Mormon stance on gays harms those in the ranks

Last week the Mormon church issued clarity to its followers on gay and lesbian relationships, marriages and the children in these relationships. The message is: We do not approve of you, we do not want you, or your children.

And by extension: God hates you and so do we.

Why else would any assembly professing to be a God-oriented group do that? What does this act make God out to be: an entity who is omnipotent, all knowing but who made lots of mistakes and disavows them, and his followers should too? No wonder religion has a very bad name.

Mormons, Catholics and evangelicals are good people. So how much pain is this causing those in the ranks?

I am sure they can see the conflict in this logic. Why do they not revolt? Stand up and say: “We are not going to take this anymore”? After all they profess a leader (Jesus, I assume) who stood up to the religious hatred and discrimination of His day. Who said love, justice, mercy, and meeting the needs of the marginalized was the way to being whole, holy, pleasing to God.

When will we learn that cooperation, sharing, helping, accepting, loving, teaching, encouraging, are the ways to create a world were each person’s talent can contribute to the health, happiness and belonging of all?

This story was originally published November 10, 2015 at 2:30 PM with the headline "Mormon stance on gays harms those in the ranks."