Going, going, gone.

Our family is actively heeding the recent words of Dallin H. Oaks.  In the most recent session of LDS General Conference he recently proclaimed: “A moral coward is one who is afraid to do what he thinks is right because others will laugh or disapprove.”  

Tierra -- I am sure many of you disapprove of my decision to leave the Mormon Church, however after the events of this past conference I can no longer allow my name to be associated with the LDS Church.

I refuse to be a part of an organization that turns away faithful members from joining in worship service solely because of their gender.  I simply cannot condone this behavior any longer.

I know that an all knowing, all powerful, all loving God, a Father would never turn his daughters away at the door from where His word was being spoken and only allow them to stand outside in the cold and listen.  There were rows of empty seats in the tabernacle where hundreds of women were refused entry to the Priesthood session of General Conference.  Once the meeting began a garbage truck was parked in front of the door to physically prevent entry.  My Father would never allows his sons to treat his daughters so shamefully.  Would yours?

As a country we learned the lesson that separate is not equal.  Many faithful women are saying that they feel equal, but as this article puts it: “Equality is not a feeling.” – Joanna Brooks, but until the LDS church learns this lesson as well I can no longer be a part of it.

I know that this will invoke sadness within many of you, but I do not want that sadness to be directed toward me for doing what I know is right, but instead at a religion that is no longer following its own teachings.

 Said by Bishop Gérald Caussé during the October 2013 Priesthood session of General Conference

Jason - My disaffection with the LDS Church is no secret. Anyone who has been around me for more than five minutes in the last year and a half knows that. I have many reasons for withdrawing from the Church, which I won’t go into here. If you want to know, you can ask me. However, up until now I didn’t really see a reason to remove my name from the Church’s records. That changed this last weekend, with some of the things said at General Conference.

I want to make it clear up front that my original reasons for leaving the Church have nothing to do with me being offended. Likewise, my reasons for officially resigning my membership now have nothing to do with being offended.

I’m disgusted.

This isn’t a new thing. The rumblings started in 2008, with the Proposition 8 campaign in California. I saw the resources and efforts the Church was pouring into denying homosexual couples the same benefits that heterosexuals receive, and even though I was a believing member at the time I knew it was wrong. But for the most part, I moved past it. It wasn’t even a major reason that I left the Church, but it was a reason. 

This last weekend, however, Church leadership doubled down on their opposition to equal rights. Speaking about laws legalizing homosexual marriage, Dallin Oaks said “Our understanding of God’s plan and His doctrine gives us an eternal perspective that does not allow us to condone such behaviors or to find justification in the laws that permit them.” Reading between the lines, it’s easy to see what Oaks left unsaid - according to him, members of the church can’t support equal marriage rights. I refuse to have my name associated with an organization that seems bound and determined to oppose laws that would have all people treated equally. I refuse to have my name associated with a religious organization that seeks to impose its own morality on people who would otherwise have nothing to do with it - and this applies to more than just marriage equality. 

I do want to make it clear, though, that I have no problem with the Church telling its own membership what to do and what not to do. But I do feel it is immoral to force those beliefs on outsiders. And finally, I refuse to have my name associated with an organization whose leadership engages in systematic and blatant falsehoods, such as what Oaks said immediately after the quote above. “And, unlike other organizations that can change their policies and even their doctrines, our policies are determined by the truths God has identified as unchangeable.” Anyone who is familiar with why the year 1978 is landmark in the history of the LDS church knows why that statement is an obvious lie.

So I’m resigning my membership from the Church. I was already no longer a part of it, but the last weekend crystallized my resolve to make it official. And given the timing, I’m sure the Church’s people gathering metrics and running numbers in Salt Lake City won’t have a hard time figuring out why.