Andrew Solomon Quotes About Church

Quotes about: Church

The way that Russian Orthodox services work generally, and certainly the way that this worked, is that it goes on for hours and hours, and people wander in and wander out, and people talk the whole way through. One of the American women said to the other, "This is so beautiful. I can actually imagine maybe even becoming Orthodox." She went on and on, and finally a Russian seated just in front of her turned and said, "You are not member of church because it is beautiful; you are member of church because it is the single truth of God!"

Andrew Solomon

Beautiful, People, Church

Source: andrewsolomon.com
If the Mormon Church still supported polygamy, and if it appeared to be a system that was not exploitative of women, I wouldn't feel that it's my place to forbid it.

Andrew Solomon

Church, Polygamy, Feels

Source: andrewsolomon.com
I hope the Church will examine what is good and what is ill, and what good could be achieved by getting the suicidal, self-destructive, possibly carnal, or celibate to move toward this experience of love.

Andrew Solomon

Moving, Suicidal, Self

Source: andrewsolomon.com
If you don't want to have gay weddings in Mormon churches, that's fine. That's absolutely up to the members of the faith or the leadership of the faith. I would never suggest that the Mormon Church has to consecrate gay unions. But homosexuality runs at a fairly constant rate through all populations. There are many gay Mormons.

Andrew Solomon

Running, Gay, Church

Source: andrewsolomon.com
It does seem to me, though, that there is a difference between the Mormon Church saying, "We don't accept gay people within the Church; we don't accept gay marriage within the Church; we don't accept people who act on their homosexual desires within the Church;" and trying to interfere with what happens outside of the Church. That seemed to me to be an abomination.

Andrew Solomon

Gay, Differences, People

Source: andrewsolomon.com
I know one gay ex-Mormon who is a talented, self-destructive alcoholic. Whenever he is drunk and going on a tear, we are back to the Mormon Church and his being thrown out of the Mormon Church and growing up with this sense of being evil.

Andrew Solomon

Growing Up, Gay, Self

Source: andrewsolomon.com
In coming to an appreciation of the Mormon Church, one of the things that has been most compelling to me is the Mormon understanding of family, which extends beyond the general injunction to be fruitful and multiply, and addresses the permanence of love relationships into eternity, and embraces the sanctity of having children.

Andrew Solomon

Appreciation, Children, Understanding

Source: andrewsolomon.com
I really feel that the Church leaders have blood on their hands. I feel that there are gay Mormons who have committed suicide or whose lives have been destroyed because of the attitude of the Church.

Andrew Solomon

Suicide, Attitude, Gay

Source: andrewsolomon.com
The Church responds to antiquated social realities, and those realities remain much more current in Utah precisely because of the Church.

Andrew Solomon

Reality, Utah, Church

Source: andrewsolomon.com
When a church manipulates the law to say, "These people are lesser," it takes a lot of resilience to hold your head up and say, "I am not lesser!" Some people can do it and some cannot; and some of those people who cannot will be destroyed.

Andrew Solomon

Law, People, Resilience

Source: andrewsolomon.com
I do think that if the Church can see its way to greater tolerance, Church members will have greater exposure to gay people, and the lives of those gay people will be better.

Andrew Solomon

Gay, Thinking, People

Source: andrewsolomon.com
I have two nexuses of sadness about the Mormon Church. The first is the effect the Church's position on homosexuality has on Mormons.

Andrew Solomon

Sadness, Two, Church

Source: andrewsolomon.com
It seems particularly ironic that a church that at one stage, a long time ago, fought to redefine marriage should now be so opposed to these attempts to redefine marriage.

Andrew Solomon

Long, Ironic, Church

Source: andrewsolomon.com
Religion is so focused on family. These days, for many people, being gay is also focused on family. The Mormon Church is especially focused on family, and I'd have hoped, therefore, that the Mormon Church would especially have celebrated how all of these people who might have been lonely and suicidal and childless are now able to lead this other life. I would have thought it would be a cause for immense celebration. Instead it has been, obviously, a cause of great concern to the Church and its leadership.

Andrew Solomon

Lonely, Suicidal, Gay

Source: andrewsolomon.com
The thing that makes me really outraged, is the idea that the Mormon Church would presume to get involved in decisions that have little to do with Mormonism.

Andrew Solomon

Ideas, Decision, Church

Source: andrewsolomon.com
Penalizing homosexuals does not save any innocent victims. The idea that God and the Church accept these people while they are celibate; and then if they go off and do something with someone else and both derive joy from it without any apparent harm to anyone else, the Church excommunicates them - that, to me, is bizarre.

Andrew Solomon

Ideas, People, Joy

Source: andrewsolomon.com
I've chronicled the experience of the mother of a transgender child who got attacked by the Ku Klux Klan in Tennessee, and that of a transgender woman who was asked to deliver a sermon at her Montana church and got a standing ovation from her congregation. The idea that Christianity is a blanket term that encompasses both of those attitudes seems ludicrous to me.

Andrew Solomon

Mother, Children, Attitude

Source: andrewsolomon.com
I understand perfectly well why the Catholic Church preaches against abortion. But it shouldn't be the purpose of the Catholic Church to prevent non-Catholics from having abortions if they feel that abortions are morally acceptable. They can certainly only argue for what they believe to be right in the court of public opinion and try to persuade people.

Andrew Solomon

Believe, People, Abortion

Source: andrewsolomon.com
I think what the Church should ideally do, and does appear to do in the context of straight relationships, is to support people in crossing from the easier pleasure of momentary carnal satisfaction, into the more difficult pleasure of love and family and relationship.

Andrew Solomon

Thinking, People, Support

Source: andrewsolomon.com

You May Also Like:

Kay Redfield Jamison

Andrew Sullivan

Andrew Solomon

Follow

Born: October 30, 1963
Occupation: Writer
Cite this Page: Citation

Popular Topics