The Platonic Seal

 

The Platonic Seal


I have written on what I call the “Platonic Seal” in previous talks but haven’t yet dedicated a talk to explain the idea and how I came about it. The Platonic seal is basically what the name suggests, a non-romantic temple sealing for time and all eternity. This already is performed in L.D.S. temples when a parent is sealed to their children. I believe one day the Platonic seal will be expanded to include cousins and friends.


Let me explain why this is important. When the U.S. made same sex mairage legal in the U.S. it started in motion discussions on how to handle the subject of same sex mairage in religious circles incuding Latter-Day Saints. Discussions on the moral implications, the doctrinal implications, how to support the LGBT Community or at least not ostracize the LGBT LDS members and hold to Gospel teachings at the same time.


I was called as Bishop just a few weeks before the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in May 2015. A few weeks before I got the call I was in D.C. with my twin brother and two of his best friends. One of them was his partner at the time. There were people demonstrating at the capital, most in support, some against the measure. They were talking about how they would legally be able to get married soon. I remember them asking if I would be there if they did get married. I think my answer was yes.


The family is important to Latte-Day Saints. The family unit is an important aspect of the Gospel. We believe that families can be sealed for Time and all eternity in the Temple. Husband and wife, Parent and child, Brothers and sisters sealed for time and all eternity through their parents. The family unit is changing and expanding. With many single parents and mixed homes the nuclear family doesn’t fit most families today. We talk about the nuclear family as the ideal, as if that is all the church has ever known. But when the Church was young and the New and Everlasting covenant was introduced, Men were sealed to multiple women.


The Family Proclamation sets the foundation for what Latter-Day Saints view as the ideal eternal family unit. The Nuclear Family, where children are raised by a loving mother and a loving father. This may be ideal, but what about all the families that don’t fit the mold? Can they not become an eternal family? What about the many single mothers? Can they not be sealed to their children just because they don’t have a spouse?


There are more and more technicalities when it comes to Temple sealings. As Bishop I dealt with one such case. A sister in my ward wanted to be sealed to her deceased daughter. She told of how she heard her daughter’s voice saying “Why haven’t you done my work?” The problem was she was never married to the father and never would want to be. The person she loved and would have married passed away years before due to health complications. He was a paraplegic. I wrote to the Stake President about the situation, who wrote to Salt Lake. We finally got a letter signed by the general authorities that they could be sealed in the temple. She was able to take her deceased partner and her daughter’s names to the temple to have their work done. They were baptized and sealed to her for time and all eternity. I know that this was one of the reasons I was called as Bishop so that she could be sealed to her daughter.


Most sealings are Platonic seals. Even between a husband and wife. Passion is fleeting. It comes and goes. Platonic love lasts longer. Platonic love is a love that is caring and more serving. Platonic Love is built on compassion. The Love of Christ. One often develops Platonic Love for family members, Grand Parents, Uncles, Aunts, Cousins. But also Long lasting friends. Comrades from school. These are the people you want to be around, not just in this life, but the life to come.


I am sealed to my Twin Brother. There are pictures of when we were sealed as a family. We were just babies. Yes My Twin brother is gay. He will never be able to be sealed to the people he develops a platonic love with (other than his immediate family). At least not until society changes a whole lot. until the Church is ready to accept people like him as family.


He won’t be able to be sealed in the Temple like I have been. I have a beautiful wife and four amazing children. But my brother is still sealed to my family, to my children through me, through our parents.

One night in January 2020 I had a dream. In the dream the Platonic Seal was explained to me. In the dream young people suddenly had an interest in going to the Temple. One young man said to me. “You can now search for your friends and see if you are sealed to them.” In my dream there was a change that you could be sealed as brothers-in-Law or sisters-in-law, or cousins, or just friends. The Platonic seal or friend seal is not as strong as a sealing to a spouse or child but if combined through lineage it is still pretty strong.

We are already sealed to so many of our friends and just don’t know it. I was already technically sealed to my wife before we knew each other because we are 9th cousins. We only know that now because of advances in genealogy. We are related to a majority of the people we meet within 9 or ten generations. But to make it official we are sealed to our spouses.


Why couldn't friends be sealed Platonically? They are already sealed.