The many critical voices protesting the recent new policy on children of gay parents have grabbed the headlines and dominated the discussion. The silent majority of faithful men and women in the church don’t generally engage in contentious online debates, so their perspective isn’t being heard. This video provides a comprehensive defense of the policy and an essential perspective on where these criticisms and protests are coming from.

Make sure to see the end segment – it’s absolutely essential after watching the various arguments and defenses.

Transcript

[toc]There’s been a torrent of posts on social media by people who are critical of a new policy by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The update to the handbook of instructions addresses the concerns and needs of men and women and the children of gay parents in the church in an effort to reduce conflict in families and keep children safe. Now the flood of criticisms on social media like Facebook and Twitter has even spilled over into the main stream media with outlets like the New York Times and CNN giving further amplification to these ill-informed critical voices. Now while the critics are numerous and loud the silent majority of faithful mormons who don’t engage in contentious online debates, and prefer to maintain a quite, humble faith and trust in the prophets and apostles aren’t really making any headlines and so their perspective is not being heard. So I want to take this opportunity to provide a comprehensive defense. Of the new church policy that should really help people see the significance of the policy, the importance of it in the lives of church members and settle the debate. It’s a bit long but I think you’ll find that this is worth it.

Consider the Source

Now anytime you consider an issue, you really need to look at who is making the arguments and when you see what their motives actually are then you can understand why they are making the arguments they’re making, then you can see through their distortions and lies. Now we’ve been warned by the prophets that there are people who will simply follow the trends of the world and whatever is popular in secular society and if you look at this issue, it’s really those people who are speaking loudest about this policy.

Now the people protesting this policy from their perspective, they want to see the world descend into the depths of what we understand in the church is really a desire to have guiltless iniquity. They look for every opportunity to erode the moral fabric of our society and chip away at the foundations of our spiritual character because they don’t have the same values. They want to promote counterfeit lifestyles and families that undermine the divine order of families that have been established by god as set forth in the teachings of our prophets such as the proclamation on the family. These people have values which are inherently different to those in the church. Now when you think about it there are really only two perspectives on this issue, the side which believes in God and the teachings of the prophets and chooses righteousness, and the side which disregards the commandments of god and follows the influence that governs worldly society, which clearly isn’t god if you understand the implications of that.

Now these people, in actuality, are disingenuous. If they were really concerned about ostracism, then they would be protesting other churches who refuse to let mormons call themselves christian. Why don’t they protest the laws that force mormons to have to redefine marriage, violating deeply held religious beliefs of mormons.

Unfaithful sources

We’ve been told in general conference that if you really want to know about the life of christ, you don’t go asking Judists. And by the same token, if you really want to understand this policy, you need to make sure that you’re getting your information, not from people who are apostate, who’ve left the church, but really from people who understand and trust the motives of the general authorities, so it’s really disloyal, uninformed, and unworthy apostates who are the one’s primarily speaking out about this policy. and they’re usually people who’ve been offended by the church in the past or who are themselves engaged in a lifestyle of sin and are really looking to latch on to any possible criticism to try to tear down the church. They aren’t really actually interested in the issue of hand, but really only want to see the church destroyed or relieve themselves of the guilt that they feel because of their own lifestyle choices.

Now since these protesters have, for the most part, left the church. there’s really no way that they’re actually knowledgeable in the gospel or the inner workings of the church or how god’s laws are established and maintained. Otherwise they would see that there is really little wisdom in protesting and agitating the way that they have been doing. Now why in the world do these apostates want to see more children being baptized into the church or to get the priesthood. Why are they trying to fight for the rights of these kids get people baptized when they themselves value baptism so lightly. It simply highlights their hypocrisy. So you know that their real motive is to tear down the church, not really to get more kids baptized. They’re just looking for some reason to criticize the church or the apostles and prophets. Now when you keep this in mind and consider the arguments that they make you ask yourself these questions.

Do these bloggers, and pundits and protesters…
Do they hold an active temple recommend?
Are they living a life worthy of obtaining one?
Do they live the word of wisdom?
Are they paying tithing?
Does the church have any real meaning in their life?

