Do ask, do tellAS STEWARDS of a faith spawned on American soil, Mormon leaders urge their followers to be loyal, law-abiding and useful citizens. And as their founding documents make clear, what they ask in return is the right to live by different rules and impose them on the flock.
Balancing all that can be tricky, as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints found out this month when it sharpened both the style and content of its teaching on same-sex relationships. A revised handbook for church leaders laid down that a member in a gay marriage must face discipline, which could lead to excommunication; such a procedure might be necessary for those cohabiting with a person of the same sex, another “serious transgression”.
Moreover, a child being raised by a same-gender couple could not undergo the church’s formative rites of passage, including baptism; that ban could only be lifted if, after reaching 18, the young person quits the disordered nest and explicitly “disavows” gay unions.
Todd Christofferson, one of the church’s 12 ruling “Apostles” said the Church saw same-sex nuptials...Continue reading
Source: United States http://ift.tt/1T1f7DF
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