This weekend, Boyd Packer warned his fellow Mormons that the family is “under attack” from same-sex marriage. Packer is president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, making him the second most senior apostle in the Church. In a televised speech Saturday morning, Packer suggested there is a “tolerance trap” with “serious spiritual consequences” if Mormons support a violation of “God’s law of Chastity:”
PACKER: The family, The fundamental organization for time and eternity is under attack from forces seen and unseen… We need to be careful of the tolerance trap, so we do not swallow it up and get swallowed up in it. The permissiveness afforded by the weakening of the laws of the land to tolerate and legalize acts of immorality does not reduce the serious spiritual consequence that is the result from a violation of God’s law of Chastity.
(Watch it on Fox 13 News.)
Packer previously said in 2010 that gays and lesbians can “overcome what they feel are inborn tendencies toward the impure and unnatural.” More recently, the Mormon Church clarified some of its positions on homosexuality, admitting that being gay is not a choice, but still condemning it as sinful. To abide by their faith, gay Mormons are expected to be chaste, abandoning any experience of love or marriage in this life because “a just God will provide them with ample opportunity to do so in the next.”