How to Save LDS Youth in a Secular Age (Quick Follow-up)

Last updated on: January 28, 2015 at 11:13 am by David Bokovoy

How to Save LDS Youth in a Secular Age (Quick Follow-up) 2015-01-28T11:13:50-06:00 David Bokovoy

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Elder D. Todd Christopherson

On December 26th of 2014, I published an essay titled, “How to Save LDS Youth in a Secular Age.” The post gained both positive and negative attention. While I received many kind, thoughtful emails from those who connected with the essay (it was even hosted on BYU’s Religious Education Facebook page), others felt concerned because of the way it encouraged LDS youth who support same-sex marriage not to abandon their faith due to their political position.

I recognize that this issue is a challenging topic for many. We need to strive to be both kind and sensitive. The following exchange with Elder D. Todd Christofferson of the LDS Quorum of the Twelve Apostles should be added to that conversation:

What does the LDS Church think of members who back same-sex marriage?

“There hasn’t been any litmus test or standard imposed that you couldn’t support that if you want to support it,” Christofferson said, “if that’s your belief and you think it’s right.”

Any Latter-day Saint can have a belief “on either side of this issue,” he said. “That’s not uncommon.”

Problems arise only when a member makes “a public, sustained opposition to the church itself or the church leaders and tries to draw others after them,” he said, and that support swells into “advocacy.”

As quoted in the Salt Lake Tribune

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