A top Mormon leader has reiterated the
church's opposition to same-sex marriage.
Dallin H. Oaks, a member of the Quorum
of the Twelve Apostles, made his remarks on Saturday during a church
conference watched by millions of followers.
Oaks said that children should be
raised in families led by married heterosexual parents.
“We have witnessed a rapid and
increasing public acceptance of cohabitation without marriage and
same-sex marriage. The corresponding media advocacy, education, and
even occupational requirements pose difficult challenges for
Latter-day Saints,” Oaks is quoted as saying by the AP. “We must
try to balance the competing demands of following the gospel law in
our personal lives and teachings even as we seek to show love for
all.”
“Even as we must live with the
marriage laws and other traditions of a declining world, those who
strive for exaltation must make personal choices in family life
according to the Lord’s way whenever that differs from the world’s
way,” Oaks added.
In 1995, the church detailed its
position on marriage in a document titled The Family: A
Proclamation to the World. Oaks said that the policy would not
be changed.
In 2008, the Mormon church actively
lobbied for passage of a California constitutional amendment that
defined marriage as a heterosexual union. Seven years later, the
church said that gay men and lesbians in a relationship are
apostates.
(Related: Mormon
Church takes steps to oust married gays and their children.)