• We Might Not Be Noisy, But We’re Doing The Lord’s Work — Kearon

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Opebi, Ikeja, Lagos, last week, played host to two prominent leaders of the church, Elders David Bednar and Patrick Kearon of The Quorum of The twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who were in Nigeria for a special apostolic visit. The visitors came with their spouses and some members of the church.

At a held at the church premises, the two Apostles responded to questions from journalists based on their doctrine on same-sex marriage; their mission to Nigeria; role of the church to the world; why the church is reserved on a number of issues like holding crusades; its relationship with other religious bodies; programmes for members and non-members; and whether the church falls under the Pentecostals or orthodox churches.

On same-sex marriage, Bednar said marriage is between a man and a woman, adding that the church still loves those who express same-sex attraction as brothers and sisters. He stressed that the church would not discriminate against them, but has continued tocounsel members who have biases against same-sex marriage couplesto love all without discrimination.

He said: “We believe marriage is between a man and a woman and those who have same-sex attraction, we love them as brothers and sisters. We do not discriminate against them, but for those who have prejudices and biases we counsel, teach and encourage our members to be loving to all, but we firmly declare that marriage is between a man and a woman.”

Kearon revealed that they are in the country to declare the love of God, the Father, and Jesus Christ, and their desire to make every Nigerian find joy in life.

Describing Nigeria as a wonderful nation of believers, Kearon stressed that despite the hard experiences and other challenges confronting every one, they still find peace and joy in the Creator.Kearon, who noted that they had travelled round the world with the message of God’s love to the people, said it had been a blessing doing that all these years.

On the role of the church, Kearon said their obligation to the community is to love their neighbours and help them just the way the Saviour did, when he was on earth.

“We preach the gospel, we also teach that we have a father in heaven who loves us. We teach and practise many things, but in terms of the community, we believe that we should love our neighbours, help others in the way that the Saviour did when he was upon the earth and we are trying to do that and you will see us in the coming years striving harder to be kind,” Kearon said.

Throwing more light on the issue, Bednar added: “We believe that we are sons and daughters of our heavenly father and Kearon and I have wonderful responsibility travelling all over the earth and declaring the divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ and preaching the principles of His gospel.”

On why the church is reserved on a number of issues like holding crusades, Bednar said they encouraged their members to live right and obey the church’s sermons just like the disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ followed His examples, saying that is the most powerful sermon that Christians can find. He also added that they did not only admonished their members to learn Christ’s teachings, but also know how to put them into practice.

He said: “We teach our people to live right with the sermons and it’s not just preaching in terms of what we say even the disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ followed His examples that is the most powerful sermon that we can find and so we encourage our people to learn his teachings not just to know them, but to live them. And we can see that very loud and very clear in the lives of our members.”

Kearon stated: “We don’t hold crusades, but sharing exactly what we believed. Our children in their mid-18 to 20s, go out around the world and quietly go from door-to-door or on the streets and meet people where they are and share what we believed and our children come back with deeper faith from that experience around the world. We might not be noisy, but we hope we are doing the Lord’s work.”

Bednar, while responding to relationship with other religious bodies, explained that people of other faith are seen as brothers and sisters, including Muslims.

On programmes for members and non-members particularly Nigerians, Kearon disclosed that they have vibrant organisations through which they were able to build families and support them.

According to him, “We have different women’sorganisations and within them are groups for young women within the age bracket of 11 to 18; 19 to 30; and 31 and above. We also have provision for children of three years.These women’sorganisations address children’s issues until the children are 11 or 12 years.We also have organisations formen. With this, we are trying to strengthen individual families, which is the heart of any nation, any people and faith. The family is the real foundation of any society.”

Bednar also informed that they run a programmecalled ‘gathering places’ for young people to get spiritual instruction and acquire empowerment skillsthat will make them self-reliant and also to effectively contribute their quotas to their communities.

The elder called on Nigerians to look up to Jesus as the source of joy, peace, guidance and direction in every facet of life, adding that He is the enduring source of peace.

On whether the church falls under the Pentecostals or Orthodox church, Kearon said dialogue between faith and people fosters understanding and friendship and the church, according to him, is willing to engage in dialogue with other faith in the country and across the world.

He stated that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is neither Pentecostal nor Orthodox, adding that the church has existed right from the Bible days and that is the reason it is so called.