SALT LAKE CITY (AP) – Mormon church leaders are making a national appeal for a “balanced approach” in the clash between gay rights and religious freedom.
The church is promising to support some housing and job protections for gays and lesbians in exchange for legal protections for believers who object to the behavior of others.
It’s not clear how much common ground the Mormons will find with this new campaign. The church insists it is making no changes in doctrine, and still believes it’s against the law of God to have sex outside marriage between a man and a woman.
But church leaders who held a rare news conference Tuesday said “we must all learn to live with others who do not share the same beliefs or values.”
The language of the new campaign mirrors a website the church launched in 2012 instructing Latter-day Saints to be more accepting and compassionate toward gays. The church made clear then and now that it still opposes gay marriage and insists on its right to apply its own rules within church-affiliated charities, schools, businesses and properties, even those that provide services to non-Mormons.