It also prohibits natural or adopted children of gay married couples from being baptized in the faith until they turn 18, leave their parents’ home and personally disavow same-sex marriage or cohabitation. The policy says that being “in a same-gender marriage” is considered apostasy, or having renounced the church, and therefore, grounds for excommunication.
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Mormon scholar Patrick Mason told the AP that even Mormons on the conservative side of the spectrum are speaking out against the church’s new stance.
Biskupski, the newly elected mayor, said she would reach out to LDS leadership in an attempt to bridge the gap between her supporters in the gay community and Mormons and others opposed to gay marriage.
That will be a major relief to all his kids, especially his 15-year-old son, who anxious he might not be able to serve a mission. Most had stopped attending church years ago, but they wanted to finally cut ties with the religion.
He said the policy was made out of concern and compassion for the children in households with same-sex parents.
That would be a decision left up to lay leaders. She’s heterosexual, but after she heard about the new policy, she organized a resignation party at a bar in Salt Lake City.
“All children are to be treated with utmost respect and love”, the letter concludes.
“I never had anything bad to say about the church until they did that”, Unsicker-Montoya says.
The line for the forms was long and wrapped around two or three sides of the park, she said.
“I’ve read a lot of history on the church since I got here, and there isn’t much I’ve been impressed with”, McNamara said. “It is a well-thought-out one and it is not taken lightly”, said Brooke Swallow, one of the organizers of the Saturday protest.
In 2012, a mass resignation protest of 120 included a hike to Salt Lake City’s Ensign Peak, the Salt Lake Tribune reported.
” … which I think is definitely a sign of how many people really support the LGBT population and don’t like what (the church) is doing to families”, she said.
Earlier this year, Pope Francis said in a sermon that Roman Catholic priests should not refuse baptism to anyone who seeks the sacrament. Still, bishops are the top authorities in their dioceses and can make such decisions on their own.
It is a departure for the church, which recently has softened its approach on gay issues and backed a Utah state law that provided legal protections for gay people.
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Children who are already baptised, they said, will not have their membership revoked.
