In light of recent events, I want to put this out there again.
I am quite convinced that the moral theory espoused by the LDS faith may actually increase the risk sexual improprieties, including violent and illegal actions.
https://unexaminedfaith.blogspot.com/2020/09/lds-sexual-impropriety-and.html

...and even for many of us who have left the fold, we were still steeped in the moral environment provided by the LDS faith.

I haven't read your proffer, but I didn't need to in order to have an opinion.

Stories of sexual impropriety shared by members probably starts as early as Teachers Quorum. And by Priest Quorum, Sunday morning sharing of Saturday night's escapades is probably a pretty regular thing. We did love to drop hints about how many bases we'd reached.

And then when I confessed my deflowering, the one urgent question asked of me was, "Bro. Dog, was she mormon?" His relief at my negative response was palpable. He personally gave me no punishment. The GA I met with later postponed my mission call by six months.

What does that tell you regarding the church's concern for the sins next to murder? (Also, once you've confessed to having sex, masturbation appears to no longer matter!)

Then there's the very evident concern for the reputation of the church, and admitting that members of the priesthood do naughty sexual things would besmirch that reputation, so let's drape sacrament table cloths over such sins to keep them hidden from vulgar prying eyes.

Authorities are happy to forgive sins that are the fault of loose women tempting faithful priesthood holders. The nerve of those hussies!

Anyway, that's my view...

I think it's good for churches to encourage marriage and family formation, but these days, there are better ways to go about it than to clamp down hard on premarital sex. The Mormon church is stuck back in the 1950's.

summer Wrote:
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> I think it's good for churches to encourage
> marriage and family formation, but these days,
> there are better ways to go about it than to clamp
> down hard on premarital sex. The Mormon church is
> stuck back in the 1950's.
I BEG TO DIFFER WITH YOU
They are forever stuck in the mid 1800's

I remember being taught over and over that we teens should decide beforehand what we should do if faced with various temptations, including anything resembling sex. Of course, our decisions should be the ones the church had already made for us. We should do it for their reasons. If we had a reason it was basically to avoid trouble. That might've been functionally adequate, but it did nothing to foster an internal locus of morality.

But along with that lesson, we also learned how to keep secrets, how to lie with a straight face (or even a pious one), and how the Spirit of Discernment was baloney. That's what we internalized about the external locus of morality.

Yes.

Since the church is in the business of dispensing moral authority — the one true church with God's true commandments, blah blah blah — they have no interest in members developing an external locus of moral authority. They want FOLLOWERS, not independent judges of right and wrong. Follow the prophet, follow the prophet... Lean not upon your own understanding. Because if we did we'd soon wonder why we need the brethren.

Most all harmful conduct finds excuses with LDS Stake Presidents & Bishops...
They might have time & attention span to focus on one or two serious problems a year, but most aren't sufficiently interesting and/or the responsible individuals get a GET OUT OF JAIL FREE card.

The church does an abysmal job of talking sex. Collectively, Mormons obsess over sex, when at the same time, sex is hugely important to Mormons. So this causes a lot of cross-circuiting. Also, as with several other religious schools, it becomes even more "sinful" if a boy and girl decide to avoid pregnancy by using condoms or other means of protection. Mormon leaders easily forgive those boys and girls--particularly the boys--if they just slipped into sex one day, but it's a totally different matter if they plan and prepare by using protection. Just about every person I knew at BYU who had sex ended up pregnant and being ejected, due to their massive naivete and ignorance. I've spoken before of my wife, who, at BYU, entered a couple of sexual relationships, at least one with a total stranger whom she had met that night, and never even brought a condom to the table. Instead, she said "left it up to the boy" to protect her. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Spontaneous and unprotected sexual activity with people you don't know is always dangerous, but some people lived charmed lives and never have a comeuppance.