I had a conversation with Ben Schilaty …

I had a conversation with Ben Schilaty about a week ago. We discussed my recent blog post, in which his statements from his podcast were the topic of discussion. This post stirred up quite a bit of controversy within the Latter-day Saint SSA/LGBT community. I’ve since removed it, because I think we better understand one another and it’s served its purpose.

Although our conversation was a bit tense at moments, we had a generally pleasant conversation, in which we tried to better understand each other’s story and motivations, and, in which, he graciously listened to my concerns.

I let Ben know that I never intended to demonise him and apologised if my tone in the post came across like this. I think it’s deplorable if anyone used my blog post as an excuse to send him hate mail—I know what it’s like getting opposition from both sides. I believe that he is doing his best to follow Christ and keep his covenants with him; I’ve just been concerned with the effect some of his opinions are having upon our impressionable youth and the most struggling and vulnerable in our community.

I still stand by what I said, though, that some of his opinions are unintentionally misleading, and still have concerns that these opinions can tremendously affect the struggling and most vulnerable in our community due to the prominence of his platform. We still have our differences in opinion, and some things we need to agree to disagree on. But, as I told him, I agree with the vast majority of what he says; and overall, I do believe that Ben is using his platform to do much good. Ben did assure me that his intent is never to lead people away from the Restored Gospel, and if that’s how my friends or others understood his words, then they were mistaken.

It’s my prayer that he may continue to inspire SSA/LGBT Latter-day Saints to come unto Christ, and receive the power of covenant keeping.