Convening a rare press conference on Tuesday at church headquarters in Salt Lake City, Mormon leaders pledged to support anti-discrimination laws for gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender people, as long the laws also protect the rights of religious groups.
In exchange, the Mormon church wants gay rights advocates — and the government — to back off.
“When religious people are publicly intimidated, retaliated against, forced from employment or made to suffer personal loss because they have raised their voice in the public square, donated to a cause or participated in an election, our democracy is the loser,” said Elder Dallin Oaks, a member of the church’s Quorum of Twelve Apostles.
“Such tactics are every bit as wrong as denying access to employment, housing or public services because of race or gender.”
The Mormon church is one of several religious groups to complain about religious freedom coming under “attack” in recent years. The Catholic church and Southern Baptists, among other evangelicals, have sounded the alarm as well.
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It begins with the rights of faith communities to preach their beliefs from the pulpit, teach them in church classrooms and freely select their own leaders and ministers, Holland said.
But religious freedom should also extend to Mormon physicians who refuse to perform abortions or artificial insemination for a lesbian couple, or a Catholic pharmacist who declines to carry the “morning after” pill, he added.
As Mormon leaders acknowledged Tuesday, such situations have perplexed politicians, appeared on court dockets across the country and set conservative and liberals at fierce odds.
“These are serious issues,” Holland said, “and they require serious minds engaged in thoughtful, courteous discourse.”
