No accent here! Still, they often have warred within the psyche of this 29-year-old, leaving wounds that have taken years to heal. As part of RootsTech 2023, Elder David A. Bednar and Elder Gerrit W. Gong will provide instruction to stake and ward leaders in the annual Temple and Family History Leadership Instruction. Elder Gerrit W. Gong of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and his wife, Sister Susan Gong, will also be featured at the conference as keynote speakers on Family Discovery Day the last day of the conference focused on making connections and celebrating family heritage. Well, my point was that the churchs mission requires deep, sensitive and reciprocal engagement with all of the worlds cultures in a way that most commercial organizations do not. I was worried that it would be deletedinstead I have been encouraged to look at it in new ways that I hadnt considered. Donate to the newsroom now. The mural they created, which added light to the once colorless space, wasnt theirs. His father joined the Church after attending Stanford University, where his parents met and dated. [11] Gong was a professor at various times at Georgetown University and Johns Hopkins University. Having crushes on boys in elementary school. Brazilians, in the USA, dont like getting lumped in with latinos. The Gongs were married in 1980, not long after the lifting of the race-based priesthood and temple ban in 1978. Oh goodness. Although the character of the racism people of Asian descent experience in the US is very different from what Latinx and black people face, and the significance of that should not be minimized, it is still racism. Biography. I dont think there are many people who are openly queer and whose dad is now in one of the highest positions of authority in the LDS Church, he quips in an online post that went viral. Elder Gerrit W. Gong, newly sustained as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and his wife, Sister Susan Gong, in Salt Lake City. Learn more about guidelines and necessary forms. My last post must have sounded like trolling as it has disappeared. for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.. Felix was referring to genetics. Now as a newly sustained member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles he will share a different kind of light with Gods children throughout the world. In your own life story, you are the main character! Cautioning against interracial marriage on the grounds of it being challenging seems to contradict every Relief Society lesson Ive sat through about overcoming differences in a marriage. In doing so, he gave himself the chance to extend grace to his past selves. I know several members of Elder Gongs extended family, and they couldnt be a more dynamic, talented, kind family. Instead, the purpose of . (Trent Nelson | Tribune file photo) On his 21st birthday, at the start of the final year on his mission, Gong wrote separate emails to each of his brothers and his parents to tell them he was gay. He and Ulisses Soares filled the vacancies created from the deaths of Thomas S. Monson and Robert D. Im sorry to hear this, but grateful that I was raised in the 50s to 70s by open minded, faithful Mormon parents, for which I am grateful for every day. He said they have had an opportunity to weep together and pray together. Otherwise it would be hard for that person to win the confidence of the senior leadership. Gerrit was named after Gerrit de Jong because his mother had lived with de Jong and his family while she was a student at BYU. Loursat wrote: I dont expect that these men will be cultural or political reformers.. With his wife, Susan, Elder Gong helps build God's kingdom by serving all of His children. What I hope for is a group that comes from different cultural backgrounds that can consider and represent a worldwide church. [4] He also held the Freeman Chair in China studies and was later the Asia Director of the Center for Strategic and International Studies. There is joy and warmth as my boyfriend pulls me close for a hug, and I marvel at the easy laughs and unqualified smiles that we share as we sit on the couch watching TV., There is celebration, he says, in my families of both queer and of birth., Though Gong still claims aspects of Mormonism in his spirituality, he has added theistic Taoism, Zen Buddhism and any parts of a religion that seem resonant civility, care, forgiveness, treating humans with dignity and compassion., He learned those principles from growing up Mormon, he says, but they are not unique to the church., The churchs patterns and behaviors of abuse, he says, dont have to be there; they are not inherent in the doctrine.. )[16] Gong and his wife are the parents of four sons. The annual genealogical convention being held this year from March 2-4 at the Salt Palace Convention Center, 100 S. West Temple in Salt Lake City, and open to virtual and in-person visitors features special keynote speakers, classes and an expo of family research merchandise. I also suspect that some of these people are forgetting that the world is not lacking in socially conservative Hispanics or Asian Americans. I struggled to find meaning in the spiritual void left by having been a flower growing in the wrong place., He hated that God had been taken from me, he says. It will always be Top down, not bottom up. [27][28][29][30], In November 2019, Gong presided over a worldwide broadcast that announced the LDS Church's new youth program. All three parts of Gongs identity have shaped him, including heroic tales of service and sacrifice, and are worth celebrating. [8] He graduated from BYU in 1977 with a bachelor of arts. Lost touch so you can imagine my surprise to see his pic on BCC. Looking back, Gong sees plenty of clues to his sexuality that he failed to recognize at the time: Staring at a male underwear mannequin when he was a child. 