ARTICLE - LDS Church backs LGBT nondiscrimination and religious freedom bills..i am SO proud to be a member of my faith!

 

LDS Church backs LGBT nondiscrimination and religious freedom bills

Posted 8:30 am, January 27, 2015, by Ben Winslow and Ashton Edwards 

 Original article can be found here

SALT LAKE CITY – The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is supporting nondiscrimination bills involving lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people — while at the same time calling for protections for people of faith.

In a rare news conference on Tuesday morning, LDS Church leaders announced their support for LGBT nondiscrimination legislation.

“God is loving and merciful,” said Sister Neill Marriott of the LDS Church’s Young Women’s program. “Jesus ministered to marginalized outcasts.”

“It’s for this reason that the church has publicly favored laws and ordinances that protect LGBT people from discrimination in housing and employment.”

But the church also complained of people being branded “bigots” for speaking for their faith.
“When religious people are publicly intimidated, retaliated against, forced from employment or made to suffer personal loss because they have raised their voice in the public square, donated to a cause or participated in an election, our democracy is the loser,” said Elder Dallin Oaks, a member of the church’s Quorum of Twelve Apostles.

“It is one of today’s great ironies that some people who have fought so hard for LGBT rights now try to deny the rights of others to disagree with their public policy proposals,” said Elder Oaks.

The LDS Church insisted that it has not changed its doctrine, which opposes same-sex marriage and insists that sexual relations should be between a man and a woman only.

However, the LDS Church appeared to be softening its tone toward the LGBT community.
“I’d say we’re more sensitive than before. Our tone may be different. Our beliefs don’t change our doctrines are what they are,” said Elder D. Todd Christofferson, of the LDS Church’s Quorum of the Twelve, in an interview with FOX 13’s Ben Winslow.

“We sense this is an opportunity where we can come together where there is a chance to balance competing interests and rights respectfully and find a solution.”

Church leaders insisted that an LDS physician, for example, should not be forced to provide the “morning after” pill or artificial insemination for a lesbian couple. Asked by FOX 13 if municipal clerks should be required to perform same-sex marriages, Elder Oaks called it an “individual judgment.”

“That’s an individual judgment to be made according to the law and the conscience of the individual whatever his religious faith or lack of it,” he said.

The announcement by the LDS Church sent shockwaves across state politics, where a majority of representatives in the Utah State Legislature are Mormon.

“The statement made by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints today is an additional and important step to help us find common ground on these important issues,” Governor Gary Herbert said in a statement. “It will be helpful in our effort to resolve these difficult and emotional matters. I firmly believe that, in order to protect the personally held values of people on all sides, any advancement of non-discrimination legislation should be coupled with legislation to safeguard protections to religious freedom.”

“I am confident that, as elected officials, we can work together with religious, business and civic leaders as well as the LGBT community to craft policies that treat all people with dignity and respect.”

Sen. Steve Urquhart, R-St. George, who is sponsoring the LGBT non-discrimination bill again this year, told reporters he believed “a major stakeholder just jumped into this debate today” with an endorsement for his bill.

At the LDS Church’s news conference were members of the American Civil Liberties Union of Utah, as well as the conservative Utah Eagle Forum.

Utah Eagle Forum President Gayle Ruzicka later told FOX 13 she was “happy” with the Church’s stance. Ruzicka has historically opposed nondiscrimination ordinances.

“The Church said what we all believe,” she said. “It was great to have the Church make it so clear the protection of individual rights, rights of freedom and conscience… it just hasn’t been there in all these issues.”

Ruzicka said she still opposes “gender identity” in nondiscrimination bills and worried about the wording of such bills.

“They’ve got to come up with the right language that does not violate other people’s rights,” she said. “It can’t be the language they’re using right now.”

The ACLU said it had some initial concerns about the LDS Church’s stance.

“The ACLU of Utah does express some concern over the limited scope of public accommodation protection supported by the LDS Church, namely only restaurants, hotels and transportation.  Equality means that gay and transgender people should have full protection in public accommodations on par with race, gender, religion and other categories,” the group said in a statement.

Senator Jim Dabakis, D-Salt Lake City, the only openly gay lawmaker in the Utah State Legislature, applauded the move.

“I am proud that the LDS Church has seen fit to lead the way in non-discrimination. As a Church, Mormons have a long history of being the victims of discrimination and persecution,” he said in an email to FOX 13. “They understand more than most the value and strength of creating a civil society that judges people by the content of their character and their ability to do a job.”

The conservative Sutherland Institute also supported the LDS Church’s stance.

