The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
The Family: A Proclamation to the World
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
The restored Church reads Genesis and the words of the Savior as teaching a created order: male and female, marriage as a covenant of husband and wife, and the family as the setting in which God’s children are meant to be nurtured. That doctrine is not a culture war slogan. It is the framework of the plan of salvation. Same-sex attraction, as an inclination, is not treated as a sin. Sexual relations outside the marriage of a man and a woman are. Every member is commanded to love as Christ loved, which includes those whose attractions do not align with that covenant.
Marriage between a man and a woman is ordained of God and the family is central to the Creator’s plan for the eternal destiny of His children.
- Jesus Himself located marriage in the creation of male and female, not in later custom.
- Same-sex attraction is not a sin; violating the law of chastity is, whether the temptation is heterosexual or homosexual.
- Identity in the restored gospel is first ‘child of God,’ then disciple of Christ, not a sexual category.
- Covenant members who experience same-sex attraction belong in the pews, the sacrament table, and the circle of fellowship.