Can we just be fair with each other?

I went looking for a link to Elder Packer's Conference speech from this past weekend.  I'll find one in a minute.  I got distracted by this:  http://www.lds-mormon.com/hardy.shtml.  An excerpt:  (their links, not mine)

Your doctrine of "choice" and "curability" is also at the core of why the Church and its members in reality view my son and those like him as latter-day lepers. If homosexuality (1) is not inborn, (2) has an element of choice, and (3) can be cured - then it must be able to be taught or suggested.  Others must also be susceptible to being enticed or recruited. Our children are capable of being infected by these people and not becoming mothers and fathers.  It is, therefore, a frontal assault on the family. The "hate the sin but love the sinner" platitude cannot disguise the fact that in reality the members of the Church are taught to loathe and fear our son and those like him.  This qualified and synthetic "love" is nothing more than the few alms hurriedly and begrudgingly parted with to salve the Christian conscience, while never once entertaining the idea of actually descending into the leper pit.  We would never expose our children to this for it might infect them.  If sexual orientation is a matter of choice, when exactly did you choose to be heterosexual?  When and how often did you reaffirm your choice to stay that way?  Why aren't my other children, who idolize their brother, even the slightest bit interested in adopting a homosexual "lifestyle" or in homosexual experimentation?  Why would anyone choose to be an abomination and an outcast?  It defies reason.


Exactly.

Here's the article I was looking for:

http://latterdaymainstreet.com/2010/10/03/will-this-hateful-rhetoric-continue-once-boyd-k-packer-has-passed-on/

It includes the transcript of Packer's speech.  Nasty hateful old fool.

What happened to "treat others as you wish to be treated"?  "Love thy neighbor"?  "Do unto others..."?  When did we stop loving each other in the name of a loving God?

It just makes me sad.

Question for Mormons

It seems that a lot of people leave the Church because they've been offended or had their feelings hurt by someone in their Ward.  The personal example I'm aware of involved a Bishop being the offending party, but I seem to come across a lot of stories about people walking away from the LDS faith completely because of the way they were treated by their fellow church members.

What's up with that?

Question for Mormons

Why is soda okay, but tea isn't? I'm not talking Sprite or 7up, which have no caffeine, but like, say, Diet Coke? If you drink Diet Coke on the regular, are you still living the Word of Wisdom?