Views On Sexuality
Main article: Sexuality and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day SaintsDeborah Laake and Colleen McDannell say that the church takes a repressive stance towards sexuality and that this may be psychologically unhealthy.
Affirmation, a Gay & Lesbian organization, and Ed Decker, a critic of the LDS Church, both state that the repressive attitude of the church may - in extreme cases - lead to suicide, as in the case of 16-year old Kip Eliason, who committed suicide because of the stresses that resulted when his LDS bishop told him that masturbation was sinful.
In January 1982 the church presidency issued a letter to local leaders saying "The First Presidency has interpreted oral sex as constituting an unnatural, impure, or unholy practice." The letter was not distributed to the general membership. This letter also instructed local leaders not to inquire into the specifics of married members' sex lives. However, this portion of the letter was often ignored, and in response to letters of protest from members, another letter was issued to local leaders in October reiterating the prohibition on inquiring into specific sexual practices.
Read more about this topic: Criticism Of Mormonism
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“Parents must begin to discover their children as individuals of developing tastes and views and so help them be, and see, themselves as thinking, feeling people. It is far too easy for a middle-years child to absorb an over-simplified picture of himself as a sloppy, unreliable, careless, irresponsible, lazy creature and not much more—an attitude toward himself he will carry far beyond these years.”
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