I have written several pieces on the response of various churches and other faith groups’ response, and in some instances reaction, to LGBTQ issues. One by one the United Church, Anglican Communion and the Vatican have all come out, as it were, with various positions on issues affecting us and our communities. Some have been quite positive, as we see within the United Church, for instance; others continue to struggle.
Even evangelical churches and groups have started to make some acknowledgements of error – specifically Exodus International, the well-known and one could even say infamous ‘ex-gay’ organization whose president issued a heartfelt apology to those he had hurt and wronged, both personally and in his capacity as organization head. That, in itself, was major.
Now we have the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS), aka the Mormons, stepping forward in the U.S. in support of laws protecting LGBTQ individuals. Not surprisingly, this is paired with a disclaimer that religious freedoms not be compromised, which still leaves the door open for discrimination against LGBTQ people on religious grounds or belief.
The LDS have a history of not being particularly gay-friendly. It wasn’t so long ago that any Mormon coming out as homosexual, or as trans, faced excommunication by the church and shunning by not just what was once their faith community, but by their own families. LDS are strongly focused on ‘family values’ and have always viewed homosexuality as anathema to that.
Church leaders in Salt Lake City stated they were taking a "fairness to all" approach, in which religious freedom, assumedly including the freedom of various religiously-based beliefs, would be balanced with supporting various safeguards for lesbians and gay men (transfolk were also obliquely referred to) in terms of housing, employment, access to public services and other rights. However the approach stopped short of endorsing or supporting equal marriage.
"We believe laws ought to be framed to achieve a balance in protecting the freedoms of all people while respecting those with differing values," Elder Dallin Oaks, a member of the Quorum of The Twelve Apostles, the second highest governing body within the church after the First Presidency, stated in remarks posted on the LDS’ official website. "We reject persecution and retaliation of any kind, including persecution based on race, ethnicity, religious belief, economic circumstances, or differences in gender or sexual orientation."
The Mormon Church is not without understanding when it comes to persecution. Their founder, Joseph Smith, was attacked and murdered by a mob in 1844 while in jail. Adherents were routinely persecuted for their unorthodox beliefs and practices, leading eventually to The Migration from other parts of the U.S. into what is now Utah.
For years LDS practiced polygamy, believing it to be a religious duty, as set out by Joseph Smith following a ‘revelation’ in 1843. Smith himself had 25 wives. Polygamy was kept secret within the church, although rumours outside the church abounded, but in 1852 the doctrine was made public, which hardly endeared them to mainstream 19th-Century America. The practice continued until 1890, when then-President Wilford Woodruff renounced the practice, after years of legal sanctions and charges laid by the federal government against the church and various polygamous individuals.
The modern LDS church, while one of the fastest growing churches in the western world, has repeatedly been accused of being little more than a cult, albeit a large and wealthy one that admonishes considerable influence, especially in the state of Utah. Some even refuse to accept the LDS as a Christian church despite it identifying itself as such.
The LDS also believe themselves to be the only true American church. Amongst one of its tenets it is said that Christ visited North America and preached to the pre-colonial people of this continent. The Golden Tablets, reputedly discovered by Joseph Smith – under the direction of the angel Moroni – in upstate New York in 1823, and which were the basis for the Book of Mormon, are often cited as evidence, although the Tablets themselves are long since lost, so no independent verification can be made of the claim.
The LDS church still relies heavily on the reputed ability of its president to receive divine revelation and possess other prophetic gifts. These revelations are akin to papal ex cathedra directives, in that they are seen as infallible – the direct voice of God issuing through his prophet, the president of the church, and the longest serving member of the Quorum of The Twelve Apostles, all of whom are also seen as prophets and seers. The current statement is not a ‘revelation’ and therefore would not be a part of doctrine, but having a Quorum elder issue such a statement carries considerable weight.
Church doctrine involves the Law of Chastity, which permits sexual relations only between a legally married husband and wife. Marriage is integral to Mormon doctrine. Married couples who live worthy can enter into a ‘celestial marriage’ in which they are bound to each other for eternity. This can only be done, however, in temple, and only those deemed to be worthy can enter the temple or partake in its rituals.
Officially, the church does not accept biological determination when it comes to same-sex attraction. According to church doctrine, the argument of whether being gay is natural or not is irrelevant. The Book of Mormon discusses "the natural man [being] an enemy to God" (Mosiah 3:19).
From an LDS perspective, the tendency towards homosexuality should not be treated any differently than adultery, fornication, or any other sinful act. A fundamental doctrine of the faith is the ‘proper use’ of one’s moral agency to overcome the natural man and to tame one’s appetites and passions so that one can better follow divine will.
The church has long taught that homosexuality is a ‘curable condition’ and while even active lesbians and gay men may attend Sunday services, acquiring and maintaining membership in the church and gaining a ‘temple recommend’, this is dependent upon observing the Law of Chastity’s prohibition of sexual relationships outside of marriage.
Interestingly both the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine and Covenants, two sources the church considers Holy Scripture, are silent on the issue of homosexuality.
In 1999, President Gordon B. Hinckley officially welcomed lesbian and gay men into the church, and stated in an interview at the time: "Now we have gays in the church. Good people. We take no action against such people – provided they don’t become involved in transgression; sexual transgression. If they do, we do with them exactly what we’d do with heterosexuals who transgress."
The church defines serious transgressions as including "murder, rape, forcible sexual abuse, spousal abuse, intentional serious physical injury of others, adultery, fornication, homosexual relations, deliberate abandonment of family responsibilities, robbery, burglary, theft, embezzlement, sale of illegal drugs, fraud, perjury, and false swearing". Homosexual activity can result in a disciplinary council and, if the individual persists in the transgression, excommunication.
The current statement by Elder Oaks, then, is really nothing new or radical. The church has always "condemned the sin but not the sinner", and the expectation that homosexuals work to overcome their homosexuality is still there.
Without a critical examination of doctrine and a repudiation of past presidents’ comments, such as 12th President Spencer W. Kimball’s belief, albeit a personal one, that masturbation could lead to homosexuality and "...that through the ages, perhaps as an extension of homosexual practices, men and women have sunk even to seeking sexual satisfactions with animals", nothing much has really changed within the church of LDS.
