Community Voices

A Question

By Kim Nordyke Mack
Salt Lake City, UT, USA

A friend of mine asked me the other day, "Why would you choose a religion that goes against such an important part of who you are?" Of course, she wondered why I would choose to be a part of a religion that doesn't "let me" act on my feelings of attraction for women.

I told her it's because it's the right thing for me. Because everything that's been promised me by the leaders of this religion has come to pass. Because it gives me purpose, meaning, fulfillment. Because that's where I find peace and joy. All of these things more so than I have found in another kind of life.

She wondered two additional things. What is truth? Have I tried other religions?

Other religions. I know well what many believe. I have close friends who are Catholics, Lutherans, Baptists. I have seen the beliefs of Assembly of God. I know with all my heart I don't belong in those religions. I am not sure I need to try other religions to know where I belong. I don't need to try being a construction worker to know I'd make a better social worker. But regardless, I know I belong with this religion.

Truth. What is it, she wondered. To this I answered again that for me every promise I have been given has come to pass. That proves to me truth. That's what it means to me. I would add that it's about how I feel when I hear it, try it, apply it—that being that it just feels "right."

I have been thinking since our conversation. A scripture has been coming continually to my mind:

"Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you" (John 15:16).

I think that's part of how I'd answer her question. I didn't choose this religion. It chose me. I think it's a lot like choosing a career or a place to live ... when there are a few options to choose from, sometimes one just feels better than another. Just feels like the "right" one. Feels like where you belong. That's how my religion is for me.

What follows then, for me, is that I get to learn how to make that fit in my life, or rather how to make my life fit into it. I know what I know. I know where I need to be. I get to figure out how to manage all of it, make it fit, and make it feel the way the Lord intends me to feel - at peace, full of joy, with purpose. I've found that right where I am, doing what I'm doing - and not doing what I have been asked to refrain from.

It just feels perfect to me.

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