“Sutherland Institute has long called for protection of religious freedom for individuals and organizations. This principle must be reflected in any proposed legislation. Residents of Utah and citizens everywhere are entitled not just to belief, but also to the free exercise of their religious beliefs and moral conscience—both in private and in public,” the group said.

The LDS Church did support a housing/employment nondiscrimination ordinance in Salt Lake City back in 2009. Elder Oaks did not wish to address whether the LDS Church’s statement could be construed as support for federal protections for the LGBT people (known as ENDA), as they are not commenting on specific legislation.

“We believe that what we have said will be informative for the public at large and help people understand the balance we endorse,” Elder Oaks told FOX 13.

I have Probably never bene mire proud to be a member of my faith than i am right now!

i have been a fairly different thinking member of my church, than allot of the ppl i know, and love, and...respect.

i have been raised, by my mother to not discriminate, based on color, or sexual orientation, or anything of status, faith, etc...

and raised in a faith...that says, God loves EVERYONE, Jesus dies for ALL.

yet, ppl around me, had a bias. in my human real life, work, school, associates, etc, and as well, in my faith, there was a seperation.

and i couldnt ever consolidate that within myself.

how can i beling to a faith that says..God loves EVERYONE.and yet, ppl within my faith sound like allot of other faiths in the fact they condemn those of a different sexual preference? 

im a sinner, ill never NOT be a sinner...and yet, Jesus does on the cross for me. 

but not for others? yet we say he did.

its a paradox.

recently...my faith made an announcment that said, basically, Hate the sin, LOVE THE SINNER, in regards to homosexuality.

i dont have to like you lie, steal, cheat, whatever it is, but i am REQUIRED..COMMANDED, even, to LOVE you..likewise, you do not have to love me, based on anything that i may do, or do not do. but your COMMANDED to LOVE me...

i really TRY to follow this thinking. its been a fiber of me for a very long time, and for a long time, ive been the "free thinking mormon", the one who sat "outside the box" the .."back sheep" so to say in my faith.

and with the afore mentioned  announcment, i saw a change, a shift in my faith that was slowly, and openly opening a door, to the way i think..

and then this announcment, as well..right in line with my thinking.

what does it mean?
do i agree with being gay?

personally, i say..her, want to be gay? who am i to stop you? go for it. be who your heart says to be, im not going to stand in your way, and im not going to preach to you what my faith says to believe, if thats not what you want to hear.

why? because you wont hear it, and i cant change your mind.

what will i do instead? love you, anyway. like i have loved.

why stop? 

if i REALLY want to believe i am a CHRISTIAN (which means: to follow in the path of Jesus Christ, Representing Him to the FULLEST of my capability)..then THAT label, THAT LIFESTYLE, that part of my whole being...would LOVE EVERYONE REGARDLESS OF WHAT THEY DO...

PERIOD!

this is a hard change for allot of the members of my faith..allot of them still have the "old way" thinking.

and think that you have to turn your back on anyone gay to make a statement about the fact they have chosen a different lifestyle.

how is turning your back on your bother and/or sister showing them a CHRISTLIKE love?

i doesnt, yet, these ppl walk around professing to be CHRISTLIKE..

i have issues with it.

but were all on different levels of the same road, some far a head of others, and others just starting and then most of us somewhere in the middle, struggling to make sense of life, love, Religion, God, and everything in between.

i have to remember, they are human too.

and can...make mistake, just. like. me.

i am in no way, near perfect, i shall never pretend to be, and id never put myself so high on that pedistal id get knocked off..

nope. im human too. i make mistakes, and so will many of the members of my faith, in relation to this announcment.

its a step. thats all it is. 

i can appreciate the step.

based on the fact we, as a faith, todaye, over 200 years later, STILL get harassed, and  put down, for being a faith thats cionsidered NOT CHRISTIAN...we understand Persecution.

and because of that, we should be more tollerant to those others who suffer similar, for different reason, or the same reason, as we do.

its because of this, my faith has made this announcement, that all ppl should be allowed the SAME freedoms and no persecutions, no matter WHO and WHAT they are.

if your gay, you shouldnt be denied any other things simply because thats part of your lifestyle.

anymore than i should be denied anything because of my faith.

different, but the same.

its an excellent day to be a member of my faith!

im loving the shift, and loving the fact i am witness to its change.

i love my religion. it, in itself, has taught me how to be a CHRIST-LIKE individual, who looks at others with an open heart, and compassionate thinking, and loves  them, no matter what.

Michelle