Now if the answers to these questions is “no”, then why do they even care about these policies? Why would we give any weight at all to their opinion and spend time reading and discussing it?

Now there are a few people who have protested who actually do appear to be “active church members”. Now these are people who, when you think about it, seem to have one foot in the church and one foot in secular society and as my grandpa used to say, “an extra foot in their mouth.” Such members cannot really have a true understanding of the restoration and the gospel if they find it so easy to defy the prophet and call for changes in how the church operates really in order to suit their own worldy perspectives. Now if these “active church members” were really faithful and loyal Mormons, particularly if they had gone through the temple before and kept the covenants that they made there, then why would they be speaking out against the leaders of the church? Remember we’ve always been warned that there will be wolves among the fold and when we see people who claim to be active and believing and faithful members who are so willing to easily and loudly speak out against the prophet then we need to ask ourselves how would we identify those wolves.

The Numbers Game

Now one thing to keep in mind is that it’s human tendency to try to place greater weight or validity in something that seems to have more people following it, so you really need to be careful about gauging opinion from social media. Remember the saying that, “the squeaky wheel gets the grease” well this is true in online media. It’s only those people who have a reason to bash the church who are being vocal and they try to make sure that they post on every platform possible. So you might have one person who posts on Facebook, and on twitter, and on instagram so even though it’s just one voice, it seems to be multiplied and spread. They contact the media and try to get their bitter opinions magnified in the mainstream media and “it works!”, because the mainstream media is just as eager to find things wrong with the church as anyone else that is really actively trying to tear down the prophets.

Now this is how one bitter man like John Dehlin can get his soundbites repeated over and over again in places like the New York Times and CNN because the media is just too happy to oblige. And it makes it look like thousands and tens of thousands of people are protesting or leaving the church, don’t believe it, the numbers just don’t add up.

YOU live among other faithful mormons, YOU know how real, sincere members believe and how they feel about this issue. For every voice of protest that seems to be amplified in social media, there are hundreds, literally hundreds of thousands of devoted, active, loyal members who would stand up and defend our prophet in the commandments of God. They understand that people have their free agency and contention is of the devil, however. So they’re willing to be silent and “let the devils howl” as Joseph Smith said. Every loyal member of high and low position knows that the voices of those were protesting are not in harmony with the gospel and not in harmony with the commandments of God and not in harmony with the prophets. “The faithful” outnumber “the faithless” by ratio far greater than even than what we found in the war and heaven in the preexistence, where two thirds followed God and one third fell away.

Political Motives

Now if you step back and really look at the political implications of the recent ruling by the Supreme Court which legalize same-sex marriage across the nation, then you’ll understand that the true motives of people who are protesting this policy. They have a political motive, and they would like nothing more than for the church eventually be sued and forced to have to perform gay marriage in the temple.

Now redefining marriage and promoting this type of ‘counterfeit’ family lifestyle has long been a major platform of Liberals and Democrats in our nation. The Mormon church IS one of the strongest and most vocal defenders of traditional families and traditional marriage and so it’s a major target for these political factions. And they want to use the courts to achieve their own social goals. If they could get Mormons to be required “by law” to marry gays then no other church would have any hope of keeping their standards.

Now the church needed to take the steps that are outlined in this policy to both protect children as well as to protect the church from this sort of underhanded and insidious type of effect. Now that Gay marriage is a definite and mandatory cause for apostasy, then there’s really no way that any judge could ever order or force the church to perform a gay marriage, so the effect of this policy really is to protect the church.

Another thing to keep in mind is that a secondary benefit for all of the negative attention that the media is getting for these people with a political motive, is that it would embarrass Mitt Romney. Now we all know that it’s very, very likely Romney is going to end up being drafted by the GOP, because there’s really a void of leadership right now in the primaries. And by staying out of the race now it saves him money so that he can step in later. And so people that are looking at this issue realize that if they are able to embarrass the church now then it will actually have the effect of embarrassing Romney and further hurting/damaging his chances in the presidential campaign so there really is kind of a multi-tiered political undercurrent behind a lot of these attacks.

