Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints<\/a> in the nineteenth century, and the twenty-first century opposition of that church to same-sex marriage.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
I took a quick glance at the discussion and decided that it wasn\u2019t a serious one.\u00a0 It reminded me just a bit of somebody\u2019s criticism of (I think) Katherine Hepburn, to the effect that her acting \u201cruns the entire emotional gamut from A to B.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
There was unanimous consensus that Mormons are guilty of \u201chypocrisy\u201d (variously spelled) on the matter, and the very first comment (immediately endorsed by the discussion\u2019s originator), explained that Mormons take the position that they do \u201cBecause like most conservatives, they are about repression, not about people being happy. Polygamy is oppressive to women, LGBTs getting married is leaving repression behind, and they can\u2019t have that.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
I\u2019m not a fan of conversations in which people can\u2019t admit the moral decency of those with whom they disagree, and, when the discussion begins with the assumption that my position results from depravity, from sheer otherwise-unmotivated evil, I just can\u2019t muster much interest for participating in it.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
However, I promised that I would address the supposed contradiction between onetime support for plural marriage and modern rejection of gay marriage.\u00a0 So here\u2019s my response:<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
There is no contradiction.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
The originator of that \u201cdiscussion\u201d sees a clash between current LDS support of \u201ctraditional marriage\u201d and past LDS support for a non-traditional form of marriage.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
But that\u2019s not the relevant angle of analysis.\u00a0 It was never about \u201ctradition\u201d as such.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
The relevant fact is that \u201ctraditional\u201d monogamy and Mormon polygyny are and were, both of them, forms of heterosexual marriage.\u00a0 Until 2015, when the Supreme Court of the United States voted 5-4 to change the definition of marriage<\/em>, marriage had only<\/em> been a heterosexual institution in the United States.\u00a0 It has only been in the last couple of decades, really, that anybody has ever suggested that it should be otherwise.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Across time and across cultures, acceptable ages for marriage have varied. \u00a0Different degrees of kinship-marriage have been permitted. \u00a0Monogamy has been the norm, but polygyny has been practiced in many cultures and continues to be practiced in some.\u00a0 Same-sex marriage, by contrast, is a distinctly recent innovation without real precedent anywhere.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
For theological reasons of its own, because families founded upon parenthood and upon opposite-gender parents play an essential role in its view of \u201cthe plan of salvation,\u201d the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is exceptionally committed to heterosexual marriage.\u00a0 It also believes and teaches that, in this life, the best place for children is in an intact home with a father and a mother.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
However, in supporting heterosexual marriage and, when the subject recently arose, opposing the redefinition of marriage to include same-sex couples, the Church is aligned with all religious traditions and all cultures in every period of human history down until very recent years (in western Europe and derivative cultures), and with virtually all religious traditions and cultures even today.\u00a0 And, in its belief that children should, if possible, be raised by their biological fathers and biological mothers, the Church is supported by considerable social-scientific research.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Others are entirely welcome to disagree with that position.\u00a0 But they shouldn\u2019t mischaracterize it.\u00a0 The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints doesn\u2019t endorse faithful heterosexual marriage and parenthood and reject homosexual \u201cmarriage\u201d out of hatred, or opposition to happiness, or a desire to oppress.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
And the question isn\u2019t the Church\u2019s inconsistent allegiance to \u201ctradition.\u201d\u00a0 The Church has always<\/em> been willing to break with tradition.\u00a0 Its very existence represents<\/em> a rejection of tradition.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t support heterosexual marriage because heterosexual marriage is \u201ctraditional,\u201d but because, with all love and good will, it regards such marriage as the optimal arrangement for men, women, and children and believes heterosexual marriage to be a vital part of God\u2019s plan for all of humankind.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
P.S. \u00a0In connection with the topic of the Latter-day Saint attitude toward homosexuals, please read and (as I did) enjoy this marvelous\u00a0item<\/a>, brought to my notice by Kevin Taylor.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 Last night, I was invited to join an online discussion about the supposed contradiction between the teaching and practice of polygamy (or, as Mormons tend to call it, plural marriage, or, most accurately, polygyny), by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the nineteenth century, and the twenty-first century opposition of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41087","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
