I like your imagery of bearing their cross.

Last night I was talking with my wife (she and I both come from rural, conservative backgrounds), and she told me that she had been exploring the Church’s newly revamped website mormonandgay.lds.org. The thing that shocked me the most was the amount of empathy she was able to develop for her gay brothers and sisters in such a short period of time. The videos were really able to put her into their shoes for a few minutes, and it made a big difference in her perception and compassion. (Not exactly “bearing their cross,” but a positive thing, nonetheless.)

The fact that the website is now a subdomain of lds.org and is being translated into 37 languages is a relatively “small and simple thing”, but I think great things will come to pass because of it.

Obviously, the question of what God really does and does not condone is at play underneath the tension. I’m guessing/hoping we will see more specific revelation as time moves on.