{"id":42472,"date":"2022-01-29T10:29:35","date_gmt":"2022-01-29T15:29:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/?p=42472"},"modified":"2025-05-26T07:05:53","modified_gmt":"2025-05-26T13:05:53","slug":"the-churchs-position-on-sexuality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/2022\/01\/the-churchs-position-on-sexuality\/","title":{"rendered":"The Church\u2019s Position on Sexuality"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve noticed a not-insignificant number of members, both orthodox and heterodox, assume that the Church\u2019s position on human sexuality is a \u201cjust because the prophet said so\u201d issue, and aren\u2019t aware of any well thought out defenses of the Church\u2019s (or conservative religion\u2019s in general) position written by non-church leaders, so I\u2019ve gone ahead and thrown together a collection of pieces that speak to the subject that I\u2019m posting here.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019m intending for these sources to speak primarily to theological issues; I recognize that legal same-sex marriage is a whole other can of worms, and that the political arguments vis-a-vis same-sex marriage are related, albeit ultimately distinct. from the theological arguments surrounding same-sex sealings. However, since a lot of treatments of the subject touch on issues germane to both there is some political mixed in the batch too, but that\u2019s not the primary intent.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A note on the comments: yes, I\u2019m aware that for many people literally any argument defending the Church\u2019s position is arbitrary and capricious. I don\u2019t have a ton of time to puppy guard the comments, so while I\u2019ll keep them open I\u2019m not going to be a super active presence there.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Cassler, Valerie H. \u201cPlato’s Son, Augustine’s Heir: \u2018A Post-Heterosexual Mormon Theology\u2019?\u201d<\/span> SquareTwo <\/span><\/i>5(2): 2012.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

https:\/\/squaretwo.org\/Sq2ArticleCasslerPlatosSon.html<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Dyer, W. Justin. “Shifting Views on the Male-Female Relationship: Same-Sex Marriage and Other Social Consequences.” <\/span>Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel<\/span><\/i> 18, no. 2 (2017): 31-51.<\/span><\/p>\n

https:\/\/scholarsarchive.byu.edu\/cgi\/viewcontent.cgi?article=1791&context=re\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

George, Robert P. \u201cThe Philosophical Basis of Biblical Marriage.\u201d <\/span>Public Square Magazine<\/span><\/i>. January 6, 2022. <\/span>https:\/\/publicsquaremag.org\/faith\/gospel-fare\/the-philosophical-basis-of-biblical-marriage\/<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Girgis, Sherif, Robert P. George, and Ryan T. Anderson. “What is Marriage.” <\/span>Harv. JL & Pub. Pol’y<\/span><\/i> 34 (2011): 245.<\/span><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.issues4life.org\/pdfs\/whatismariage.pdf<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Hancock, Ralph. “A Familiar Eternity” <\/span>SquareTwo<\/span><\/i> 9(1): 2016<\/span><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.squaretwo.org\/Sq2ArticleHancockFamiliarEternity.html<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Hancock, Ralph. “”When Following the Prophet is Too Easy: Against the Identification of Reason with Progressive Liberationism”” <\/span>SquareTwo<\/span><\/i> 1(1): 2008.<\/span><\/p>\n

https:\/\/squaretwo.org\/Sq2ArticleHancockProp8.html<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Hedelius, Cassandra and Jeff Bennion. \u201cTreasuring All that God Has Revealed\u201d <\/span>Public Square Magazine<\/span><\/i>. January 21, 2022. <\/span>https:\/\/publicsquaremag.org\/dialogue\/tolerance\/treasuring-all-that-god-has-revealed\/<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Hypatia. \u201cFaithful Answers to Common LGBTQ+ Questions.\u201d <\/span>Public Square Magazine<\/span><\/i>. December 1, 2021. <\/span>https:\/\/publicsquaremag.org\/sexuality-family\/faithful-answers-to-common-lgbt-questions\/<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Thayne, Jeffrey. Latter-day Saint Philosopher. https:\/\/www.ldsphilosopher.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve noticed a not-insignificant number of members, both orthodox and heterodox, assume that the Church\u2019s position on human sexuality is a \u201cjust because the prophet said so\u201d issue, and aren\u2019t aware of any well thought out defenses of the Church\u2019s (or conservative religion\u2019s in general) position written by non-church leaders, so I\u2019ve gone ahead and thrown together a collection of pieces that speak to the subject that I\u2019m posting here.\u00a0 I\u2019m intending for these sources to speak primarily to theological issues; I recognize that legal same-sex marriage is a whole other can of worms, and that the political arguments vis-a-vis same-sex marriage are related, albeit ultimately distinct. from the theological arguments surrounding same-sex sealings. However, since a lot of treatments of the subject touch on issues germane to both there is some political mixed in the batch too, but that\u2019s not the primary intent.\u00a0 A note on the comments: yes, I\u2019m aware that for many people literally any argument defending the Church\u2019s position is arbitrary and capricious. I don\u2019t have a ton of time to puppy guard the comments, so while I\u2019ll keep them open I\u2019m not going to be a super active presence there.\u00a0   Cassler, Valerie H. \u201cPlato’s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10403,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,3022],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42472","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-philosophy-and-theology","category-sexuality"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42472","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10403"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42472"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42472\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50092,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42472\/revisions\/50092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}