A top Mormon official has lamented the “public acceptance” of same-sex marriage and the challenges it poses to the conservative faith.
Dallin H. Oaks—a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles—spoke at a general conference in Salt Lake City over the weekend and warned followers of the Church about the choices they must make.
“We have witnessed a rapid and increasing public acceptance of cohabitation without marriage and same-sex marriage,” Elder Oaks .
“The corresponding media advocacy, education, and even occupational requirements pose difficult challenges for Latter-day Saints,” Oaks said.
“We must try to balance the competing demands of following the gospel law in our personal lives and teachings even as we seek to show love for all.
“Even as we must live with the marriage laws and other traditions of a declining world, those who strive for exaltation must make personal choices in family life according to the Lord’s way whenever that differs from the world’s way,” he added.
The Mormon Church has historically been opposed to same-sex marriage but to support people who are same-sex attracted, as long as they're not engaging in "homosexual behaviour".
In June this year, a young girl’s microphone was cut off as she attempted to come out to her congregation in Eagle Mountain, Utah.
"They did not mess up when they gave me freckles or when they made me to be gay," she said before she was cut off. “God loves me just this way.”
In June this year, an employee at a Mormon university was after she uploaded a pro-LGBT+ Facebook post, calling out the church’s opposition to gay rights.
