By Speaker By Topic By Date Collections By Study and By Faith Blog. The title of his talk is Live Right Now. But getting to this place of peace with his trifold identity, says Gong, an artificial intelligence engineer in Seattle, has required hard work. That isn’t to say father and son agree on all things. By Study and By Faith. Wonderful thought. His memory is foggy, but he says he woke up four hours later, lying on the floor. That was later postponed indefinitely as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Photo by Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News. He had served as a General Authority Seventy from 2010 until the time of his call to the Twelve. All three parts of Gong’s identity have shaped him, including heroic tales of service and sacrifice, and are worth celebrating. [8] He received a bachelor's degree from BYU and then was a Rhodes Scholar, receiving both a master's degree and D.Phil. He had served as a General Authority Seventy from April 3, 2010 until the time of his call to the Twelve. Having crushes on boys in elementary school. March 31, 2018 by Cynthia L. Susan and Gerrit Gong (Church News photograph) There are any number of reasons I couldn’t be happier about the newly-called Elder Gong and Elder Soares. sltrib.com © 1996-2021 The Salt Lake Tribune. How can Gerrit Gong remain silent as a father of a gay son? darrell.lewis.186. [9][10], In 1985, Gong became a special assistant for the US secretary of state. [17] The Gongs married in the Salt Lake Temple on January 4, 1980, the marriage being performed by apostle David B. Haight who had connections to their families from his time in California. Elder Gong has a Dutch first name, an American middle name (Walter after his father) and a Chinese last name. Elder Gong’s name carries with it a unique three-fold cultural representation: his first name, which is Dutch, comes from Gerrit de Jong Jr., the first dean of the College of Fine Arts at BYU with whom his mother lived as a young BYU student. The Spirit was present in abundance. [29][30][31][32], In November 2019, Gong presided over a worldwide broadcast that announced the LDS Church's new youth program. By all accounts he is a brilliant and highly educated man who supports his Gay son. My mother taught kindergarten and first grade. He also has responsibility in the Quorum of the Twelve for the church's Asia and Asia North areas. Thanks for sharing great idea! Elder Gong received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Asian and university studies from Brigham Young University in 1977. Elder Gerrit W. Gong and his wife, Sister Susan Gong, raised their family in many areas of the world, including China, which helped unite the children. [19] Prior to joining the BYU administration, the Gongs had spent most of their married life in Maryland and Virginia. This past weekend my colleagues and I were grateful to meet the stake presidencies, bishops, elders … carloscmundaca. Matthew Gong is a minority three times over — in his own words — “Chinese American, Mormon and queer.”. He is the son of, “I don’t think there are many people who are openly queer and whose dad is now in one of the highest positions of authority in the LDS Church,” he quips in an online post, His fear was that “people would politicize me and my dad. There Was Bread. And he never brought it up. He served as a member of the United States Department of Education's National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity and participated in multiple national education summits.[15]. Discover (and save!) “I buried land mines and razor wire in my brain so that my heart couldn’t get out.”, If Gong hadn’t come out, he says, “I would have fought in the war till I died by suicide.”. Cristina B. Franco. Looking back, Gong sees plenty of clues to his sexuality that he failed to recognize at the time: Staring at a male underwear mannequin when he was a child. “One, he is unfailingly kind,” she said. Elder Gong served a mission in Taiwan and later served as a member of the Asia Area Presidency. Never a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. Elder Gerrit W. Gong (LDS Church) ... we witness unto God the Father that we are willing to take upon us the name of His Son and always remember Him … [11] Gong was a professor at various times at Georgetown University and Johns Hopkins University. 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