Chris Detrick | Salt Lake Tribune

On April 4, 2019 at 9:00AM MST, the Mormon Church officially reversed its November 2015 LGBTQ policy – which declared same-sex marriage an act of apostasy, and which excluded the children of LGBTQ Mormon couples from baby blessings and baptism. These changes came in spite of Russell M. Nelson declaring the November Policy to be “revelation” in early 2016. Today we will be discussing what the changes mean to Mormons and post-Mormons.

Part 1 – We interview Kyle Ashworth to get his perspective on the policy reversal:

Part 2 – Panelists include Kimberly Anderson, Johnny Walker, and Jill Baggs:

Part 3 – We interview Dusty Johns to hear his perspective on the policy reversal:

Part 4 – Panelists include Roger Hendrix, Dan Wotherspoon, Anthony Miller, Natasha Helfer Parker, and Sam Young:

 

Part 1 – We interview Kyle Ashworth to get his perspective on the policy reversal

Download MP3

Part 2 – Panelists include Kimberly Anderson, Johnny Walker, and Jill Baggs

Download MP3

Part 3 – We interview Dusty Johns to hear his perspective on the policy reversal

Download MP3

Part 4 – Panelists include Roger Hendrix, Dan Wotherspoon, Anthony Miller, Natasha Helfer Parker, and Sam Young

Download MP3

12 Comments

  1. Jeff April 6, 2019 at 6:12 pm - Reply

    Wonder if this had anything to do with politics. With Mitt Romney being in a position to have more visibility nationally and a possible run again for the White House, and with an Olympic bid out there, the policy and bigotry would be devastating to both fronts and would have been under a microscope. Perhaps just one more reason among many for the church to reverse course but would be interesting to know the full scope of these discussions.

  2. Lyle B. April 8, 2019 at 12:00 am - Reply

    Many people have left the Church over this policy alone. It was the ‘last straw’ for them. The Church is very concerned about it’s declining membership, and I believe this change in policy is in direct response to the exodus.

    The reason for the policy in the first place was to prevent lawsuits from gays for Parental Alienation, as the Church would be teaching the youth that homosexuality is a sin. This could result in strained relationships with gay parents. The Church will probably require an informed consent to be signed by the gay parents in order to allow a child to participate as a member. Few would sign it, so problem solved for the Church.

  3. Matt April 8, 2019 at 3:42 pm - Reply

    Dusty Johns, your comments REALLY make my stomach turn. You sound like a Mormon. Which probably doesn’t bother you. But your tone and your words are ADDING to the pain and hate of LGBTQ kids. You’re not helping sorry.

  4. Liz April 8, 2019 at 4:16 pm - Reply

    Wonderful, emotional, touching.

  5. Mark April 9, 2019 at 6:54 am - Reply

    The legal and PR departments are running the church, the Nov revelation was not supposed to be public and they didn’t know how to weasel out it when it was.

  6. Maggie Rayner April 9, 2019 at 1:37 pm - Reply

    This tragic fallout of yet another example of the “truth of Mormon Godliness,” reminds me of other “true believers” who obediently and mindlessly turned their children over to be abused by Jim Jones, and who willingly drank the cool aid in Jonestown.

  7. Robert M Hodge April 11, 2019 at 10:04 am - Reply

    Apparently the Mormon God changed her mind.

  8. Derek Farrell April 13, 2019 at 4:33 pm - Reply

    The podcasts on Mormon Stories are amazing and I have learned so much which I would probably not have done from other sources.

  9. Mario April 15, 2019 at 2:18 pm - Reply

    Gays are the last minority that the church can hate and go after. They can’t abuse women or Afro Americans as they have in the past, and there are so few polygamist outside of Utah they just don’t count. How can the church be true if we don’t elevate ourselves at the expense of some group?

    So have they rescinded the policy on the children of polygamist, or is it that the public relations department hasn’t received a revelation for for polygamist children yet?

    Let’s face it, the church gave up Christianity and Mormonism when Bruce R and Boyd K we bullying the church with their opinions…….we have been practicing Packerism ever since and the current leaders worship those two and those two worshipped themselves. Packer did nothing but dumb us down with everything he said and did, put us back into the Old Testament and Aaronic Priesthood. They didn’t know Christ or they might have acted like Him. The current leaders are the same and just like Bruce and Boyd they claim to know Him but fall short of acting or teaching like Him, But they do love dogma.

  10. Anne June 9, 2019 at 5:30 am - Reply

    The perspective on this issue differs a good deal, geographically and generationally. Among my youngest adult offspring and their peers, it is almost irrelevant. What the church does or says regarding LGBTQ issues barely registers, as it is so uninformed and unenlightened; to young people in my part of the U. S., the diversity of ways people identify themselves and relate to each other via gender and sexuality, is simply reality, and any attitudes of bigotry and moral prejudice is an oddity without reason. While the older of my kids consciously chose their attitudes around LGBTQ issues, the youngest did not need to; the existence of people whose gender and sexual orientation are not the conventional binary that I grew up assuming, is simply a fact of life to her. That’s how quickly and fully reality shifted in the last twenty years in the East Coast U. S., at least. The Church rendered itself irrelevant, partly by ignoring this shift.

  11. Wondering Wanderer June 25, 2019 at 8:05 pm - Reply

    The insistence by church leaders that their Nov 2015 revelation came by way of inspiration from God, and that in April 2019 it was rescinded by way of inspiration from God is laughable. Rather than admitting that they were uninspired and in error from the start, they have laid the carnage at God’s feet. He is the guy that got thrown under the bus! Talk about hubris! It boggles my mind that anyone would want to stay associated with a church whose leaders operate in such a prideful and disingenuous way. Yes, it is good that the church will officially be more accepting of LGBT people in the future. But what will the next hurtful, mean spirited revelation be?

  12. Sam Singley May 9, 2023 at 5:42 pm - Reply

    Here is the weird part of the legion of the Lone Ranger and Tonto. The Lone Ranger story was based on a real life Texas ranger who was a black man. They changed his skin color and gave him a Indian side kick.

Leave A Comment Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.