Wednesday, December 5, 2007

Beyond here and on to eternity

In my post yesterday, I mentioned the possibilities of using sealing power to seal two men together. At the time I was unaware of historical precedent for doing that. I now stand enlightened. Apparently (I would love confirmations on this) men have been sealed together by sealing authority in the Church under a principle called "The Law of Adoption." This is not the same as a homosexual union or marriage. Rather it was a way for two men (likely married to women) to enter into some sort of non-sexual, socially codependent relationship. Even still, the precedent opens up possibilities. It is possible to seal two men together with Priesthood authority.

Perhaps it would be different from exalted marriage, and therefore the eternal posterity would not come to those joined in this type of sealing. (solving the biggest doctrinal obstacle to the practice). I would imagine this fitting into our understanding of exaltation and the hereafter by resulting in two same gendered Celestial Angels sealed together. I'm ok being a Celestial Angel (still a God with divine power, but not a Heavenly Father). What I'm not ok with is being alone for eternity. Couldn't this reconcile that?

There is certainly historical precedence for men exercising creative powers together. Our world was created by Elohim, Jehovah, and Michael, for example (and both Jehovah and Michael were single and disembodied). Thus, a same gendered Godly couple could go around creating worlds. Maybe I'll let my straight God friends populate them for me . . .

6 comments:

Foxx said...

That's IT! Michael and Jesus were gay!

;)

I KEED!

Daniel (Old Account) said...

Oh, no. Oh, heaven's no, I did not mean to be that irreverent . . .

draco said...

Oh man! You're starting to sound just as philosophical as me!

austin said...

Interesting, I've always thought the law of adoption was an extremely interesting topic. I don't know too much about it either, though there is a great podcast about it from LDS Liberation Front at http://www.ldsliberationfront.net/evening_morning_star/EMS%202.mp3 I hadn't ever thought of applying the practice to solve the question of same sex marriages/unions/sealings, but who knows, maybe that will be the way that they will be incorporated into the church someday.

And I'm not going to lie: foxx, you made me laugh out loud.

chedner said...

Thank you; I have never heard of this... very fascinating...

To me, this implies that posterity, in the Lord, is not dependent on physical seed, but rather priesthood seed (see Abraham 2:10) more than it implies anything about same-sex relationships.

However, since same-sex relationships are shunned because of the presumed limitations on posterity, I think there are some incredible secondary applications to this idea when it comes to same-sex coupling.

Abelard Enigma said...

You need to be careful not to read too much into the law of adoption. As I understand it, the two men were sealed in a father/son relationship. Plus, it is a practice that has long since been abandoned.

The idea that Adam was created by priesthood power rather than a male/female coupling is an interesting notion that I'm going to have to chew on.