It appears the Mormon Church is not getting more accepting or compassionate with age. New Mormon policies, crafted by a leadership body known as the Quorum of Twelve, say that being gay is a crime punishable by expulsion from the church. But the new anti-LGBT policy doesn't stop there; it goes right on to punish the children of LGBT families. Under new Mormon policy, children raised in gay households cannot be baptized in the Mormon church until they are eighteen. And then they must repudiate the sexual identity of their parents. Or they still can't be baptized.
This new guideline is so repressive and backward that many members of the Mormon Church are having difficulty understanding where it even came from. Even Mormons who rarely question the church are questioning this one. Please join with me in asking the Quorum of the Twelve to rewrite these heinous policies and craft policies that embrace diversity.
To the Quorum of the Twelve:
We the undersigned are not all Mormons, but we have a deep respect for all legitimate world religions. Your latest policies, however, which exclude gays, lesbians, and bisexuals from your church, are truly backward. Worse: it appears you are punishing the children of gay families by preventing them from being baptized until they are eighteen. And you are requiring those eighteen years old to basically repudiate their parents and the people who raised them as a requirement for baptism. Do you really want young people to make a painful choice between their parents and your church? Please rethink these policies and then revise them to be more compassionate and more accepting of diversity.
