From the
“Speak Up If You Don't Mind
Being Excommunicated”
Department
Mormon faithful Kate Kelly leads a group called Ordain Women. As you may infer from the name, they’re for having the Mormon Church ordain women to the priesthood. No officially stated policy prohibits it, and the church ordained a few women in its early days. Importantly, Ordain Women isn’t demanding that the church change its policy. They’re urging church leaders, whom they hold as prophets, to ask God if it’s OK to change it.
There is precedent for this. Many of founder Joseph Smith’s “revelations” resulted from someone’s having brought a question, though in some cases that puts it mildly. Smith’s wife Emma pretty much told him to get a commandment from the Lord outlawing tobacco and booze.
Meanwhile, Mormon faithful John Dehlin, a graduate student of clinical and counseling psychology, has published articles taking a deep and thoughtful look at, among other topics, the LDS Church’s stance on and treatment of the LGBTQ community. (Dehlin is straight.) Dehlin has also started various LDS-related websites and blogs including the popular Mormon Stories Podcast.
Both insist that they believe the LDS Church is what it claims, namely, Jesus’s one and only true church. Why they believe that is another story. Today’s story is this:
It’s official. Kelly’s and Dehlin’s reward is threatened excommunication.
The church does not challenge their assertions. Kelly and Dehlin stand accused of publicly disagreeing with church leaders. You don’t have to be wrong, and church leaders don’t have to be right, to be in trouble for that. All you have to do is speak up. Woe unto you if the voice you raise is not supported by the facts. More woe unto you if it is. As Mormon apostle Boyd Packer heinously put it, “Some things that are true are not very useful.”
If you’re a Mormon, you shine a light on the church, its practices, and its lack of reason at your own risk, even if said light reveals the truth. And, as has happened, even if later on the church de facto concedes by effecting the requested change after all.*
_____________
*In October 1977, the LDS Church excommunicated Byron Marchant for advocating an end to the church’s policy of banning Negroes from its priesthood. The following June, the church did exactly as Marchant advocated and ended the ban. Marchant was neither acknowledged nor reinstated.
There is precedent for this. Many of founder Joseph Smith’s “revelations” resulted from someone’s having brought a question, though in some cases that puts it mildly. Smith’s wife Emma pretty much told him to get a commandment from the Lord outlawing tobacco and booze.
Meanwhile, Mormon faithful John Dehlin, a graduate student of clinical and counseling psychology, has published articles taking a deep and thoughtful look at, among other topics, the LDS Church’s stance on and treatment of the LGBTQ community. (Dehlin is straight.) Dehlin has also started various LDS-related websites and blogs including the popular Mormon Stories Podcast.
Both insist that they believe the LDS Church is what it claims, namely, Jesus’s one and only true church. Why they believe that is another story. Today’s story is this:
It’s official. Kelly’s and Dehlin’s reward is threatened excommunication.
The church does not challenge their assertions. Kelly and Dehlin stand accused of publicly disagreeing with church leaders. You don’t have to be wrong, and church leaders don’t have to be right, to be in trouble for that. All you have to do is speak up. Woe unto you if the voice you raise is not supported by the facts. More woe unto you if it is. As Mormon apostle Boyd Packer heinously put it, “Some things that are true are not very useful.”
If you’re a Mormon, you shine a light on the church, its practices, and its lack of reason at your own risk, even if said light reveals the truth. And, as has happened, even if later on the church de facto concedes by effecting the requested change after all.*
_____________
*In October 1977, the LDS Church excommunicated Byron Marchant for advocating an end to the church’s policy of banning Negroes from its priesthood. The following June, the church did exactly as Marchant advocated and ended the ban. Marchant was neither acknowledged nor reinstated.
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