It was inspiring (in the secular sense) to see 1,000 Mormons resigning en masse over the weekend at Temple Square in Salt Lake City, in protest of the Mormon’s new policy stigmatizing gay couples and their children.
About 800 others have registered letters of resignation following the unforgiving announcement by the Church of Latter Day Saints earlier this month imposing cruel new conditions on same-sex Mormon couples and their children.
The Mormon Church, noted for its demeaning ideology about women, Native Americans, blacks and gays, announced that Mormons in same-sex marriages are “apostates” subject to disciplinary hearings leading to excommunication. Not only that, children of same-sex couples can’t join the Mormon Church until they turn 18, and only if they’ve moved out of their parents’ home, given up all same-sex relationships and received special approval from the church’s top leadership.
That means children are gay married couples may not be baptized, confirmed, ordained to the church’s all-male priesthood or recommended for missionary service until they meet these conditions.
Tone-deaf Mormon officials apparently felt it would mitigate reaction to clarify that the rules “don’t apply” to children already baptized in the church.
“While [the church] respects the law of the land and acknowledges the right of others to think and act differently, it does not perform or accept same-sex marriage within its membership,” Church spokesperson Eric Hawkins said in a written statement.
Here’s to more Mormons waking up to smell that forbidden coffee and putting people — and children — above archaic dogma.
