Gays & the Mormon church

Among the latest news around the Mormon church is a letter from Church leaders to local members addressing an upcoming Senate bill that would amend the Constitution to define marriage as being between a man and a woman. The letter from the Church asked members to “express themselves on this urgent matter to their elected representatives in the Senate.” (See KSL.) This effort by the Church is seen by gay rights advocates as discriminatory, and I suppose there are probably gay Mormons within the Church that feel similarly.

The Church rarely takes a position on political issues, except in some family and societal matters, which makes this recent letter all the more interesting. In fact the Church has a policy of being politically neutral:

In this election year, we urge Church members to register to vote, to study the issues and candidates carefully and prayerfully, and then vote for those they believe will most nearly carry out their ideas of good government. Latter-day Saints are under special obligation to seek out and then uphold leaders who will act with integrity and are ‘wise,’ ‘good,’ and ‘honest,’ (see Doctrine and Covenants 98:10). (LDS.org)

The Mormon church’s position on homosexuality is that it’s a behavior and as such can be overcome. I don’t think this denies the possibility that gays may have a biological tendency toward homosexuality, making it difficult to overcome for some. I tend to look at it like a person of Irish descent saying (and I have heard this), “I’m Irish; I have a temper. That’s just the way I am.” No doubt there are tendencies toward certain temperaments, but that doesn’t mean we can’t overcome our tendencies.

FYI, Evergreen International helps gay Mormons overcome homosexuality.

See the following searches at LDSsearch.com for more information:
Gay Mormons
Gays and the Mormon church

Published in: on June 2, 2006 at 3:55 pm Comments (2)

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  1. On June 14, 2006 at 1:09 pm Amy Rhoads Said:

    Thanks for this post. There isn’t enough material out there like this. Homosexuality is such a taboo and touchy topic for a lot of people and this post put it very clearly and I couldn’t agree more!

    Thanks again.

  2. On September 27, 2006 at 7:31 pm Mike Ebert Said:

    I side with the church – homosexuality, adultery, violence, anger – all are behaviors that can be changed. There may be biological tendencies to be more prone to one or the other, but that’s the idea of this life – to overcome the natural man, the part of your person that has the inclination to do things that aren’t right. People shouldn’t use their weaknesses as crutches or excuses to prevent them from growing and improving!

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