This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
In "Church by mob rule" (Public Forum, Nov. 16), Sherman Stephenson says that if LDS Church leaders reverse their new policy that denies innocent babies, eager 8-year-olds who go to the neighborhood ward, worthy 12-year-old boys and devout LDS teens the same rights and privileges of kids with heterosexual parents, his church will be governed by "mob rule."
If anyone knows about mob rule, it would be someone from St. George, a city not too far from the site of the Mountain Meadows Massacre. "Handbook 1" kills the spirit of people who want nothing more than belonging to the church they love.
The LDS Second Article of Faith states: "We believe that men will be punished for their own sins and not for Adam's transgression." Apparently Latter-day Saints who turn a blind eye to today's latest discrimination have amended that tenet to: "We believe that children will be punished for their parent's own sins, and especially for Adam and Steve's transgression."
Why would a handbook be superior to the Bible? Christ told his disciples: "Suffer little children and forbid them not to come unto me: for such is the Kingdom of Heaven."
Judy Hardy
Sandy