{"id":5859,"date":"2019-12-16T13:46:35","date_gmt":"2019-12-16T18:46:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/mormontherapist\/?p=5859"},"modified":"2020-01-03T16:09:13","modified_gmt":"2020-01-03T21:09:13","slug":"policy-reversal-process-requires-repentance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mormontherapist\/2019\/12\/policy-reversal-process-requires-repentance.html","title":{"rendered":"Policy Reversal Process requires Repentance"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

My good friend Michael posted this when the LGBT+ policy reversal was announced by the church back in September. So much unnecessary pain and tragedy came from the policy to begin with. I\u2019m glad and thankful the Church was able to auto correct. Although I wish it would follow it\u2019s own repentance process by admitting of wrongdoing and apologizing directly. The idea that Heavenly Father gave a revelation about how to treat LGBT+ members and their family in 2015 and changed His mind in 2018 is insulting to our intelligence as members who have been taught to study, pray, be justice warriors and rely on personal revelation. Suicides happened in this time frame that are a direct result of this policy. As did exacerbations of clinical depression symptoms, anxiety symptoms, and family contention. We will continue to cause damage as a church if we are unable to admit we make mistakes, take responsibility for those mistakes and then do the repair necessary to repair where possible. The travesty of how our church has handled the social justice growth deemed necessary of all organizations, institutions and peoples in our day of coming to terms with LGBT+ equality will go down as yet again, another historical misstep and embarrassment.<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s guest post is written by Michael Adam Ferguson<\/strong>. \u00a0 Opinions shared on guest posts may not completely reflect the positions of the blog\u2019s author.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/i><\/p>\n

Michael Adam Ferguson<\/strong>\u00a0is a Founder and\u00a0Board\u00a0Members We.Exist.LGBT<\/a>\u00a0 and Chair of Ending Conversion Therapy. \u00a0<\/i>He is a \u00a0postdoctoral researcher in cognitive neuroscience at Harvard Medical School and \u00a0former fellow at Cornell University\u2019s Human Neuroscience Institute. His work centers on the interactions of culture and brain.<\/i><\/p>\n

A lot of you in LDS\/exLDS spaces are in pain today. I see you. I wish I could take every one of you out for a milkshake, listen to your heart, and shed a few tears with you.<\/span><\/p>\n

Although it is not as good as a milkshake, I\u2019d like to share a few contemplations in the hope that they may be a little bit of a balm for at least one person who is suffering right now. I\u2019ll call them my friendly reminders (FRs):<\/span><\/p>\n

FR1: You are worthy of peace.<\/span><\/p>\n

FR2: Only you can cultivate peace from within.<\/span><\/p>\n

FR3: It\u2019s not worth witholding happiness from yourself until the whole world approves of you; you\u2019ll be witholding happiness from yourself forever.<\/span><\/p>\n

FR4: Foolish ideas will never be an endangered species of thought.<\/span><\/p>\n

FR5: Rage feels powerful; it also exacts a toll.\"\"<\/span><\/p>\n

FR6: No alchemy transmutes your misery into someone else\u2019s wisdom.<\/span><\/p>\n

FR7: Your joy is fierce resistance.<\/span><\/p>\n

If you still feel like you need some sort of external authority or permission to walk in a way of life-giving love, then by the authority of our shared humanity, I give you that permission.<\/span><\/p>\n

*slurps imaginary milkshake*<\/span>
\n**passes second straw to you**<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n

