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Merina Smith: No Same-Sex Mormon Family

Posted: Wed Dec 09, 2015 9:41 pm
by _Kishkumen
http://thefederalist.com/2015/12/08/why-theres-no-such-thing-as-a-same-sex-mormon-family/

Since Mormons have led political compromises between religious liberty and LGBT demands, their refusal to condone homosexual behavior has surprised some. It shouldn’t.


It is true that some have been surprised by the apparent contradiction in the Church embracing some political compromises while instituting draconian policies denying certain children the ordinances of the Church until they reach majority. The real surprise, however, is that the Church instituted draconian policies denying children ordinances until they reach majority.

The leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints—the Mormons—recently revised their handbook. This may not sound like dramatic news, yet it has caused great weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth among some members and nonmembers alike, because the church has made it clear there is no such thing as a same-sex Mormon family.


Any family in the Church with a homosexual member is a same-sex Mormon family inasmuch as someone in that family seeks love and intimacy, seeks to form a family, with a member of their own sex. The Church chooses instead to enforce a false image of the eternal family that excludes gay people. Gay members are in a sense cut out of the eternal family of Mormonism, at least according to the narrow views of Church leaders and many members.

In spite of the protests, however, the changes are in keeping with longstanding church policies toward children of polygamous families, whose minor children cannot be baptized. Out of deference to parental authority, the church also refuses to baptize other minor children without parental permission.


The analogy of polygamy and same-sex marriage is a false one. The implications of these unions are not the same. There is no gay Mormon Church with a competing priesthood claim. Deference to parental authority, at the end of the day, is really all that is necessary. If same-sex married parents don't want to consent to their children being baptized, then they won't. If they do, why not allow the family to exercise their own agency and judgment, and allow the chips to fall where they may?

The truth is that this is not about protecting children. It is about a paranoid Church seeking to protect its freedom to discriminate against gays in the future.

Some may think it is ironic that Mormons are unwilling to embrace a new understanding of marriage in light of their church’s unorthodox polygamous past. Polygamy, however, was not a new form of marriage, but rather an ancient one found in the Old Testament, which led within Mormonism to an older form of cultural and physical reproduction and regeneration.


Mormon polygamy cannot be found in the Old Testament. Joseph Smith did not have hundreds of wives and concubines. He did not bring a handmaiden into his tent when his wife was too old to bear him a son. Joseph Smith's polygamy is a new form of polygamy that bears almost no resemblance to the scriptural models Smith claimed inspired him to inquire about polygamy. Mormon polygamy is exactly as old as the prophet who first instituted it, and not a minute older.

Far from accepting the ethos of no-fault divorce, temple divorces require special permission from leaders in Salt Lake. If redefined marriage can be seen as part of a trajectory the sexual revolution initiated, it should surprise no one that Mormons reject it, because they have rejected the entire “revolution.”


Factually incorrect. The Church allows men to be sealed to as many women as they can be without violating the prohibition against engaging in polygamy wherein one man has more than one legally married/cohabiting female partner. Only a woman needs permission to have a sealing annulled because she cannot be sealed to more than one man.

In 1995, when redefined marriage was only a blip on the horizon, the Mormon First Presidency issued “The Family, A Proclamation to the World,” in which they “solemnly proclaim that marriage between a man and a woman is ordained of God and that the family is central to the Creator’s plan for the eternal destiny of His children.” It goes on to reiterate the importance of family to Mormon theology and to lay out parental duties and responsibilities toward children. The proclamation has since been adopted into Mormon scripture.


When was the Proclamation canonized? I was unaware that it had been included in the scriptures.

http://en.fairmormon.org/Mormonism_and_prophets/Mormonism_and_the_Proclamation_on_the_Family/Official_doctrine

According to the FAIRWiki, the Proclamation is not canonized scripture.

The Proclamation is not canonized scripture....


I can't say I am impressed with Dr. Smith's grasp of the issue and the pertinent facts, and yet it appears that she is LDS and presents herself as sufficiently expert to publish on the topic.

Re: Merina Smith: No Same-Sex Mormon Family

Posted: Wed Dec 09, 2015 9:52 pm
by _I have a question
Mormons believe that contemporary innovations like third-party reproduction do not help give children a strong sense of identity and the values to live by that are so essential to their well-being.


Excuse me?
'Mormons' think that do they?
I don't know any Mormons that think that.

Re: Merina Smith: No Same-Sex Mormon Family

Posted: Wed Dec 09, 2015 9:53 pm
by _Chap
Kishkumen wrote:I can't say I am impressed with Dr. Smith's grasp of the issue and the pertinent facts, and yet it appears that she is LDS and presents herself as sufficiently expert to publish on the topic.


Sorry - do you see some kind of disjuncture in the description you just gave?

Re: Merina Smith: No Same-Sex Mormon Family

Posted: Wed Dec 09, 2015 10:14 pm
by _Kishkumen
Wow. How could I have blown that one so badly, Chap?

:wink: :lol:

Re: Merina Smith: No Same-Sex Mormon Family

Posted: Wed Dec 09, 2015 11:54 pm
by _Tom
In light of the importance of marriage to Mormon theology, it is not surprising that Mormons have totally rejected the sexual revolution. Faithful Mormons do not live together before marriage, and reserve sex for marriage.

As an additional sign of having "totally rejected the sexual revolution," faithful Mormons never use birth control.

Re: Merina Smith: No Same-Sex Mormon Family

Posted: Thu Dec 10, 2015 12:01 am
by _Kishkumen
Tom wrote:As an additional sign of having "totally rejected the sexual revolution," faithful Mormons never use birth control.


Good catch, Tom. I was also puzzled by her representation of the LDS reaction to the sexual revolution. Oversimplified and really off base.

Re: Merina Smith: No Same-Sex Mormon Family

Posted: Thu Dec 10, 2015 12:58 am
by _palerobber
Since Mormons have led political compromises between religious liberty and LGBT demands, their refusal to condone homosexual behavior has surprised some. It shouldn’t.


interesting to see the haters now equating "homosexual behavior" with getting married and raising a family.

i'm so old, i remember when they used to equate it with man-on-dog sex.

Re: Merina Smith: No Same-Sex Mormon Family

Posted: Thu Dec 10, 2015 1:05 am
by _palerobber
Tom wrote:
In light of the importance of marriage to Mormon theology, it is not surprising that Mormons have totally rejected the sexual revolution. Faithful Mormons do not live together before marriage, and reserve sex for marriage.

As an additional sign of having "totally rejected the sexual revolution," faithful Mormons never use birth control.


another sign is that faithful Mormon men never bring their wives to orgasm.