Let Me See if I’ve Got This Straight

 

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Image created by Grace Pool

 

For decades, the Church told people of African descent that they may be baptized, pay tithes and offerings, marry, have children and raise them in the faith, and otherwise participate in the sacrament rituals and church traditions, but that God forbade their ordination to the Priesthood and their saving ordinances of endowment or sealing in the temple.

In recent years, the Church has reiterated that celibate queer members may be baptized, pay tithes and offerings, attend the temple, be ordained, serve missions and in callings, but that God forbade their dating, romance, marriage, temple sealing ordinances, or enjoying the blessings of family life, unless they are in straight-passing relationships.

In both scenarios, the Church has strongly enforced that these groups of people are/were ineligible for the highest temple ordinances that lead to exaltation and salvation in the Celestial Kingdom based upon the circumstances of their births. These individuals are/were deemed unworthy from birth, and it’s been accepted as immutable fact by members both then and now. No action or inaction, no manner of righteous living can undo the predetermined judgment these unfortunate souls were born under, according to policies of the day.

“Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind? Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents.”

Lord have mercy on us all, our Church is compounding oppressions on its queer members in the name of God. There is no worse way that an entire religion takes the name of its God in vain than to blame the systemic, institutional oppressions it carries out against its members on its own deity. It’s a blasphemy to make God such a respecter of persons. Even worse, these same vanities unilaterally declare with absolutes as to who is deserving and eligible for Heaven based on the body they were born in.

Mormonism, you should be ashamed of yourself. These are not the works of God made manifest.