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LDS and LGBTQ+

Let’s return to our occasional look at common myths, misconceptions and misunderstandings about Latter-day Saint teachings, policies and practices.

Here’s another one:

• Gay individuals cannot be Latter-day Saints.

False, at least on its face, though it gets tricky.

“Feeling same-sex attraction is not a sin,” the church’s General Handbook states. “Members who have these feelings and do not pursue or act on them are living in accordance with Heavenly Father’s plan for his children and with church doctrine.”

So these members can receive callings, participate in temple rites and, if they are male, receive the priesthood.

But it is hardly easy for LGBTQ+ members to stay in the fold. The church teaches, for instance, that the highest ordinance is eternal marriage, but same-sex marriage is a sin in the faith’s eyes.

“Only a man and a woman who are legally and lawfully wedded as husband and wife should have sexual relations,” the handbook explains. “Any other sexual relations, including those between persons of the same sex, are sinful and undermine the divinely created institution of the family.”

Even same-sex dating violates the Honor Code at church-owned Brigham Young University.

So the pursuit, promise and hope of marrying a same-sex partner with the church’s blessing is impossible — unless the church changes its opposition to same-sex marriage for this life and for the next. (At least one Latter-day Saint scholar sees a theological path for same-sex temple sealings someday.)

Given the doctrinal and cultural barriers — along with the 2024 changes to transgender policies — it would be difficult to call the church an LGBTQ-friendly space, although the handbook “encourages families and members to reach out with sensitivity, love, and respect to persons who are attracted to others of the same sex.”

Perhaps that’s a reason why the latest Pew Research Center study shows nearly a quarter of former members say they are lesbian, gay or bisexual. Among lifetime U.S. Latter-day Saints, only 2% identified LGB.

A Salt Lake Temple sneak peek

Next year’s hotly anticipated public tours of the renovated Salt Lake Temple are set to begin April 5, the day after the spring General Conference.

But thousands of members who live near the iconic building will be able to go inside a month sooner.

The church is hosting “neighborhood days” March 7-8 for members of the Salt Lake Stake and Salt Lake Ensign Stake — regional clusters of Latter-day Saint congregations — as a way of saying thanks for “enduring the many years of construction in and around Temple Square.”

Latest ‘Mormon Land’ podcast: Idaho’s abortion showdown

A Latter-day Saint OB-GYN discusses the Idaho ballot measure that seeks to widen access to abortion.

Listen to the podcast.

Around the world

• The church announced a $3 million donation toward construction of a national museum in Fort Worth, Texas, honoring Juneteenth, which celebrates the end of slavery in the U.S.

It also honored Opal Lee, the civil rights activist known as the “Grandmother of Juneteenth,” on Oct. 7, her 100th birthday.

“The National Juneteenth Museum is going to allow us to really help people everywhere understand what Dr. Lee has represented — her tenacity, her verve, her unrelenting quest to be able to bring truth and light to this story of our nation that still needs to be told,” general authority Seventy Michael Dunn said in a news release. “This is what the National Juneteenth Museum will do.”

The 50,000-square-foot facility will also include a genealogy center, powered by the church’s FamilySearch arm, to help visitors discover and preserve family histories.

“This deed won’t go unnoticed,” Lee said. “It’ll be where everybody can see how much you appreciated what we are doing in this community — and this is everybody’s contribution.”

• As a young man, he served a Latter-day Saint mission in Germany and returned there later as a mission president. He guided the church’s welfare services and became a member of the Presiding Bishopric, overseeing the faith’s far-reaching financial, real estate, investment and charitable operations.

But Keith B. McMullin, who died Sept. 30 at age 85, may best be known for the decade after he became an emeritus general authority when he helmed the church’s vast media empire, including the Deseret News, KSL, Deseret Book, Bonneville Communications and Bonneville International.

“Keith had a calm, steadying hand, a generous spirit, unfailing kindness, and the ability to treat all with dignity,” his family’s obituary states. “...He was equally comfortable in a starched white shirt with cuff links, as he was in a pair of Wranglers and cowboy boots.”

From The Tribune

• Latter-day Saint Bible scholar Dan McClellan’s appearance on Joe Rogan’s podcast becomes the genesis of numerous comments, compliments and criticisms.

• Putting its money where its mouth is, the church kicks in $1 million to help fight an Idaho abortion measure it has spoken out against.

• A prominent Latter-day Saint writer whose gambling article was quoted at General Conference speaks about betting on sports. Listen to our “Mormon Land” podcast. Read the excerpts.

• A 90-minute documentary, “Brother Joseph Again: Exploring the Visual Image of Joseph Smith Jr,” has opened in theaters.

• “Dedicate,” a new church video series, explores the renovated Salt Lake Temple through the eyes of seven young adults from seven nations.

• Two senior missionaries have died.

• Apostle Ronald Rasband dedicated Utah’s Ephraim Temple on Sunday.