Until very recently, churches could order members to choose their faithsâchoose their imaginary friends and their man-made dogmasâover their own children. Those days are over:
Ever since she was an infant being blessed during a church naming ceremony, Lindsay Matson had been on the books of the Mormon Church. As it has done with millions of other members, the church kept note of her spiritual life as she moved from congregation to congregation, took youth leadership posts and married at age 19 in a Mormon temple.
But now, she and other Mormons upset over new church policies that declare same-sex couples apostates and restrict their children from baptism and other rites are venting their objections by demanding that their names be struck from the churchâs meticulously kept records. During the weekend, Ms. Matson and two daughters, one of whom is gay, joined more than 1,000 people lining up in a park here beside the churchâs temple spires for a mass resignation....
âIâve shed some tears,â said Kathy Franson, who said she had drifted from the church in large part because her son was gay. âIt felt like a death of someone close to me. I compare it to a death, going through that mourning.â
There are still people out thereâthere are still shitty parents out thereâwho will reject their queer children because Moroni or Jehovah or Allah or Yahweh said they must. (Or because their bishops, pastors, imams, or rabbis told them Moroni, et al., said they must.) But anti-queer bigots in leadership positions at various God shops can no longer rely on the unanimous support and/or silent complicity and/or cowed acquiescence of their congregations.