The official transcripts of last weekend’s general conference were published today at LDS.org. The Mormon blog Nine Moons was astute enough to notice that there were a few significant changes made to President Boyd K. Packer’s controversial remarks about homosexuality.
Here is what Packer said in conference:
We teach the standard of moral conduct that will protect us from Satan’s many substitutes and counterfeits for marriage. We must understand that any persuasion to enter into any relationship that is not in harmony with the principles of the gospel must be wrong. From The Book of Mormon we learn that “wickedness never was happiness.”
Some suppose that they were preset, and cannot overcome what they feel are inborn tendencies toward the impure and unnatural. Not so. Why would our Heavenly Father do that to anyone? Remember, he is our Father.
Paul promised, “God will not suffer you to be tempted above what ye are able, but will, with the temptation, also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.” (paraphrased I Cor 10:13)
You can if you will, break the habits, and conquer the addiction, and come away from that which is not worthy of any member of the Church. As Alma cautioned, we must watch and pray continually. Isaiah warned of them that call evil good and good evil. That put darkness for light and light for darkness. That put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.
And here is the text version on LDS.org today:
We teach a standard of moral conduct that will protect us from Satan’s many substitutes or counterfeits for marriage. We must understand that any persuasion to enter into any relationship that is not in harmony with the principles of the gospel must be wrong. From the Book of Mormon we learn that “wickedness never was happiness.”
Some suppose that they were preset and cannot overcome what they feel are inborn temptations toward the impure and unnatural. Not so! Remember, God is our Heavenly Father.
Paul promised that “God … will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.” You can, if you will, break the habits and conquer an addiction and come away from that which is not worthy of any member of the Church. As Alma cautioned, we must “watch and pray continually.”
Isaiah warned, “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!”
First, the edited version softens some of Packer’s absolutist language. For example, “We teach the standard of moral conduct …” was changed to “We teach a standard of moral conduct …”.
Second, “You can … conquer the addiction …” now reads “You can … conquer an addiction …”. Perhaps the intent with this change was so people wouldn’t confuse homosexuality as “the addiction”.
Third, Packer’s question, “Why would our Heavenly Father do that [have people born gay] to anyone?” is conspicuously missing in the online version.
Fourth, and I think most importantly, the edited version claims that “inborn temptations” can be overcome, instead of “inborn tendencies“. This signals an admission by the LDS Church that homosexual orientation may be genetic and largely fixed (a possibility Elders Oaks and Wickman entertained in a 2006 press conference). What can still be overcome, however, are temptations to engage in homosexual behavior.
While the above changes are welcome, I nonetheless disapprove of the way they were made. The LDS Church needs to publicly announce these changes and explain the reasons behind them. The edits will do little to heal the damage already done by Packer’s conference talk, but they won’t do any good unless people are aware they exist!
This is far from the first time that a talk was quietly changed post-conference. In 1984, ironically enough, Elder Poelman’s talk about the distinction between the LDS Church and the Gospel was edited almost beyond recognition.
Update: ABC 4 News has requested a statement from the church regarding the changes. Earlier this afternoon, the church obliged:
The Monday following every General Conference, each speaker has the opportunity to make any edits necessary to clarify differences between what was written and what was delivered or to clarify the speaker’s intent. President Packer has simply clarified his intent. As we have said repeatedly, the Church’s position on marriage and family is clear and consistent. It is based on respect and love for all of God’s children.
Update II: There is one huge change I neglected to mention. In conference, Packer described “The Family: A Proclamation to the World” as a “revelation.” But in the online version, it is demoted to a “guide that members of the Church would do well read and follow.”
What a sham.
Welcome to the new Catholic Church. When’s the first crusade for the holy land?
I don’t know about that. You probably won’t find an edited or “santized” version of the writings of St. Jerome (who I think said that women were just degenerate men) in the Catholic Church.
Not that they don’t try to preserve their public image – obviously they protect pedophiles and rapists and child abusers because they don’t want bad press, and they do everything to pretend nobody knew about it or that it was one bishop who did something wrong, as if it wasn’t a common policy throughout the church.
But in this specific instance, I don’t think you see a lot of sanitizing of old documents that express prejudices or hateful rhetoric. I went to a Catholic college and I had classes where we talked openly about that kind of thing, no pro-Catholic spin, just blunt critical analysis.
Obviously Mormonism seems to keep committing the same crimes as the Catholic Church, only 50-1500 years later, and without the “excuse” that the science and evidence that they’re terribly wrong wasn’t available in the culture they lived in.
It’s actually not uncommon for conference talks to be different in print. The speakers submit their talks several weeks in advance (and this is what goes into the Ensign magazine), and occasionally when speaking words get changed. So there is a chance that Packers original talk he submitted did have softer words, but he felt like changing up at the podium or adding words. Most speakers do not go verbatim their talk, though Packer’s changes are a fair amount.
Isn’t that “Why would our Heavenly Father do that?” line also in Packer’s 1978 “To The One” pamphlet?
Yes, but not in those exact words.
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Have I mentioned how much I love the Internet? The Ministry of Truth can’t flush anything down the Memory Hole any more without getting called out on it.
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You’re title is a little misleading there Jon. Packer told the press that he edited his own talk, because he wanted to clarify his intention – probably cuz somebody in the first presidency told him too, yes – however it’s not like lds.org was censoring packer.
True, but in my defense, I titled this post before that was made clear.
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It does not matter if you disapprove. People have the right to believe what they want (short of murder and abuse.) You have the right to believe in homosexuality just as someone else has the right to believe against it. If you want your rights, you have to allow others theirs. Something that most gays I know don’t seem to understand.
Who is this addressed to? Nobody here is denying Packer any rights.
Please enumerate precisely which rights we are not allowing Packer or others like him to have.
What you seem not to understand is that there is no right to not be criticised, and there is no right to force your definition of what is moral or appropriate on the rest of society. The right of Packer to marry whomever he wishes, lives as he wishes, believe as he wishes is not being threatened. Rather it is people like Packer who wish to disallow others, specifically LGBT people from living as we wish, marrying whom we want to, and believing as we want.
Lastly, it doesn’t matter if you disapprove of gay marriage and LGBT equality; we have the right to believe and live however we want. We demand only that we be treated equally and fairly – something that Packer and his ilk is trying to prevent.
They perpetuate discrimination. We want everyone to be equal.
See the difference?
I don’t usually reply to posts but I will in this case.
my God, i thought you were going to chip in with some decisive insght at the end there, not leave it
with ‘we leave it to you to decide’.
Everyone has their own rights and is entitled their own beliefs. However, packer stated what the LDS church believes and should strive to follow. I don’t see why everyone is throwing a fit about it. He’s not saying everyone around the world MUST follow, he’s stating what the church says and those who choose to follow can and those that don’t; don’t have to. It’s our own fee will and choice. If we believe in the church and his apostles then we believe what he said is true and must follow. If we don’t then does it apply to you?