The Policy is a Blessing

When you think about how strong and unwavering the church is in standing up for righteousness and decrying the immorality of homosexuality and gay marriage, it is surprising that people would want to argue that the children of gay parents should want to or could be baptized. If they were than they would end up attending numerous meetings each week which would essentially convey to them the reality that their parents were wicked and that their parents’ marriages were a perversion of the true order of families and part of the plan of the adversary.

Now since the church is really not interested in subjecting these innocent children to the conflict that this could introduce into their home, then it really is for the protection of the children that they are prevented from baptism because it kind of keeps them away from these mixed messages.

Now people who argue that it’s a disservice to withhold a saving ordinance from these kids, generally, when you talk to them, they really don’t have a full understanding of god’s law. Now since it’s god’s law which would prevent these children from being baptized, for reasons that are outside of their own control until they’re 18, then if they were, for example, to die while being unbaptized, they would have a chance to be baptized by proxy. Now they never had a chance to refuse baptism on earth, so they would get a chance in the life after. This is exactly the reason that we do the baptisms for the dead, so in the end they are not going to miss out on any blessings that god offers his children and it really isn’t the disservice that people try to paint it as being because those critics really don’t understand that god has really provided for all these potential issues.

Now since these kids will undoubtedly have more challenges in life because of the unconventional parenting situation as children of gay parents, then denying them baptism is actually a benefit for them. They won’t have the additional burdens of being required to attend meetings, having priesthood callings, leadership positions, seminary, etc. so that they’ll have the emotional and, really, time reserves to give to the challenges that they’ll face in their life so withholding them from blessings or baptism and all the activities and involvement that would follow from that, actually helps them to cope better with the challenges that they’re going to face in their life, so it’s really a blessing to them.

Gay people support the policy

Now despite all the Mormon bashing, where people are saying that the policy is wrong, there are faithful gay men and women who trust in the leaders and except the policy. Even the brother of Apostle D. Todd Christopherson, who is an openly gay and active Mormon, says that he will continue to walk in faith, and hope, and prayerfully follow the brethren.

Now an overwhelming majority of gay people who are speaking out and protesting this issue are gay members who choose NOT to follow the advice of the leaders and keep the standards of the church. They’ve separated themselves from the body of the church and now they think that they can dictate how the church should be governed from the sidelines. Now among those gay men and women who are choosing to live the law of chastity, despite their inclinations, the support for the policy and the leaders is strong. These are faithful members who have special challenges but they look to Christ and the prophets for strength in navigating their particular circumstances. These members are happy, they’ve found strength in the church and in following the wise counsel of the prophets and apostles. These faithful examples of quiet humility and obedience, they don’t get the headlines that, you know, all of that the critics get, so you’re not really going to hear their stories but they are all around us. Even Non-Mormon gay advocates see the wisdom in preventing the children of gay parents from being excepted for baptism into the church. It’s really only those who have “a bone to pick” with the church who engage in this sort of backbiting and fault finding.

Baptismal Worthiness

A lot of the criticism about the new policy centers around the fact that even after a child of gay parents reaches 18 they still can’t be baptized unless they move out and disavow the principle of gay marriage.

Now to anyone who is even moderately familiar with the gospel, this should really come as no surprise. If a person who is a legal adult chooses to endorse gay marriage then they are making a bold claim that God’s Commandments and the sacred nature of the family are less important than going along with society. Now the church doesn’t ask them to disavow their parents, nor to never see their parents or even not to love their parents. They simply have to clearly acknowledge that gay marriage is a grievous sin.

Now any person who is age 18 or older who has taken the missionary discussions understands the Gospel and the restoration will see that this is really the only way that anyone could possibly want to be baptized. The fundamental nature of the family and marriage as a union between one man and one woman as husband and wife is so basic and essential to the gospel plan that anyone who chooses to corrupt the ideal of marriage by supporting same-sex unions may as well also deny the Christ and the atonement.

