Some Mormons are not accepting their leaders’ explanations. Women are asking whether female church leaders were consulted before the decision was made, and how they are to carry out such a policy. There is an online petition asking artists to cancel their performances with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir at its Christmas concert.
“Any church that wants to claim itself as a Christian organization that uses Jesus Christ the savior to somehow exclude any group of people is not anything that I want to be a part of,” said Sarah Epperson, who is among those who plan to resign at the protest in Salt Lake City on Saturday.
Ms. Epperson, who is 28 and runs a restaurant in Utah County, just south of Salt Lake City, said she had been “on the fence” about her church membership for eight years, but this recent news had pushed her over the edge. Her father, Donald Braegger, recently came out as gay and was excommunicated this year.
Mr. Braegger, 55, said his story was the same as that of many gay Mormons whose children would be affected by the new policy: Even though he knew as a young man that he was attracted to men, he married a woman because his church taught that homosexuality was sinful, and he was a faithful believer. He had seven children and spent years trying to overcome his homosexuality through prayer and reparative therapy. After 26 years, he and his wife divorced a year and a half ago.
