The Church put out this statement today on same-sex marriage.

Some highlights:

Changes in the civil law do not, indeed cannot, change the moral law that God has established. God expects us to uphold and keep His commandments regardless of divergent opinions or trends in society. His law of chastity is clear: sexual relations are proper only between a man and a woman who are legally and lawfully wedded as husband and wife. We urge you to review and teach Church members the doctrine contained in “The Family: A Proclamation to the World.”

And this:

Consistent with our fundamental beliefs, Church officers will not employ their ecclesiastical authority to perform marriages between two people of the same sex, and the Church does not permit its meetinghouses or other properties to be used for ceremonies, receptions, or other activities associated with same-sex marriages. Nevertheless, all visitors are welcome to our chapels and premises so long as they respect our standards of conduct while there.

And this:

Just as those who promote same-sex marriage are entitled to civility, the same is true for those who oppose it. The Church insists on its leaders’ and members’ constitutionally protected right to express and advocate religious convictions on marriage, family, and morality free from retaliation or retribution. The Church is also entitled to maintain its standards of moral conduct and good standing for members.

I am sure we will have further discussions on this issue in the coming days.

This is a guest post by IDIAT, a M* commenter.

January’s Ensign has two articles – one on the grieving and mourning process, the other introducing us to President Joseph Fielding Smith. I had already looked over JFS’s time line in the priesthood manual. Let me summarize some milestones in his life, drawing from the manual, Ensign article and Family Search.

Born 7/19//1876. Marries Louie Emily Shurtliff 04/26/1898. They have two children, then she dies during her third pregnancy 03/30/1908. (Married about 10 years). Marries Ethel Georgina Reynolds on 11/02/1908. They have 7 more children and she dies 08/26/1937 after a four year illness. (Married second time about 29 years). Marries Jessie Ella Evans 04/12/1938, no children born of this marriage, and she dies 08/13/1971. (Married about 33 years). JFS was sealed to all three wives.

A couple of things stand out. First, in both his second and third marriages, he re-married about 7 months after the death of deceased wife. I think by most people’s standards, that’s pretty quick. The first remarriage he had two children, ages 6 and 2. Our sympathies would be with a young father aged 32 (or mother for that matter) who needed help raising children. Still, JFS was the first son of a polygamous father who ultimately had many children. In fact, JFS wasn’t about the same age as his father’s last wives. Surely, with all that extended family around, someone could have stepped in and helped raise the children. Sister Reynolds was only 19 when she married JFS. Perhaps he already knew Sister Reynolds, so that they skipped through much of the courtship stuff. Anyway, when Sister Reynolds dies at age 48, their youngest of 7 children is 16.
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Do you notice a trend in this conversation that has taken place in the last 20 years?

Traditionalists in 1993: “We are worried that the increasing acceptance of and concentration on sexuality in the culture will result in the normalization of behavior that is sinful. It will be increasingly difficult to maintain traditional standards of morality and sexuality in the home because there are prominent counter-examples everywhere. Clearly sinful behavior is becoming ‘normal’ and even being ‘glorified.’ ”

The world: “Don’t be such a prude. This won’t affect you and your family, and aren’t you in favor of freedom? People expressing their sexuality does not affect you.”

Traditionalists in the mid-1990s: “Civil unions are OK in principle, but they could lead to gay marriage, which would decrease the importance of traditional marriage. There is a better solution, which is to allow consenting adults to just write out contracts to leave money to each when they die and to write out other contracts related to their shared belongings. Hospitals could also be petitioned to allow close friends to visit their loved ones. We don’t need to fool around with family law.”

The world: “Shut up you homophobe. And by the way, civil unions will NOT lead to gay marriage, which almost nobody wants.”

Traditionalists in 1995: “The Church has just put out a Proclamation to the World on the Family. It says very clearly that marriage is between ‘man and woman’ and that gender is an eternal character of men and women. Phew. Now, latter-day Saints know exactly where the prophets stand on this issue, and active members of the Church will of course follow the prophet.”

The world: “Whatever. The prophets are also racists. Nobody wants gay marriage anyway. Modern people just want civil unions, which you are obviously a homophobe if you oppose.”

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From the Interpreter.

http://www.mormoninterpreter.com/the-christmas-quest/

This is a guest post by Michael Towns.

Does the title inspire discomfort? Good. It was meant to jar you from a baleful sense of self-complacency and moral superiority.

It is all too human to project our vaunted, sophisticated value system on the very category of “God.” What ends up happening is that we create God in our own image, and while we possess the liberty to do so, that image is not really the God that stands revealed in the Holy Scriptures nor is it the God Who Reveals Himself through revelation to man.

In the 21st century, we applaud ourselves for our ethical progress and awareness. From our vantage point, we are the most advanced ethical creatures that have ever graced planet earth. We think that we are, in large measure, “better” than our forebears, who were deeply flawed humans who tolerated racism, bigotry, sexism, intolerance, and a host of other evils.

A problem quickly reveals itself when we contemplate our moral grandeur. As we peer back through the vistas of time, and we open up the pages of canonized scripture, we are suddenly confronted with not only bigoted prophets and preachers of righteousness, but, quite frankly, we find ourselves staring at a God who leaps from the pages as a ravening beast, cursing, killing, and afflicting his chosen people with tests from which we moderns recoil in terror.

How do we reconcile these disparate visions, these outpourings of divine wrath and almost Olympian capriciousness?

Please allow me to submit a solution to the problem.

We simply need to let go of our modern moral conceits and admit that God is above our self-imposed moral categories.
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