AllTop Viral!

In 2008, a gay marriage bill failed in California. Read that again: California. How could it happen? The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints lobbied hard to make sure it failed. Then, in 2015, the church banned the children of LGBT members from being baptized. The church’s stance seemed to be decided on LGBT issues: it was going to be strict. This past week, however, the church announced a surprising reversal. The children of LGBT members now can be baptized.

The news is especially surprising given the recent decision by the United Methodist Church, which recent narrowly voted to prohibit gay marriage within the church and bar gay members from leadership. The vote was narrow, however, and may lead to future church schisms.

That, perhaps, may explain the LDS decision to loosen its policies on the children of gay members. The sheer amount of backlash the church received when they first announced that decision was impressive, but the church could not immediately back down without appearing weak. After waiting an appropriate amount of time, they were able to ease up a bit and still save face. The Methodist decision likely reminded the LDS how divisive this could be, so appearing to give way a bit might appease some of the more liberal church members.

More about religion.