In September, Brent and I went to New York City to attend a party to celebrate my aunt’s wedding to her partner of nearly 40 years. It was a quick trip, but we managed to squeeze in the Book of Mormon musical. We left our apartment in the morning and stumbled upon a huge street fair, where we looked at all sorts of items that people were hawking and tried various treats (including fried oreos!). We walked by the Museum of Natural History and then to the Manhattan church building and temple. We went inside to check out the building (none of us had ever been inside before), sang the opening hymn of a big Single Adults conference meeting, and then headed back out to the street to finish walking to Times Square and eventually to the Eugene O’Neill theater, where we saw the Book of Mormon musical. We laughed and cried and laughed some more. It was irreverent and touching and crude and uplifting–all at the same time.
![img_6176](https://dovesandserpents.org/wp-content/gallery/bofm-musical-nyc/img_6176.jpg "I think these vendors might need to work on their business name a bit: \\"Interesting Items\\" . . .?")
![img_6218_1](https://dovesandserpents.org/wp-content/gallery/bofm-musical-nyc/img_6218_1.jpg "Not sure what this church \\"annex\\" is, but since this was for a Ride to *Church*, I snapped a picture.")
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My best friend has lived in Manhattan since 2000 and is a member of that Unitarian church. I’ve met Reverand McNatt when I went to Bible study with my best friend once and she led it. She’s an amazing woman. She really wanted to hear my insights as a Mormon and was very respectful, like I’ve found most UUs to be.
I’m so jealous of your NYC trip. But then I remind myself that I’m going there this Spring to introduce my daughter into the NYC love. I feel connected to something when I’m there and I think it’s because all of my paternal ancestors came through Ellis island and even helped settle Long Island.
Love this. Thanks heather!
Inhave always found these “multipurpose” rooms like the one you Photographed in the LDS building are so practical that the same floor space for basketball and devotional worship, just not at the same time. I’m not convinced it is a virtue.
The deep dark secret of the homosexual community is the high percentage of its members that seek out sex with underage boys. Consider the following:
” * The Gay Report, published by homosexual researchers Jay and Young in 1979, revealed that 73 percent of homosexuals surveyed had at some time had sex with boys 16 to 19 years of age or younger.
* Although homosexuals account for less than two percent of the population. they constitute about a third of child molesters. Further, as noted by the Encino, Calif.-based National Association for research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH), “since homosexual pedophiles victimize far more children than do heterosexual pedophiles, it is estimated that approximately 80 percent or pedophile victims are boys who have been molested by adult males.
* A nationwide investigation of child molestation in the Boy Scouts from 1971 to 1991 revealed that more than 2,000 boys reported molestations by adult Scout leader.
* A study of Canadian pedophiles has shown that 30 percent of those studied admitted to having engaged In homosexual acts as adults, and 91 percent of the molesters of non-familial boys admitted to no lifetime sexual contact other than homosexual!” (Source)
Christie, I’m not sure why you’ve decided to dive bomb a post that has nothing to do with homosexuality with questionable statistics from questionable sources, NARTH has an anti-homosexual agenda and The Gay Report has largely been discredited due to methodological flaws and the general unreliability of surveys in scientific studies. Equating homosexuality with pedophilia is a common and particularly nasty scare tactic, which is not in keeping with the open minds and kind hearts we try to nurture on D&S. Please be more careful that your comments relate to the content of posts and your statistics are accurate.
Christie, two quick comments (just in case you’re interesting in actually thinking): 1) If you push something underground (by demonizing it, marginalizing it, etc.), then what happens to it? If we, as a society and a church, stopped telling gay men and women that they are less human than the rest of us, and then treated them equally, do you really think that there would be more gay men going after young boys than straight men going after young girls?, and 2) I’m not even sure that my first comment is applicable, really (for the reasons that Heidi outlined)–I suspect that right now, as I write this, that the percentage of straight men going after underage girls is just as alarming as the percentages you cite (if not more so).
What is amazing to me is how many people cite statistics like the ones you cited above and pretend they mean something. Other alarming statistics that follow the same logic: 1) 99% of individuals in the process of starving to death demonstrate an alarming lack of table manners if given food (therefore, we shouldn’t give starving people food, because they’ll just make a mess with it. . . if they had table manners like the rest of us, then it would be different), 2) 89% of adults that have received tickets for texting while driving are more careful to keep their phone lower in their lap (so that it’s not visible from outside the car) the next time they text while driving, 3) . . . [and so on].
The point is that the statistics you cite above, even IF accurate, are competely worthless, given the social stigma of homosexuality in society (which biases the results). If your point is that homosexuality is correlated to sexual deviance to a greater extent than heterosexuality, then you would have to produce statistics regarding sexual practices in both communities under the same social conditions–and that clearly isn’t the case here.
In the future, please think before you post. . .
Brent, Why the vicious attack? Just because she holds a different opinion than you doesn’t mean she “isn’t thinking”.
Interesting how open minded you are until someone dares to think differently than you.
To the original poster, did this play persuade you to do good and deepen your relationship with Christ?
Can you do one-liners? I am probably not getting anywhere near NYC in the next, well, let’s say decade. I would love some more details about what was really funny. What made you cry? I would also like to hear what was shocking? Did you laugh in places where your stranger/neighbor next to you did not? Hell, throw in some crude! The Broadway musical-movie won’t be out for a while.
I’m jealous.