Mormon Church clarifies its ‘confusion’ with LGBTQ people
They did it for love, the Mormon church’s leader says.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has finally explained its muddy position on LGBTQ members.
Speaking to nearly 19,000 students at church-owned Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, on Tuesday, church president Russell M. Nelson clarified the confusion caused by a stunning reversal in policy adopted by the Utah-based faith in recent years.
In two contradictory stances on how the faithful should feel about the church’s LGBTQ members, leaders went from considering Mormons in same-sex unions as “apostates” in November, 2015 to a reversal of that position — mere 41 months later — that even allowed for children of LGBTQ couples to participate in blessings and baptisms.
“We knew that this policy created concern and confusion for some and heartache for others. That grieved us,” the 95-year-old church president said.
While he only became the church’s head in January 2018, when the first policy was announced Nelson, who’s seen as a prophet by churchgoers, was a highranked church official — the president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
In the address, entitled The Love and Laws of God, Nelson said that his commitment was to “teach nothing but the truth.”
He said that the church’s love for its LGBTQ members led the change of course in ideology.
“Whenever the sons and daughters of God weep — for whatever reasons — we weep,” he added, referring to the 2015 policy that labeled same-sex couples eligible for expulsion. “So, our supplications to the Lord continued.”
The proclamation angered LGBTQ members and their allies, leading to some defections.
Church leaders claimed that “because parents are the primary exemplars for their children, we did not want to put young children in the position of having to choose between beliefs and behavior they learned at home and what they were taught at church,” Nelson recalled. “We wanted to facilitate harmony in the home and avoid pitting children and parents against each other.”
However, after much prayer, LDS officials decided not to treat LGBTQ members as apostates, and “homosexual immorality would be treated in the eyes of the church in the same manner as heterosexual immorality,” he added.
To be clear, the church still stands firm in its opposition to same-sex love.
“The truth is, however, that in the beginning,” he said, “marriage was ordained by God! And to this day it is defined by Him as being between a man and a woman,” he added.
“Though it may not have looked this way to some, the 2015 and 2019 policy adjustments on this matter were both motivated by love — the love of our Heavenly Father for His children and the love of the Brethren for those whom we serve,” Nelson clarified.