Children living in a same-sex household may not be blessed as babies or baptized by the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints until they are 18, at which point they can request to join the church if they disavow the practice of same-sex cohabitation or marriage, according to a new church policy.
The changes in the handbook for local leaders of the LDS church, popularly known as the Mormon Church, also states that those in a same-sex marriage are to be considered apostates who have renounced the faith.
“Church handbooks are policy and procedural guides for lay leaders who must administer the church in many varied circumstances throughout the world,” church spokesman Eric Hawkins said in a statement Thursday confirming the change. “The church has long been on record as opposing same-sex marriages. While it 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.”
The policy change has troubled many Mormons who perceive that the church is punishing children for the acts of their parents, said Steve Evans, a contributor to the popular Mormon blog By Common Consent.
“People who support the church up and down have trouble with this… . I don’t think they are punishing children, but I’m really torn about it,” Evans said.
Experts maintained that the change is in keeping with church doctrine. The Mormon Church teaches that marriage is an institution created by God for one man and one woman. For Mormons, one must be married to achieve the fullness of salvation.
“I don’t see it as revolutionary, but very consistent with other church policies on marriages that are outside the Mormon pale, like polygamy,” said Ardis E. Parshall, a historian on Mormonism. “That does not lessen the pain for friends and families involved, though, so it’s tremendously significant.”
Before Thursday’s change, the church’s policy was that discipline in the case of same-sex marriage was generally left to the discretion of local leaders. But by identifying people in a same-sex marriage as apostates, the new policy automatically triggers a hearing by a disciplinary council, which can choose from options including counseling and potential loss of membership.
Mormon children are normally blessed as infants and baptized around age 8, an act that Mormons believe is a covenant with God and essential to salvation. Baptism is the sacrament that makes other sacraments possible, including marriage as adults in the Mormon Church.
The new policy says that once biological or adopted children living in a same-sex household reach 18, they may disavow the practice of same-sex cohabitation or marriage and stop living within the household. If the individual follows those two rules, he or she may request approval to be baptized, confirmed, ordained to the church priesthood and recommended for missionary service with the permission of the faith’s highest leaders, the First Presidency.
The Mormon Church was widely criticized after it fought same-sex marriage in California through Proposition 8 in 2008. But this year the church and its allies worked on a political compromise with gay rights advocates in Utah, helping to pass a bill known as the “Utah compromise,” which protects LGBT people from discrimination, as well as opponents of gay rights who cite religion as a basis for their beliefs.
Last month, Dallin Oaks, a member of the LDS Church’s Twelve Apostles, said Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis erred in her decision to decline to sign same-sex marriage licenses, and he urged more balance, tolerance and civility in protecting religious freedom.
“Ever since Proposition 8, there have been attempts by the church to reach out, to formulate relationships with LGBT Americans,” said Matthew Bowman, a historian and author of “The Mormon People.” “This policy seems to be a step away from that.”
As religious groups, Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons are the most opposed to same-sex marriage. About 70 percent of Mormons oppose it while 26 percent favor it, according to the Pew Research’s 2014 Landscape Study. About 60 percent of Mormons say homosexuality should be discouraged by society, a decline from 71 percent in 2007.
The new policy puts same-sex marriage into the same category as polygamous marriage in the Mormon Church. In 1890, the president of the church renounced polygamy, and the church began a major effort to stamp out polygamy beginning in 1904.
Randall Thacker, who is president of a group called Affirmation – LGBT Mormons, Families &Friends and is based in D.C., said the new policy came as a shock.
Thacker, who is gay and would like to be married and have children someday, said that his ward was welcoming to him and his partner when he began attending services four years ago after nine years away from the church. He said that over the past five years, he saw local leaders who were willing to overlook those in a same-sex relationship.
“That gave a lot of people a lot of hope that things would change at a grass-roots level,” he said. “Now they’ve drawn a line in the sand, very clearly.”
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