Does the Church contradict itself, is it hypocritical, for rejecting same-sex "marriage"?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\" Last night, I was invited to join an online discussion about the supposed contradiction between the teaching and practice of polygamy (or,\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2017\/04\/church-contradict-hypocritical-rejecting-sex-marriage.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Does the Church contradict itself, is it hypocritical, for rejecting same-sex "marriage"?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\" Last night, I was invited to join an online discussion about the supposed contradiction between the teaching and practice of polygamy (or,\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2017\/04\/church-contradict-hypocritical-rejecting-sex-marriage.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sic et Non\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-04-05T04:47:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-04-05T05:56:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.production.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/files\/2017\/04\/plan-of-salvation-1527364-gallery.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dan Peterson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Dan Peterson\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2017\/04\/church-contradict-hypocritical-rejecting-sex-marriage.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2017\/04\/church-contradict-hypocritical-rejecting-sex-marriage.html\",\"name\":\"Does the Church contradict itself, is it hypocritical, for rejecting same-sex \\\"marriage\\\"?\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2017-04-05T04:47:04+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-04-05T05:56:58+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/77113e9b09701bd1599fa272c4f65045\"},\"description\":\" Last night, I was invited to join an online discussion about the supposed contradiction between the teaching and practice of polygamy (or,\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2017\/04\/church-contradict-hypocritical-rejecting-sex-marriage.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2017\/04\/church-contradict-hypocritical-rejecting-sex-marriage.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2017\/04\/church-contradict-hypocritical-rejecting-sex-marriage.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Does the Church contradict itself, is it hypocritical, for rejecting same-sex “marriage”?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/\",\"name\":\"Sic et Non\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/77113e9b09701bd1599fa272c4f65045\",\"name\":\"Dan Peterson\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5ed1a72d26805e35a503e3167599df7c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5ed1a72d26805e35a503e3167599df7c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Dan Peterson\"},\"description\":\"\\\"Life was very unsatisfying until I discovered Dan's blog, which gave me a reason to live.\\\" (gemli, 7 November 2019)\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/author\/danpeterson\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Does the Church contradict itself, is it hypocritical, for rejecting same-sex \"marriage\"?","description":" Last night, I was invited to join an online discussion about the supposed contradiction between the teaching and practice of polygamy (or,","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2017\/04\/church-contradict-hypocritical-rejecting-sex-marriage.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Does the Church contradict itself, is it hypocritical, for rejecting same-sex \"marriage\"?","og_description":" Last night, I was invited to join an online discussion about the supposed contradiction between the teaching and practice of polygamy (or,","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2017\/04\/church-contradict-hypocritical-rejecting-sex-marriage.html","og_site_name":"Sic et Non","article_published_time":"2017-04-05T04:47:04+00:00","article_modified_time":"2017-04-05T05:56:58+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/wp.production.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/files\/2017\/04\/plan-of-salvation-1527364-gallery.jpg"}],"author":"Dan Peterson","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Dan Peterson","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2017\/04\/church-contradict-hypocritical-rejecting-sex-marriage.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2017\/04\/church-contradict-hypocritical-rejecting-sex-marriage.html","name":"Does the Church contradict itself, is it hypocritical, for rejecting same-sex \"marriage\"?","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#website"},"datePublished":"2017-04-05T04:47:04+00:00","dateModified":"2017-04-05T05:56:58+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/77113e9b09701bd1599fa272c4f65045"},"description":" Last night, I was invited to join an online discussion about the supposed contradiction between the teaching and practice of polygamy (or,","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2017\/04\/church-contradict-hypocritical-rejecting-sex-marriage.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2017\/04\/church-contradict-hypocritical-rejecting-sex-marriage.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2017\/04\/church-contradict-hypocritical-rejecting-sex-marriage.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Does the Church contradict itself, is it hypocritical, for rejecting same-sex “marriage”?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/","name":"Sic et Non","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/77113e9b09701bd1599fa272c4f65045","name":"Dan Peterson","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5ed1a72d26805e35a503e3167599df7c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5ed1a72d26805e35a503e3167599df7c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Dan Peterson"},"description":"\"Life was very unsatisfying until I discovered Dan's blog, which gave me a reason to live.\" (gemli, 7 November 2019)","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/author\/danpeterson"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41087","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1019"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41087"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41087\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Plan](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2017\/04\/plan-of-salvation-1527364-gallery.jpg\")
<\/a>