Yesterday, I gave the lesson in the Priest's quorum. This month's theme is "Marriage and Family." So I read The Family: A Proclamation to the World for the first time. When I finished, all I could think was "that's it?" Other people seem to make such a big deal out of it. Yet all it is, is a summary of the same stuff that I have been taught for my entire life. Wasn't it supposed to be some big revelation?

Where is the "Proclamation to the World" from the 1800s. That's the best one. That was a notification to the world that the LDS are taking over.

Reread it considering that some people are gay, then discuss.

Temple sealings, TBMs make it sound like families that have not been sealed in the Temple are separated in heaven. I just envision a concentration camp type setting where they separate everyone; you go to the left and you to the right.

It was a coded anti-gay marriage document. That is why it came out when gay marriage was becoming a real issue.

Why does it NOT seem like a big deal? Yes, it is a formalized laying out of all the discriminatory policies of TSCC found throughout their scriptures and doctrine, against anyone who doesn't follow the one true mormon life script.

+1 to MJ

This is a document that uses coded language to condemn gays. It puts into doctrine some ideas that preclude true acceptance:

1) Gender is eternal [we have always had and always will be gendered beings]

2) Gender is binary [male and female]

3) Gender is fixed [whatever gender you have been assigned will be your gender forever]

4) Gender roles are fixed (and it goes on to describe those roles)

The first element is a faith statement since science does not currently recognize eternal existence to begin with.

The second is demonstrably false both from a biological perspective (Klinefelter's syndrome with XXY chromosomes, etc.) as well as from a cultural perspective (there are cultures that recognize more than two genders)

The third element rejects transgendered people categorically.

The fourth is couched in language of equality of gender roles but is ultimately a way of encoding the fantasy world of Ward and June Cleaver. Anyway, this of course precludes same-sex partnerships because the natural and eternal Ward-Cleaverness of at least one of the partners is not being respected.

I hate this document and truly believe that any family member or friend who has it up on the wall in a cross-stitched frame is not getting it, doesn't truly accept and love me, and is not to be trusted as an ally.

I saw through the clap trap of a statement the first time I read it. It came out about the time my ex was coming to terms with his homosexuality and we were going to split up. It made me so angry to see the LDS Church state their bigotry like that. My ex already felt like he had been thrown away by his religion, like he had gone from pillar of the community, former bishop, respected scientist, tenured professor and wonderful scoutmaster to the scum of the earth when he came out. I hate that document and everything it stands for.

a proclamation to the world - Be nice, help old ladies across the street, don't fart when in a carpool, and be nice to animals -

signed the first presidency

I remember back when I'd hang out with the missionaries in my ward, it was around the time that George W. was making gay marriage a hot-button issue in the 2004 election. Since this is an extremely conservative area of the world, the missionaries decided that it would be a cool idea to print out the Proclamation on nice paper and hand out copies to anyone they taught as proof of modern-day prophetic revelation. I read it one night, and even as a TBM I couldn't help but think "we need a prophet for THIS?" There is nothing inspiring or ground-breaking about it - as far as I can tell, it's nothing more than an official declaration that the church is firmly against gay marriage...nothing more, nothing less.