Friday, November 13, 2015

Mormon Same-Sex Stance Sees Member Exodus

TEMPEST IN A TEA POT
The LDS church is in the news as purportedly hundreds of members leave the faith in protest over harsh new policies regarding same-sex couples and their children. Forced compliance and exclusion have sparked a controversy. Leaders of high-control groups, could learn from this.

LDS members are taking a proactive approach towards a policy they perceive as intolerant and punitive. Instead of passively accepting the church's directives that same-sex couples should be branded apostates and that children in these unions are to be excluded from church activities and baptism, members, instead, are "voting" with their attendance, their wallets, and through renouncement of membership.

The new policy, in essence, excludes and punishes children for their parents' lifestyle choices. Children either have to live with a heterosexual parent or wait until they are 18 (and renounce same-sex unions) in order to be baptized.

In a fashion that is reminiscent of JW ORG forcing people to choose between family and faith, this new LDS policy creates a situation that forces children to choose between a parent in a same-sex union and the religion, in order to be included and eligible for baptism.

Church leader, Todd Christofferson, explained that same-sex marriage may be legal but it is considered a serious sin in the eyes of the church. This is a tad rich, since this same church, in times past, declared that plural marriage was a way to please God--a male wet-dream whereby aging men could choose any number of nubile young women as wives. This practice only changed when laws regarding polygamy made its continuance impossible.

And in a fashion that is reminiscent of JW ORG, intolerance and control are dressed up to look benign. Christofferson claims the policy was made out of concern and compassion for the children. Right, this is similar to JW leaders claiming that shunning is "loving discipline."

Rulers Over an Emptying Kingdom?

While this is no doubt a challenging situation for same-sex couples and their children within the Mormon church, how other members are rallying and taking a stand sets an important example for all others in high-control groups who face similar situations, whereby they are banned from participation, labeled apostates, ostracized and shunned.

While iron-clad gloves of intolerance and control may be wielded by leaders of any religious group, when these are brandished over an emptying house, those same gloves lose their power to force compliance.

  • Jehovah's Witnesses could learn from this example. If they stood up en masse and refused to go along with Watchtower's policies regarding child abuse, blood, and shunning, those policies would soon change. They would have to.
  • The same could be said for members in all other religions that enforce compliance vis-a-vis punitive measures that induce severe psychological distress in members.

An Important Lesson
The LDS member exodus teaches an important lesson: the real power lies within members' control; policy can be shaped by refusal to enable same. Intolerance and control only exist when there are cowed, pliable participants.

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