\"\"Natasha Helfer Parker, LCMFT, CST, CSTS\u00a0can be reached at\u00a0natashaparker.org<\/b><\/a>\u00a0and runs an online practice,\u00a0Symmetry Solutions<\/b><\/a>, which focuses on helping families and individuals with faith concerns, sexuality and mental health. She hosts the\u00a0Mormon Mental Health<\/b><\/a>\u00a0and Mormon Sex Info<\/a><\/strong>Podcasts, is the current past president of the\u00a0Mormon Mental Health Association<\/b><\/a>\u00a0and runs a sex education program,\u00a0Sex Talk with Natasha<\/b><\/a>. She has over 20 years of experience working with primarily an LDS\/Mormon clientele..<\/i><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My good friend Michael posted this when the LGBT+ policy reversal was announced by the church back in September. So much unnecessary pain and tragedy came from the policy to begin with. I\u2019m glad and thankful the Church was able to auto correct. Although I wish it would follow it\u2019s own repentance process by admitting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":766,"featured_media":5865,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[86,20,57,12,214,138,25,170,43],"tags":[202,9,139,270,100,237],"class_list":["post-5859","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-abuse","category-emotional-abuse","category-faith-crisisfaith-transition","category-grief-2","category-lgbtq-2","category-mindfulness","category-righteousness","category-spirituality","category-temple-issues","tag-faith-crisis","tag-grief","tag-mindfulness","tag-righteousness","tag-spirituality","tag-temple-issues"],"yoast_head":"\nPolicy Reversal Process requires Repentance<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"My good friend Michael posted this when the LGBT+ policy reversal was announced by the church back in September. So much unnecessary pain and tragedy came\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mormontherapist\/2019\/12\/policy-reversal-process-requires-repentance.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Policy Reversal Process requires Repentance\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"My good friend Michael posted this when the LGBT+ policy reversal was announced by the church back in September. So much unnecessary pain and tragedy came\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mormontherapist\/2019\/12\/policy-reversal-process-requires-repentance.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Mormon Therapist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-12-16T18:46:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-01-03T21:09:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/153\/2019\/09\/screen_2x.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"512\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"768\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Natasha Helfer\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Natasha Helfer\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mormontherapist\/2019\/12\/policy-reversal-process-requires-repentance.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mormontherapist\/2019\/12\/policy-reversal-process-requires-repentance.html\",\"name\":\"Policy Reversal Process requires Repentance\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mormontherapist\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2019-12-16T18:46:35+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-01-03T21:09:13+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mormontherapist\/#\/schema\/person\/78971842fa93736d2376df2cd2ea8f54\"},\"description\":\"My good friend Michael posted this when the LGBT+ policy reversal was announced by the church back in September. So much unnecessary pain and tragedy came\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mormontherapist\/2019\/12\/policy-reversal-process-requires-repentance.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mormontherapist\/2019\/12\/policy-reversal-process-requires-repentance.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mormontherapist\/2019\/12\/policy-reversal-process-requires-repentance.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mormontherapist\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Policy Reversal Process requires Repentance\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mormontherapist\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mormontherapist\/\",\"name\":\"The Mormon Therapist\",\"description\":\"A safe, confidential "advice column" to get your questions answered.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mormontherapist\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mormontherapist\/#\/schema\/person\/78971842fa93736d2376df2cd2ea8f54\",\"name\":\"Natasha Helfer\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mormontherapist\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/85a797b548b6d0665ff186fb58c34aa3?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/85a797b548b6d0665ff186fb58c34aa3?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Natasha Helfer\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/natashaparker.org\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mormontherapist\/author\/natashaparker\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Policy Reversal Process requires Repentance","description":"My good friend Michael posted this when the LGBT+ policy reversal was announced by the church back in September. So much unnecessary pain and tragedy came","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mormontherapist\/2019\/12\/policy-reversal-process-requires-repentance.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Policy Reversal Process requires Repentance","og_description":"My good friend Michael posted this when the LGBT+ policy reversal was announced by the church back in September. So much unnecessary pain and tragedy came","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mormontherapist\/2019\/12\/policy-reversal-process-requires-repentance.html","og_site_name":"The Mormon Therapist","article_published_time":"2019-12-16T18:46:35+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-01-03T21:09:13+00:00","og_image":[{"width":512,"height":768,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/153\/2019\/09\/screen_2x.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Natasha Helfer","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Natasha Helfer","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mormontherapist\/2019\/12\/policy-reversal-process-requires-repentance.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mormontherapist\/2019\/12\/policy-reversal-process-requires-repentance.html","name":"Policy Reversal Process requires Repentance","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mormontherapist\/#website"},"datePublished":"2019-12-16T18:46:35+00:00","dateModified":"2020-01-03T21:09:13+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mormontherapist\/#\/schema\/person\/78971842fa93736d2376df2cd2ea8f54"},"description":"My good friend Michael posted this when the LGBT+ policy reversal was announced by the church back in September. So much unnecessary pain and tragedy came","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mormontherapist\/2019\/12\/policy-reversal-process-requires-repentance.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mormontherapist\/2019\/12\/policy-reversal-process-requires-repentance.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mormontherapist\/2019\/12\/policy-reversal-process-requires-repentance.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mormontherapist"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Policy Reversal Process requires Repentance"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mormontherapist\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mormontherapist\/","name":"The Mormon Therapist","description":"A safe, confidential "advice column" to get your questions answered.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mormontherapist\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mormontherapist\/#\/schema\/person\/78971842fa93736d2376df2cd2ea8f54","name":"Natasha Helfer","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mormontherapist\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/85a797b548b6d0665ff186fb58c34aa3?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/85a797b548b6d0665ff186fb58c34aa3?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Natasha Helfer"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/natashaparker.org"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mormontherapist\/author\/natashaparker"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mormontherapist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5859","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mormontherapist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mormontherapist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mormontherapist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/766"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mormontherapist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5859"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mormontherapist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5859\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mormontherapist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mormontherapist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mormontherapist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mormontherapist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}