GOOD RIDDANCE: Hundreds rally against new Mormon policy; many file forms to quit the faith.

Background: Elder Christofferson explains updated LDS Church policies on same-sex marriage and children.

The changes to a church handbook released Thursday mandate church discipline for same-sex couples who marry and grew out of questions that came from different parts of the world and the United States, Elder Christofferson said in a video posted on the Mormon Newsroom website.

“We recognize that same-sex marriages are now legal in the United States and some other countries,” he said, “and that people have the right if they choose to enter into those, and we understand that, but that’s not a right that exists in the church. That’s the clarification.”

He said the new policy restricting children of same-sex couples from baptism until they are 18 originated from “a desire to protect children in their innocence and in their minority years.”

“We don’t want the child to have to deal with issues that might arise where the parents feel one way and the expectations of the church are very different,” he said. . . .

The update affirmed one of the church’s fundamental doctrines, that marriage is between a man and a woman. It also clarified that entering a same-sex marriage is considered apostasy and requires a church disciplinary council. The update states that homosexual relations, especially sexual cohabitation, are serious transgressions for which a disciplinary council may be necessary.