No one who holds the idea would possibly desire baptism in the first place and it would really be incompatible with their worldview to get baptized into the church. They wouldn’t be able to pass the interview required before baptism and, frankly, by holding these thoughts in their heart and they really wouldn’t even be worthy of baptism. It can really only be by humbling themselves before the Lord in righteousness and obedience that an individual can enter the waters of baptism and this is true of everyone, not just the children of gay parents.

Follow the Prophet

Now this is really the heart of the criticism that you see among protesters in the church. People think that they can instruct the prophet better than God can. They expect the prophet to bend to the winds of society, they no longer keep their eye on the prophet to find guidance, but rather wag their finger at him and put themselves as their own higher authority. Now virtually every criticism of this new policy has this idea as a foundational undercurrent.

Now in the October 1989 General conference, Ezra Taft Benson prophetically warned us about this day and identified the root of the problem, pride. He said, “The central feature of pride is enmity. Enmity towards God and enmity towards our fellow man. Enmity means, hatred towards, hostility to or a state of opposition, it is the power by which Satan wishes to reign over us, pride is essentially competitive in nature. We pit our will against god’s. When we direct our pride towards God, it is in the spirit of my will and not thine be done. Our will in competition to God’s will allows desires, appetites and passions to go unbridled. The proud cannot except the authority of God giving directions to their lives. They pit their perceptions of truth against God’s great knowledge, their abilities vs. gods priesthood power, their accomplishments against his mighty works. The proud wish God would agree with them, they aren’t interested in changing their opinions to agree with God’s.”

Now people who to take it upon themselves to lecture the brethren about these so-called, “social issues”, forget what happened to Lucifer when he tried to tell God how to run a affairs. They ignore the lessons of people who try to steady the ark. This is particularly true for people who have been through the temple, in there they’ve made sacred covenants to support the church and the prophets. Now any temple recommend holding member who takes it upon themselves to think that they know better than the brethren is in violation of those covenants and if they don’t correct themselves, they’ll find themselves moving down a path that they did not expect.

Now as Mormons, we believe that men are called of God. All of these critics on Facebook, Twitter and blogs are far removed from God’s channels. God did not call them to be the ones to establish doctrine or policy, they need to let the general authorities of the church, the men who ARE actually called of God, they need to let them administer the policies of the church. The prophet is the mouthpiece of God and the mouthpiece of the church. This policy bears the signature of the prophet and his counselors.

Now who are these critics and bloggers to question the prophet of God? God and God alone will instruct the brethren as to the course that they should take in directing the church, not the shrill voice of basement bloggers and bitter apostates. These critics really need to stop trying to BE the prophet and instead, try to find wisdom in this policy and the instructions that we’ve been given. Remember that God will do nothing except he reveal it through his servants, the prophets. We have been instructed to obey God’s commands and not to seek to counsel our God.

Attempting to Embarrass the Church

By making their criticisms a matter of very vocal and public noise, the real effect that these critics are seeking is to create obstacles to the church. They want to bring reproach into the church in the minds of the uninformed public and they want to put church up to ridicule. They may have already done irreparable damage too many people who were previously working with the missionaries and about to enter into the waters of baptism before these protests started happening.

If people do have unresolved questions about the church policy and doctrines there are proper channels to go through to answer these questions. Rather than take their questions and criticisms to the stage of social media, they should’ve come to their bishops and stake presidents in a private and confidential manner. Those men could have provided a comfort and guidance without making a grand spectacle and harming the public image of the church. Any unresolved issues would have made their way through the channels to the first presidency and then an authoritative answer could be provided. Instead, the fact that these people have gone and blasted their protest into the world of social media demonstrates that they’re not really looking for answers, they just want to take any opportunity to loudly bash and embarrass the church and the brethren.

Uninformed Critics

There’s a saying that, “He who knows nothing, speaks most about it”. The people criticizing this policy have, for the most part, not been listening to the prophets for years. They are the least informed sources of true information on this issue.

