LDS leader Boyd K. Packer told millions
of followers Sunday that being gay is morally wrong and reiterated
his church's opposition to gay unions.
Packer, the president of the Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' (the Mormons) Quorum of Twelve
Apostles, delivered his message in a sermon about the dangers of
pornography and gay marriage, the Salt Lake Tribune reported.
“There are those today who not only
tolerate but advocate voting to change laws that would legalize
immorality, as if a vote would somehow alter the designs of God's
laws and nature. To legalize that which is basically wrong or evil
will not prevent the pain and penalties that will follow as surely as
night follows day.”
“A law against nature would be
impossible to enforce,” the 86-year-old Packer added. “Do you
think a vote to repeal the law of gravity would do any good?”
Packer was speaking to more than 20,000
followers at the church's 180th Annual General Conference
in downtown Salt Lake City and to millions watching via satellite.
The senior apostle also rejected the
notion that same-sex attraction – which he called “impure and
unnatural” – is inborn. “Why would our Heavenly Father do that
to anyone?” he rhetorically asked.
At the behest of their leaders, Mormons
donated millions to the 2008 campaign to ban gay marriage in
California.