Needs of the People

Like many others, I’ve been shocked and in mourning over the additions to the Bishop’s Handbook incorporated last Thursday. My niece has posted heartbreaking stories on Facebook. With the first one, she wrote: "I too am a psychotherapist who has worked with many Mormon LGBTQ clients who struggle with the enormous pain of rejection by parents, religion, and perceived rejection by God. It ain't worth it folks. It is a life or death issue, and trying to justify this new Church policy puts you on the wrong side. Someday, in years or decades, the Church too will acknowledge that they were wrong."

In his column today, Paul Rolly wrote:

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is looking for a social science researcher and, according to the ad it placed on the Linkedin business network site, would like to fill the position by January.

The job description explains that the candidate — preferably someone with an advanced degree in social and behavioral sciences — would provide the general authorities and other Mormon administrators with "timely, relevant and reliable information to help them respond to the diverse challenges and opportunities of a fast-growing church in a rapidly changing world. This information enables church leaders to focus their efforts to greater effect in helping individuals and families come unto Christ."

Considering the recent policy change that keeps children of same-sex couples out of the Utah-based faith until they are adults and the public reaction to that shift, the sooner a social science trend adviser gets on board, the better. (end of Rolly column)

If reading the new guidelines makes you cry even though it doesn't affect you personally and you're not prone to tears, it's a true tragedy.

Quite a few years ago, I was sitting in a circle while Lowell Bennion talked about his experiences as a Bishop. He founded the Institute of Religion at the University of Utah in 1934. He was a personal friend of David O. McKay, but wasn’t called to be bishop until his waning years. Of all of his callings, including on General Boards, he probably enjoyed most of all a three-year tenure as bishop of the East Millcreek 12th Ward.  Listening to his tender stories of what went on in his ward, someone asked him about the Bishop’s Handbook. “You can either read the handbook or take care of the needs of the people,” he explained. “I prefer to take care of the needs of the people,” this elderly humanitarian said with a twinkle in his eye.

If every Bishop were like that, we wouldn’t need to send 85,000 missionaries out in the field to try to convert people. Everyone would be clamoring to join the church just to be loved. 

On several occasions, Hugh B. Brown said something like, "In this Church, we break rules not hearts" or "Rules are meant to be broken, not hearts."

Sure didn't seem to feel like that for Lance Allred.

I was a pawn in LDS bullying and intimidation 

By Lance Allred First Published Nov 21 2015

One of the most alarming things for me about the new stance of the LDS Church toward children of gay families is how church leaders are using polygamy as a precedent to defend and explain the new policy. Essentially, they are saying that polygamists are second ­class citizens and have to completely disavow their families in order to be baptized. The same now applies to children of people in same­-sex relationships and marriages. It is already going to be socially difficult for children to live in Utah if their parents are gay and those children still want to go to church. Now we are outright making the kids pariahs, not worthy of baptism. Not only do they need to be embarrassed because of their families, but they need to be outcasts as well. The whole notion that church leaders are protecting the children, protecting them from a disjointed experience at home, is disgusting. Share This Article I grew up in polygamy through no choice of my own. And because of that, I was on the fringes, an "apostate." When my family moved to Utah from our polygamous commune in 1987, the Allred name was still fresh and synonymous with my grandfather Rulon Allred, who had been assassinated in 1977. My parents actually wanted us kids to attend the local LDS ward, because they wanted us to have a safer and more moderate upbringing. But we were turned away because of our family name and because my father was not ready at the time to disown his family, brothers and mothers. Consequently, I was branded with a scarlet letter, the biggest kid in my grade with giant hearing aids and a funny way of talking. On top of all that, if there is one thing a Mormon doesn't like, it's a polygamist Mormon. The bullying and constant feeling of being "less than" among my classmates was brutal. This happened because I was paying the price for the choices and actions of my ancestors. I was being punished for my father's sins, and not my own: a direct conflict of the Second Article of Faith. I was a pawn in the church's grown­up version of bullying and intimidation, and now the children of gay people are, too. The most serious harm is not going to come from the kids not being in church, fully welcomed, it will come from the social ostracizing at school and their community. The LDS Church and its devout followers are playing coy and completely disregarding the social ramifications a child will endure when it flippantly says, "When they are 18 they can be baptized." Sure, when they are 18, after going through their most formative years as a teen, through a gantlet of mental abuse, developing who knows what kind of emotional complexes and illnesses. But, too bad, because their parents are apostates. Eventually, after my father discovered serious abuse within the council of the Apostolic United Brethren, we did flee, and then and only then, after we were to denounce our heritage, our line, sitting through tough meetings with the First Presidency of the LDS Church, we were allowed to join the Mormon faith. For five years after my family left polygamy when I was 13, I was embarrassed, ashamed of my past, of my heritage. I had to disavow everyone. For fear of not belonging, I disowned my cousins, my best friends that I left behind, so my family and I could be accepted into the new world that we entered. I had tremendous guilt through my teenage years. Yet, as I have grown and gained more perspective through my travels around the world, and as I speak of it onstage, I have become proud of my line, of my cousins, my family, my aunts and uncles, who chose or had to remain in polygamy. And to this point, yes, there are monsters in polygamy and many victims, especially children. Imagine how many of those, especially in the Jeffs or Kingston clans, who are in violent and abusive situations, would find the courage to leave if the LDS Church spent more time welcoming them, had an outreach program, instead of pointing a finger, alienating and drawing a line in the sand. People in need of help are never going to go ask for help from someone who has been judging them and calling them sinners all of their lives.

Lance Allred is a motivational speaker, author, host of "Culture Jock" on KRCL 90.9 FM and was the first deaf player in the NBA. SLTRIBUNE

For a long time I have loved and pondered this statement:

“What do we live for if not to make life less difficult for each other?” George Eliot.