214. Gathering All Safely In — A Conversation with Liz and Jordon Sharp

Faith Matters

Faith Matters Foundation

Morality, Lds, Ethics, Mormonism, Latter-day Saint, The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-day Saints, Christianity, Philosophy, Mormon, Religion & Spirituality

4.4 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 4 May 2024

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

**Disclaimer that this episode mentions suicide in connection to LGBTQ youth. If you are not in a place to listen right now, you might want to skip this one. If you are, though, we really encourage you to listen on this tough but important topic that impacts so many in our community.**

In this conversation, Dr. Jordon and Liz Sharp from St. George, Utah, shared their remarkable and inspiring story of moving from trauma, confusion, and loss to miracles, enlightenment, and strength as an LDS/LGBTQ family. Several years ago—even before they had thought much about this themselves—a tragic event with some family friends resulted in Liz and Jordon receiving strong promptings that God has a deep and abiding love for LGBTQ individuals and wants them to thrive. Jordon (Vice President of Marketing & Communication at Utah Tech University) and Liz (a registered nurse) eloquently described the mistakes made, lessons learned, opportunities found, and how their family bonds expanded far beyond their expectations after their son Sam came out at the age of 14.

Due to what he saw as a lack of resources and support in this space, Jordon eventually helped found the Gather Conference, the largest-ever Christ-centered conference for Latter-day Saint LGBTQ individuals and those who love them. To learn more about the Gather Conference and to find resources for LGBTQ/LDS families, visit liftandlove.org.

Liz and Jordon’s family story is near and dear to our hearts at Faith Matters. So often, we don’t have answers to know how we all belong in the family of God; we only have our conviction that we do belong and a willingness to figure it out along the way. Our conversation with Liz and Jordon gets deep into their personal story, including their ongoing spiritual learning and efforts to build conversations about the LGBTQ experience in the Church. We found them to be incredible examples of how to plow into uncharted territory with humility and a simple trust in one fact — that we are all beloved children of God.

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0:00.0	Hey everybody before we get started I just wanted to jump on because we are so excited to announce that restore registration is officially open
0:06.4	We can't wait to be with you again this year. It's gonna be on September 5th through 7th at the Mountain America Expo Center in Sandy, Utah.
0:13.4	That's the evening of September 5th and then all day on the 6th and the 7th.
0:17.2	Three days of incredible speakers, poets, musicians, and artists.
0:20.9	We really think that what we have planned will blow you away again this year so you won't want to miss it.
0:24.4	Go to faithmatters.org slash restore for tickets and we'll see you there.
0:28.7	Hey everyone this is Tim Chavez from Faith Matters. Before we introduce our guests for today, we want to give you a disclaimer that this episode
0:35.4	mentions suicide in connection to LGBTQ youth.
0:39.4	If you were not in a place to listen right now, you might want to skip this one. If you are, though, we really encourage you to listen right now you might want to skip this one. If you are though we
0:43.7	really encourage you to listen in on this tough but important topic that
0:46.9	impacts so many in our community. In this conversation Dr Jordan and Liz
0:51.0	Sharp from St George Utah shared their remarkable and inspiring story of moving from trauma, confusion and loss to miracles, enlightenment and strength as an LDS LGBTQ family.
1:02.0	Several years ago, even before they had thought much about this themselves, a tragic
1:06.2	event with some family friends resulted in Liz and Jordan receiving strong promptings
1:10.3	that God has a deep and abiding love for LGBTQ individuals and wants them to thrive.
1:15.0	Jordan, who is Vice President of Marketing and Communication at Utah Tech University,
1:20.0	and Liz, who is a registered nurse, eloquently described the mistakes made, lessons learned,
1:24.8	opportunities found, and how their family bonds expanded far beyond their expectations after
1:29.5	their son Sam came out at the age of 14. Due to what he saw as a lack of resources and support in this space,
1:36.0	Jordan eventually helped found the Gather Conference, the largest ever Christ-centered conference
1:40.6	for Latter-day Saint-L LGBTQ individuals and those who love them. To learn more about the Gather centered conference
1:45.0	and to find resources for LGBT-L-E-S families,
	...

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