Kentucky Supreme Court hears religious freedom case over LGBT shirts

Salt Lake City, Utah, Mar 6, 2020 / 01:00 pm (CNA).- An elder from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints issued a letter on Tuesday responding to a Mormon university’s decision to remove a prohibition on same-sex expression from its Honor Code. 

On March 4, Elder Paul V. Johnson, commissioner of the LDS’s church Educational System, which administers all educational programs affiliated with the sect, wrote that same-sex romantic behavior is “not compatible” with the moral beliefs of the church. The letter came in response to the decision by Brigham Young University, which is owned by the LDS church, to remove a prohibition on “homosexual behavior” from its Honor Code. 

Each Brigham Young University student and employee, regardless of faith background, must sign the Honor Code in order to attend the school, and students are subject to expulsion or other punishments for violating the terms of the code. 

The Honor Code requires, among other things, that all students refrain from swearing, consuming alcohol, tobacco, tea, coffee, and illegal drugs, and forbids vaping and premarital sex. Mormon members of the BYU community must attend religious services per the Honor Code. 

On campus, the code is taken seriously; in 2011, the school removed basketball star Brandon Davies from the team after he confessed to having sex with his girlfriend. 

Before the updated Honor Code was approved on February 12, 2020, students were subject to discipline for displaying “all forms of physical intimacy that gives expression to homosexual feelings.” 

At the time the updated code was released, LGBT BYU students celebrated on campus, and many posted pictures of themselves with their same-sex partner. 

At the time, university officials said that code enforcement would be handled on a “case-by-case basis,” with one member of the university administration reportedly telling a same-sex attracted student that she could openly date someone of the same sex at the university.

BYU is now saying that was a “miscommunication” among university staff, which was confirmed by the letter published Wednesday.

“The Moral standards of the Church did not change with the recent release of the General Handbook or the updated Honor Code,” said Johnson. “There is and always has been more to living the Lord’s standard of a chaste and virtuous life than refraining from sexual relations outside of marriage. Lasting joy comes from when we live the spirit as well as the letter of God’s laws.” 

Johnson went on to explain that since one of the foundational principles of the LDS church is the definition of marriage between a man and a woman, and that these marriages are “central to the Creator’s plan for the eternal destiny of His children,” the religion cannot endorse same-sex relationships. 

“Same-sex romantic behavior cannot lead to eternal marriage and is therefore not compatible with the principles included in the Honor Code,” said Johnson. 

The LDS church teaches that a temple marriage between two Mormons results in an eternal bond that lasts after death, and that this “Celestial Marriage” is key to entering the “celestial kingdom,” which Mormonism teaches is the highest degree of heaven. No other religion holds this doctrine, which is in direct conflict with many passages from the New Testament, including Romans 7:1-3 and 1 Corinthians 7:8-11.

Members of the BYU community who were upset with Johnson’s letter took to Twitter to accuse the school of hypocrisy, noting that dating or marrying a non-Mormon of the opposite sex would not result in either an “eternal marriage” or disciplinary action. 

“I married a nonmember, so technically that doesn’t ‘lead to an eternal marriage’ and nobody kicked me off campus or told me I was breaking the honor code. This is disgusting,” tweeted Candace Hill, a graduate of BYU. 

Although Mormons officially consider themselves to be Christian, the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has definitively stated that the group’s theology does not recognize the Trinity as held and articulated by all Christian communities. Although Mormon baptisms are performed invoking the “Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,” the Holy See has made clear that they are not valid.

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Kabul, Afghanistan. / Mohammad Rahmani via Unsplash

Denver Newsroom, Jan 19, 2022 / 15:35 pm (CNA).
Afghanistan has unseated North Korea for the dubious distinction of the most dangerous country in the world for Christians, according to a group… […]

Washington D.C., Feb 22, 2021 / 10:00 am (CNA).- The Supreme Court will consider a case involving federal funding of domestic pro-abortion groups.

The court on Monday morning granted petition to review a case about the Trump administration’s Protect Life Rule. The Baltimore mayor and city council challenged the rule, supported by a number of states and pro-abortion groups.

According to SCOTUSBlog, the case will be argued in the fall of 2021.

The 2019 rule of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) prohibited grant recipients in the federal Title X family planning program from referring for abortions, or being co-located with abortion facilities. The rule was meant to implement the program’s original stated purpose that funds would not be used for abortion as a method of family planning.

Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider, withdrew from the program rather than comply with the rule, forfeiting an estimated $60 million in annual Title X funding.

In September, the Fourth Circuit court ruled 8-6 against the rule, in the case of Cochran v. Mayor and City Council of Baltimore. The majority ruled that HHS “failed to recognize and address the ethical concerns of literally every major medical organization in the country” by implementing the rule.

In a separate challenge to the Protect Life Rule, the Ninth Circuit court upheld the rule in Feb., 2020.

In November, a group of pro-life obstetricians and gynecologists and a Christian medical association had asked the Supreme Court to take up the case. The group Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) filed the amicus brief on their behalf.

“The Supreme Court has already recognized that the federal government has the authority to prevent Title X funds from being used for abortion,” stated John Bursch, senior counsel and vice president of appellate advocacy for ADF.

The American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians & Gynecologists, which claims 4,000 OB-GYN members and associates, and the Christian Medical and Dental Associations, which claims 20,000 members and 329 chapters in the United States, had petitioned the court to take the case.

The court, Bursch said, needs to “make clear that any administration, including future ones, can enforce a rule like this one if it so chooses, and that the courts can’t interfere with that.”

On Jan. 28, President Biden took the first step toward repealing the Protect Life Rule by instructing HHS to review the rule “and any other regulations governing the Title X program that impose undue restrictions on the use of Federal funds or women’s access to complete medical information.”

A COVID relief bill under consideration in Congress would increase funding for Title X by $50 million. Some House Republicans have warned that the funding increase, coupled with the Biden administration eventually repealing the Protect Life Rule, would benefit abortion providers such as Planned Parenthood.

According to the group’s latest annual report, it performed nearly 355,000 abortions in the 2020 fiscal year and received more than $618 million in government funding—both figures representing an increase from the year before.

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