The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has long maintained a careful distinction: being queer is not a sin, but acting on it is. Church leaders have offered this framing as evidence of compassion, and many members have accepted it as such. But consider it through a child's eyes. If everything that might express who you are is forbidden, the child concludes — reasonably, cleanly — that you are the problem. The distinction between orientation and behavior, however carefully constructed, functionally delivers the same verdict as outright condemnation. It just does so with better vocabulary.
This is more than a philosophical error. It is what George Orwell called doublethink — holding two contradictory beliefs simultaneously while training yourself not to notice the contradiction. The Church says it does not condemn queer people while condemning every possible expression of queer love. It claims compassion while building a policy architecture that makes genuine compassion structurally unavailable.
What makes this particularly troubling is that the doublethink isn't incidental — it is load-bearing. The position requires doublethink to be constructed and requires ongoing doublethink to be defended. The theological sophistication deployed in its defense doesn't resolve the contradiction. It obscures it.
For those of us who take seriously the claim that God is the author of truth, this matters beyond politics. A religious institution whose policies rely on trained not-seeing has, at minimum, let human fingerprints override divine ones. Ironically, President Nelson's own call to 'let God prevail' offers the most precise language for the problem: doublethink is itself a failure to let truth prevail.
The compassion the Church credits itself for doesn't change anything material for queer members. It functions primarily as institutional self-exculpation — a way of feeling released from accountability for harm the policy causes.
A child would see through it in five seconds. Perhaps that's the most honest theological instrument available. I hope and pray that our children will dismantle any policy that excludes our brothers, sisters, and Others from marriage equality.
