I was a teenager in the Portland area in the late 80's. Another exmo friend who grew up in a different stake in the Portland area was taught this as well. We did not know each other back then. So it's not like our mom's influenced each other.

Did any of you teach this to the youth or were taught this? Was this a teaching from higher up or just one of those not doctrinal things that spread throughout Mormon culture?

I was told this by a person in my carpool. I had just found out my boyfriend was gay. This guy in my carpool was a good friend of mine. He just casually said to me that there was this new disease that was effecting gays. He was a jackmo and he never said it was a punishment for gays, but I heard that later on. This was in 1983.

I STILL hear this, from hate-mongering jerks, mormon & non-mormon.

So, what? God couldn't come up with anything that would just target gays without having to have collateral damage?

But years ago, in the early days of AIDS, my dad told me that. I'm sure he still believes it. Even then when I was still active, I wanted to say, "And this is the God we worship and are supposed to want to live for eternity with? Why?

I used to want to think there would be a whole lot less bigotry in the world when my parents' generation dies off. But now I look at my own generation--the generation of the Tea Partiers and realize that we have to go too. My son and his Generation X might give us some hope, but I now am down to pinning my hopes on my granddaughter's generation, hoping they will just find it comical that their great-grandfather said AIDS were God's way of killing gays.

It was never a part of a Sunday School lesson or a fireside talk or anything like that. But this is something I heard from Mormons all the time growing up.

I also hear a lot evangelical Christians saying the same thing.

I think alot of religious people (especially JW's) think that.

It doesn't make sense because AIDS infects and kills straight people and people who have contracted it outside of sexual activity ( blood-medical contamination).

AIDS also infects and kills babies(inheritaed through pregnancy).

AIDS can also result from rape etc.

If 'God' was targeting Gays then he has made a complete mess of it. Religious people's thinking and reasoning is great at making their 'God' look so dumb!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/28/2010 12:12PM by zeezrom.

If their God is so offended by gays, why does he create them in the first place???

He always uses a battering ram to swat a gnat.

I knew the stake patriarch outside church and during a conversation he dropped this little theological bombshell.

he went on, at length, to explain that this was all part of gods plan. IIRC someone mentioned how lesbians were the least likely to get the disease, and he was stumped.
Like many Morg men, he never considered the female half of the population.

They figured the Lawd did it to show his displeasure.

I always forget that side, too, amos--I grew up by a family with several hemophiliacs. They all died within a few short years of AIDS coming on the scene. None of them were gay. It is of interest that their gay brother didn't die of AIDS.

Lesbians have a lower rate of Aids than heterosexuals.

But straight men are turned on by lesbians, so they don't count.

When they say, "gay", they mean gay men because they can't picture themselves having sex with another man.

I believe it was Jerry Falwell who actually started that meme. He also blamed the G/L/B/T community for 9/11.

From here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_falwell#LGBT_Issues

"Falwell also regularly linked the AIDS pandemic to LGBT issues and stated, "AIDS is not just God's punishment for homosexuals, it is God's punishment for the society that tolerates homosexuals."[34] Amongst many remarks over the years he is probably most known for statements attributed to him about a Teletubby being a homosexual role model for homosexual recruitment and stating that LGBT organizations angered God, thereby in part causing God to let the September 11 attacks happen."



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/28/2010 03:06PM by dogzilla.

No, he has to use something sloppy that also spreads into the heterosexual population.

AIDS started in africa in the 1940's when someone ate infected primate meat. once air travel became popular, infected africans spread AIDS to the west indies and then finally north america by the 1980's. it has nothing to do with gays. Some TBM's needs to get their facts straight

for getting rid of gays, it isn't working.

If he was trying to get rid of gays, the "angel of death" from Moses' plagues would have been more accurate and effective. Why wouldn't he use that old tried and true method of assassination and terror to get people to comply with his standards?

Now I just look back and shake my head at the way I used to think. . . . if someone got sick because of physical contact that I didnt' approve of, then they were being punished. But people who got cancer were still worthy. For all I know, there's a God out there who punishes people with cancer for exposing themselves to free radicals or having inferior genes.

In the world, as a whole, Aids is mainly a heterosexual disease. It is rife in sub-saharan Africa and the situation is not helped by stupid, stupid churches which preach that condoms are evil and *spread* the disease.
It is thought that the disease crossed the species gap from Apes who have a similar disease called SIDS (Simian Immune Deficiency Syndrome)
the disease spread from West Africa to the Carribean - particularly Cuba

up until this point, I agree 100% with 'frankie'

But....

"it has nothing to do with gays."

.........NO, NO, NO..... you cant just whitewash history to avoid blame for a group which was VERY involved with transmission to, and through, North America and Europe.

Packer was sent to drive gay Mormon youth to suicide, or at least that seems to be his sole purpose in life.

i remember hearing that while growing up, although i don't know exactly where from. most likely the lds church though.

WE WERE SMUG IT IS NOW SUCH A SAD PART OF MY LIFE, THE MIND CONTROL WAS LEAKED VERY COVERTLY REGARDING THIS. IT HAPPENED, LIKE THE THROAT SLASHINGS ETC

I heard it a few times in the 80s but generally those who uttered remarks like this were rebuked by other TBMS... I don't think it was the feeling of the typical mormon, at least not in my neck of the woods...

As for Frankie who said "it has nothing to do with gays"

Um.. yes it did. AIDS was not the fault of gays, and it wasn't created by God to smite the gays... but ask any gay man who was out in the 80s and he will certainly tell you the impact that AIDS had on that community...

Do mormons not believe in it?

Note: The rule states "Love thy neighbor as thyself" or "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."

There is no exception to the rule for mormons, i.e. that mormons are so holy they don't have to follow it. And there's nothing that states that gays don't count as one's neighbors.

Edited for clarity



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/29/2010 10:01AM by dr5.

I was taught that are over 53 years.