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Sister Gong said there are three characteristics that are quintessential Gerrit Gong. Perhaps social support could be encouraged rather than interracial marriage being discouraged. Please come find your family, all your generations, and bring them home.". However Im not excited about the call because of his increasing the racial diversity in the Quorum of the Twelve (which he doesnt) but rather because he brings a -cultural- diversity that is very welcomed. I genuinely feel this way and am not in any way trying to be disruptive or to be a troll. If my voice is silenced (deleted) I will take the hint that Im not welcome here and will quietly go away. I know several members of Elder Gong's extended family, and they couldn't be a more dynamic, talented, kind family. But beyond the particulars of Gongs experience, his story has a universal message of normalcy. I will update the post as I get further information. Here goes: When the names of the two new apostles were read I felt sick in the pit of my stomach. and one of those categories is occupation. [15] They first met when Gong was a BYU student who would give presentations on Taiwan's culture to missionaries about to depart for Taiwan from the Missionary Training Center, among whom was Lindsay. The Q15 are smart men, and they have an intellectual understanding of the churchs diversity, but culturally they are almost all the same: old white men from the Mormon Belt. Yipp BG, Robbins SM, Resek ME, Baruch DI, Looareesuwan S, Ho M. Src-family Kinase Signaling Modulates the Adhesion of Plasmodium falciparum on Human Microvascular Endothelium Under Flow. I seriously doubt President Nelson was pandering to progressive Mormons. Thanks for calling attention to the interracial marriage barrier being broken and what this can mean to many families. People dont know their own blind spots until theyre pointed out to them. That being said, my thoughts are that we may be making more of Elder Gongs lineage than is really there. Score: [17] Prior to joining the BYU administration, the Gongs had spent most of their married life in Maryland and Virginia. Two, he is interested in everything, which makes him a fascinating person to live with. [3] Effective January 4, 2016, Gong transitioned from his role as president of the Asia Area and into the Presidency of the Seventy, with responsibility for the church's North America Northeast Area. [38] On October 16, the church announced that he and his wife had successfully completed their quarantines, and that Gong had been cleared by his doctors to resume his regular assignments the following week.[38]. Yes, my heart feels especially full today in seeing what I believe is the first interracial couple in the Quorum of the Twelve [1], and in knowing that my son and daughter can see children in the family photo of an apostle that look like them, too! Until very recently, church instruction manuals for institute and youthsuggested caution against interracial marriages. He previously served as a member of the Asia Area Presidency and member of the Presidency of the Seventy.During his 20 years in Washington, D.C., he served as special assistant to the undersecretary of state at the U.S. State Department, as special . No registration is required. I think generational biases are difficult to overcome when seeking the Lords will on things great and small. One, he is unfailingly kind, she said. Bensen, recounting your personal experience with a few interracial marriages in [your] own family and supposing you can generalize from those experiences with those few particular people to arrive at broad statements about how race functions in marriage is, at the very least, a trifle naive. Its also more than a trifle condescending, considering that youre trying to correct someone who has actual first-hand experience of the potential issues youre describing. Cheers. http://www.pbs.org/wnet/black-in-latin-america/featured/black-in-latin-america-full-episode-brazil-a-racial-paradise/224/. When the prophet starts allowing his decisions to be influenced by every wind of political and worldly doctrine everyone loses. Elder Gerrit W. Gong's talk from the April 2022 general conference was all about family history, and it gave us lots of good insights. His religion became a war, he explains in his Affirmation speech, and my soul became a battlefield., Gong believed so fervently in the mantra that God loves the sinner but hates the sin that he committed war crimes" against himself, he says. Once ordained they joined the growing circle of priesthood power.. It is heartbreaking when we are asked questions about religion, but cannot respond. 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