Mormon fish gotta fly

The Mormon Foundation for Apologetic Information and Research, otherwise known as Let’s All Take Crazy Pills, is meeting in Sandy this week.

The organization’s role is to reconcile Mormon teachings with realities like homosexuality, race, women’s equality and gravity.

For instance, a gay Mormon man explained to the FAIR gathering Thursday that just because one is attracted to people of the same sex, you don’t have to act on it. Instead, you can follow the church’s teachings and marry a member of the opposite sex or remain celibate. (The concept of being happy or sane apparently wasn’t factored in.)

“Just because somebody is gay does not mean they need a same-sex relationship. We may not choose our attractions, but we do choose our behaviors,” Joshua Johanson told a crowd at the South Towne Expo Center. “My attraction is [toward men], but my desire is to be faithful to my wife. I am here to act and not to be acted upon.”

Fish can choose to fly; birds can choose to swim. It’s that simple.

I see a head explosion in someone’s future.

In another session that wrestled with the sadness among Mormon women caused by their secondary role in the LDS church, where all men are priests, but no women are allowed in that role.  (One study found “Women’s issues” as the major reason women leave the LDS church).

Neylan McBaine, founder of the online Mormon Women Project offered a list of suggestions for increasing women’s stature in the church, including allowing girls to participate in the Pinewood Derby.