I knew it was true. President Nelson had given me a pattern that had eliminated my need for a box. I understood God’s love and laws.

I knew five truths: (1) God loves me, His daughter, (2) eternal laws direct my life and are simply true, (3) great blessings and happiness will come to me as I learn and live by God’s laws, (4) prophets and apostles speak for the Lord and will always teach those laws, and (5) I can know all these things for myself. A loving, caring Heavenly Father—and those who lead His Church on earth—weep when I weep.

I don’t need a box.

If I could return to November 5, 2015, my prayers would be different. I would simply ask my Heavenly Father to know if the prophets and apostles had sought His will regarding His law. I would ask to feel His love for me and for my LGBT friends and relatives. And then I would wait, knowing that it would work. As President Nelson once taught a prominent professor who asked about the laws governing the heart, and as he has now taught all of us, “It always works, because it is based on divine law.”


Sarah Jane Weaver
Sarah Jane Weaver is the editor of the Church News. Her favorite assignments include reporting on temple dedications and writing about Latter-day Saints around the world. She lives in Sandy, Utah, with her husband and daughters.
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