Mark Silk, Trinity College's indispensable observer of all things religious, is just back from a pilgrimage to Mormon Country, a.k.a. Utah, and in addition to observations on the LDS view of the divine inspiration of the nation's foundational documents, he notes the inevitable buzz about Mormon leader Boyd Packer's comments on homosexuals -- which we all discussed here.Silk also adds this fascinating insight into a possible difference between Mormon and traditional Christian issues regarding homosexuality:
It's important to recognize, though, how big a deal homosexuality is in the Mormon belief system. In the Christian tradition, sex and gender is not central to the main message, though some seem to pretend that's so today. Celibacy was always preferable to the alternative: Better to marry than to burn, was the best Paul had to say about the institution. In Roman Catholicism, marriage was the johnny-come-lately sacrament.But as my friend and host Phil Barlow, USU's new Arrington Professor of Mormon History and Culture, emphasized to me, in Mormonism, ontology and soteriology--the theories of being and salvation--are heterosexually gendered. Where Catholic and Eastern Orthodox bishops have to be unmarried, Mormon bishops have to be married. Families exist for time and eternity. One might call Mormonism the apotheosis of 19th-century familialism.It's conceivable, then, that accepting the naturalness of homosexuality would be a bigger theological deal for the LDS Church than putting plural marriage on hold or accepting people of color as full-fledged members of the Church. Fortunately, however, this is a tradition designed for the reception of new revelations.
I wonder, though, if the increasing emphasis -- often in reaction to discussions on homosexuality and the legitimacy of gay priests -- on what seems to be a nuptial theology of ordination is becoming the Catholic answer to Mormon "familialism." The idea that the Church is the Bride of Christ and hence priests must be straight if they are to have a properly ordered relationship to the Church is a favorite argument of those who seek to bar homosexuals from the priesthood.To me, the argument seems weak at many points, but it could serve a purpose similar to the belief Mark Silk noted in Mormonism. In any case, the religious education Silk provides is food for thought.(BTW, the LDS' change on people of color and polygamy are very remarkable and relatively swift adaptations.)
