LDS Church leaders re-affirm position on marriage and morality

LDS Church leaders re-affirm position on marriage and morality


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SALT LAKE CITY -- President Boyd K. Packer, President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, spoke on the Church's Proclamation on the Family during the Sunday morning session of the 180th Semiannual General Conference.

In 1995, the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Church issued "The Family: A Proclamation to the World." This proclamation is a declaration and reaffirmation of doctrines and practices that prophets have stated repeatedly throughout the history of the Church.


To legalize that which is basically wrong or evil will not prevent the pain and penalties that will follow as surely as night follows day.

–President Boyd K. Packer


Though he did not specifically mention political issues such as same-sex marriage, President Packer spoke about marriage and the power of procreation, saying there are moral and physical laws that cannot be changed despite current political trends.

"To be entrusted with the power to create life carries with it the greatest joys and most dangerous temptations," President Packer said. "Whether we use this power as the eternal laws require or reject its divine purpose will forever affect who we will become."

He said God designed that power only be used in a legal and lawful marriage between a man and a woman. "Some suppose that they were pre- set and cannot overcome what they feel are inborn tendencies toward the impure and unnatural," President Packer said. "Not so. Why would our Heavenly Father do that do anyone? Remember He is our Father."

"There are those today who not only tolerate but advocate voting to change laws that would legalize immorality, as if a vote would somehow alter the designs of God's laws and nature," he said. "To legalize that which is basically wrong or evil will not prevent the pain and penalties that will follow as surely as night follows day," saying there are moral and physical laws that cannot be changed.

President Packer also decried pornography as a "plague" and warned parents to be continually on the watch.

"Pornography will always repel the Spirit of Christ and will interrupt the communications between our Heavenly Father and His children and disrupt the tender relationship between husband and wife," he said.

President Packer made his comments from the Church's Sunday morning session as part of the 180th Semiannual General Conference in downtown Salt Lake City.

E-mail: mgiauque@ksl.com

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