PBS Interview with Elder Marlin K. Jensen
|
|
|
On May 1-2, PBS broadcast a four-hour special "The Mormons."
This is the edited transcript of an interview conducted March 7, 2006.
This text is found at
http://www.pbs.org/mormons/interviews/jensen.html JENSEN: ... Our position on that is that there is a single standard actually of morality for all members of the church, and that essentially is that we abstain from all sexual relationships and sexual relations prior to marriage. Once we do marry, we are loyal, completely loyal, to our marital partner, and that the only marriage sanctioned by God is of a man to a woman. As Paul said, "Neither is a man without the woman nor the woman without the man in the Lord." So there is really no allowance within our doctrine for a homosexual relationship of woman to woman or man to man. Obviously that creates a lot of pain. It has created a lot of pain for me just because I've known some of these wonderful people who have these feelings, who have these thoughts, who have these desires, and I've worked with them in my official capacity as a church leader. ... I've sat with those that have tried for years to transition to a more traditional way of life and who haven't been able to produce those feelings in themselves that would permit them honestly to marry. ... The thing that we have to ultimately say ... is, yes, there's nature; yes, there's nurture; but there's also agency. We all have the capacity and power to choose. If you're going to live your life within the framework of the Gospel, within the framework of our doctrine, then you've got to choose to marry someone of the opposite sex, and if you can't do that honestly, then your choice has to be to live a celibate life. That is a very difficult choice for the parents, for the young man, the young woman, for whoever's making that choice, and my heart goes out to them. I think we're asking a tremendous amount of them. And yes, some people argue sometimes, well, for the gay person or the lesbian person, we're not asking more of them than we're asking of the single woman who never marries. But I long ago found in talking to them that we do ask for something different: In the case of the gay person, they really have no hope. A single woman, a single man who is heterosexual in their thinking always has the hope, always has the expectation that tomorrow they're going to meet someone and fall in love and that it can be sanctioned by the church. But a gay person who truly is committed to that way of life in his heart and mind doesn't have that hope. And to live life without hope on such a core issue, I think, is a very difficult thing. We, again, as a church need to be, I think, even more charitable than we've been, more outreaching in a sense. A religion produces a culture, and culture has its stereotypes, has its mores. It's very difficult, for instance, in our culture not to be a returning missionary. What about the young man who chooses not to go, or the parents who marry and for whatever reasons don't have children, or the young woman who grows old without marrying, or the divorced person? I think we can be quite hard -- in a sense unwittingly, but nevertheless hard -- on those people in our culture, because we have cultural expectations, cultural ideals, and if you measure up to them, it's a wonderful life. If you don't, it could be very difficult. … PBS: Science is moving toward the idea of a scientific origin for homosexuality. What if this isn't a choice, but the way people are born? Would that change the church's thinking about it? JENSEN: I think that the origins of homosexuality are still very much up for grabs. ... I don't think the church could ever change its position, because gender, gender identification and the idea that a man and a woman coming together in marriage and to procreate and to have a family is such a core element in God's plan for our life. There's no room in doctrine, and there's no room within the plan of salvation, as we call it, or God's plan for our life, for homosexuality to be accepted. ...
|
|
|
Return to the Articles page. |
|