For example, the church has had a website, mormonsandgays.org, up for several years that speaks of the love that God has for people who are burdened with same-sex attraction. Now if you visit that website, you’ll see that the brethren are looking out for both gay members and their families, as well as trying to find a balance that keeps families united. The critics either don’t know about this or they conveniently ignore it. Now if critics did actually have a testimony of the Gospel and an understanding of the eternal perspective that the brethren have, then they would see that just like some people have issues with anger or stealing or violence, people with same-sex attraction have been giving a unique challenge in this life and it is their special circumstance to overcome that challenge, to keep God’s Commandments and to endure to the end and if they’re faithful, they’ve been promised that they’ll find healing in the next life and this challenge will be removed from them. An eternal view of our progression puts these earthly challenges into perspective, the brethren are simply making sure that those challenges don’t adversely spill over and negatively impact the innocent children of people who struggle with same-sex attraction.

Leaving the Fold

A lot of people who have a problem with this policy have made a big deal about submitting their resignation over it. Frankly, this is probably a good thing. The church is here to help “the faithful”, those people who have a testimony of the restoration know that by following the prophet, they are holding to the iron rod and will not get misdirected or lost in the darkness that abounds the world.

Now those people who don’t value the prophet, they have their free agency and they’re free to follow their own light as they try to navigate that darkness. Even those people who have a testimony of Joseph Smith, but are not humble enough to follow President Monson and his apostles, they can find some other place to worship. The Community of Christ, for example, what used to be the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, they support gay marriage and they even do priesthood ordination of women, so these people probably would be better served in a faith community like that.

Now that being said, most of the people who are submitting their resignations and doing this type of protest are actually atheist and so they don’t really value their membership anyway. By resigning, they are actually helping, because there’ll be a lot less contention and confusion with things like “home teaching” and “visiting teaching” since a lot of these people tend to get really upset when, you know, well-intentioned members reach out to them because their names happen to be on the roles of the church and are they’re trying to see if they can help any less active members. So the process of “separating the wheat from the tares” is one which has been prophesied about and with issues like this we can see that the Lord’s purposes are being advanced in more ways than one.

Conclusion

So you can see that there are a whole host of reasons that people who are protesting this new policy place themselves at odds with the church, at odds with the prophets and, ultimately, at odds with God. Once you’ve been baptized into the church you cannot ever be a neutral party in relation to it. You either work to build up the kingdom of God or you work to tear down. Now as you encounter people on social media who are critical of the church and this policy just remember to step back and ask yourself, “Who’s on the Lord side, who?”

One more thing…

Now if you made it this far into the video, then you are quite remarkable and persistent.

There may be times that you may listen to an argument that I made and maybe felt a little twinge of uncertainty about whether such an argument was legitimate or even kind. If that’s the case then take heart, you have a conscience. You see every argument that I’ve made in this video is simply a reformulation and a restatement of an argument that was made to defend the church’s racist teachings and policies prior to 1978 which prevented black men from receiving the priesthood, prevented black families from having the security of feeling like they would be sealed for eternity, and prevented black people from holding leadership positions in the church.

We know what sorts of arguments were made to defend these racist things because a prominent member of the church, Stewart Udal, wrote a public letter that condemned those racist teachings about skin color and curses and called for a change of the policy and called for the prophet to make these changes. After he did that, a lot of faithful members from all over the nation wrote to Stewart Udal and criticized him for his position against these racist things. And Stewart Udal saved those letters, so we know exactly what sort of arguments were made on the issue of race.

Now remember that the things which Udal wrote about and said were wrong have actually recently been officially disavowed in the lds.org gospel topics essay on race and the priesthood that specifically acknowledge that the prophets were wrong when they described the ban, the curse, the idea that black people were less valiant in the pre-mortal life and other racist teachings.

So if the members of the church can see that the prophets have been wrong before and that their error seeped into the hearts of the members and gave sanction to hate, which we saw expressed in the arguments that were given to Stewart Udal, then hopefully they can step back and look with a greater degree of empathy towards gays families and their advocates, both inside and outside of the church. Let’s not recycle the language of racism by applying it to gay men and women and their families in the modern age.