This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated.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.
If the top 15 men of the LDS Church leadership are truly the Earth's prophets, seers and revelators, and if they are committed to enlisting all of God's children for their betterment and blessings, they might consider two suggestions:
First, apologize and rescind — as a lamentable error — the recent handbook rules regarding same-sex marriages, and the penalties inflicted on the innocent children of such families.
Second, immediately instruct the bishop of each of the 12,000 LDS wards existing in the United States to accept one family fleeing the horrors of the wars in Syria. Use the power of your worldwide organization to bring one family at a time to the Saints' table of economic and religious plenty. These two actions would prove not only stunningly effective public relations moves, but they would be equally important as examples of unconditional love.
John Gary Maxwell
Salt Lake City