With Argentinean lawmakers considering legislation that would expand the nation’s definition of civil marriage to include gay and lesbian couples, the First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints sent a letter to be read in every Mormon congregation in Argentina yesterday, restating the Church’s doctrinal view that “marriage is between a man and a woman and is ordained of God.”
Evangelical and Catholic Church leaders have called for nationwide protests on July 13, the day before the bill is to be debated in Argentina’s senate.
For their part, LDS Church leaders are asking Argentina’s 370,000 Mormons to review the Proclamation on the Family, a 1995 doctrinal statement on gender and family issues.
The letter reportedly does not take an official position on the legislation or ask members to donate of their time and means, as did a similar letter read to California Mormon congregations in June 2008 at the beginning of the Proposition 8 campaign. Although billed as one element of a faith-based “Yes on 8” coalition, Mormon participation in the 2008 campaign has been viewed as decisive in the passage of the state’s same-sex marriage ban. About 750,000 Mormons live in California.
The letter being read today in Argentina marks strong continuities in the Church’s articulation of its doctrines worldwide, while marking some departures in the way Church members in different regions of the globe are asked to implement their faith in the political process. More than half of the 13 million members of the Mormon Church live outside the United States.
