 Randall Thacker |
 Karin Hendricks |
 Tina Richerson |
Karin Hendricks will serve as Spiritual Director to help those in need
by Randall Thacker, Affirmation President
This past Saturday I joined our Affirmation groups in Latin America for a Skype conference. Participants included individuals from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, and Venezuela (hopefully, I didn’t miss any). Brus Leguás Contreras from Chile and Remigio from Brazil organized the virtual gathering.
When the session opened for discussion, participants raised a lot of questions to each other with the overwhelming theme being, “Am I, or when will I be worthy in the eyes of the Church?” As I listened my soul felt heavy, just thinking of how much spiritual healing is needed, considering the vast number of LGBT Mormons worldwide wrestling with these same concerns. As the discussion continued I heard mature voices reassure others that the most important thing was to develop a relationship with God and consider worthiness in the eyes of their Lord independent of the Church’s approval of their authentic lives.
After the call I reflected back on my own journey to realizing God’s approval of me as a gay man. In the summer of 2007, a gay married couple, friends of mine, invited me to their Unitarian Church in Washington, DC. I had not attended the LDS Church regularly for many years or any church and had given up on receiving Heavenly approval of my life. The opening song that day was Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing, a favorite of mine that I had not heard in years. As I stood and sang the words, “Prone to wander Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love,” tears streamed down my face and I felt the Lord saying to me, “Randall, I’m here for you, I love you as you are, and you can reach out to me whenever you need me.” The spiritual healing that day was tremendous.
During our leadership meeting in Washington, DC two weeks ago, one of the things we discussed was the need that many have to reconcile, heal, and grow spiritually. In an effort to help LGBTQ Mormons who are seeking spiritual “affirmation” and reconciliation, we are pleased to announce that Karin Hendricks has offered to serve in a new capacity of Spiritual Director, acting as an advisor to individuals who are attempting to reconcile their sexuality with their spirituality. In addition, she and her partner Tawnya (who is trained in expressive arts therapy) will work together to “develop workshops, groups, and processes for helping people reconcile, heal, and grow spiritually” (a key action item from our January leadership meeting). We also plan to engage other existing resources and partnering organizations outside of Affirmation to help us with this effort.
In Karin’s words, “Tawnya and I are thrilled to serve in this work. We have a great love and appreciation for all of God’s children, and we look forward to helping others recognize and kindle the divinity they already hold inside.” Karin will step down from her administrative role as Vice President in order to completely devote her time and effort to meeting one-on-one with LGBTQ individuals who are in need of spiritual support and counsel. Tina Richerson has accepted to take on the Vice President role. Thank you Karin and Tina!
Randall Thacker
I happen to be reading “Gay Spirituality” by Toby Johnson. I picked up this Lamda Literary winner because Toby is my new editor and I wanted to be familiar with this own writing, but I have been stunned how insightful his commentary is and how directly it can be applied to Mormonism. It is very much worth the time of those who are looking for increased spirituality and understanding of gospel principles from a gay perspective.
What would happen if I told you all that I have had several life-changing experiences these last few years that have shown me, that, without a doubt, the Church has very little to offer regarding whether or not I’m worthy in the sight of God? And that such experiences ALL took place in the Sacred Grove across the past three summers.
What would happen if I told you that it is time to reaffirm that as post-Catholic and post-Protestant Christians, that we are all invited to reaffirm our unique place in this arena, whereby we are invited to the Lord’s supper not because we OBEY our ecclestiastical authorities but because we HONOR them. In other words, we are not supposed to stay stuck on fearing them as little children. We are supposed to press forward (as Saints are called to do) in the true essence of progression as adults.
What would happen if I told you that I was instructed by the Lord in the Sacred Grove to marry my husband, Ben, and that He would guide me through the thickets of oppression, through the fog of confusion and through the vitriol of evil-hearted men and women, and that if I remained first-class in all my dealings with every man, woman and child, that one day, I would live to see a latter day glory that would radiate from every temple on a mountain, from every chapel in a valley, yeah, from every Saint that no longer worried about having clean hands, but rather a pure heart.
This is my testimony to this group – that we are not like the ionic bonds of the periodic table (e.g. NaCl) whereby opposites attract, but rather like the covalent bonds (e.g. He2) whereby likes make a pair. And if such bonds of affection exist in the halls of the high school chemistry class, so much more shall (and do) such bonds of affection exist in the heights of Creation.
Let us pray for all men who cannot see their way past the traditions of men. Let us prove to all men that it is more important to feel the power of truth. Let us ask Apostles to bring this up to the altar of the Lord, even this year. And finally, let us dedicate our lives in such a way that we might live not in remaining chaste, but rather that we might live in humility – hearing the word of the Lord as it comes to each one of us and then taking the mantle of this challenge to become men and women in Christ.
This is beautiful and I suspect will be of great value to those who want to write a personal narrative that in some way includes Mormonism. For those whose path has led elsewhere may they find beauty and happiness as well. Much love and best wishes in all your endeavors.