A Utah homosexual advocacy group is encouraging members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to leave the church as a way to protest its support of a California ballot initiative outlawing gay marriage.
"It's a liberating step for people to leave behind a church that has become a source of pain and grief and sorrow," said Kathy Worthington, a lesbian and former church member who is directing the effort.Worthington said that in two weeks of word-of-mouth advertising she has received about 40 letters of "resignation," as she puts it, which she forwards on to church headquarters. She said she anticipates hundreds more as the effort gets coverage in the gay and lesbian press.
Most of those requesting that their names be removed from membership records are gay or lesbian.
An official statement from the LDS Church issued Friday said, "We regret that any member would asked to have his or her name removed from our records because the church has joined a coalition . . . to oppose same gender marriage.
"In the face of organized efforts to redefine marriage, the church has no doctrinal choice but to defend the traditional family," the statement said.
"President Gordon B. Hinckley has observed, 'Our hearts reach out to those who struggle with feelings of affinity for the same gender. We remember you before the Lord, we sympathize with you, we regard you as brothers and sisters. However, we cannot condone immoral practices on your part any more than we can condone immoral practices on the part of others.' "
David Ensign drove from Boulder, Colo., to personally deliver his letter requesting removal of his name from church records.
"It was well worth traveling all that way," he said. "It is an outrage that the Mormons have been working to control state policy. . . . The Mormon Church has been abusing its power."
Ensign, Worthington and others held a press conference Friday to publicize what they're doing.
The group takes issue with the church's support of the Protection of Marriage Initiative, sponsored by California state Republican Sen. Pete Knight, which states that "only a marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized" in that state.
Same-sex marriage is not legally sanctioned in California or any other state. Defeat of the initiative would not legalize homosexual marriage, but proponents hope to rebuff any future attempts to do so.
Californians will vote on the measure on March 7, 2000.