LDS Professor Speaks Out Against Anti-Gay Marriage Amendment

Westminster College professor Jeffrey Nielsen lost his previous teaching job at BYU for criticizing the LDS Church over its opposition to gay marriage, but he's not letting that deter him from speaking out again. After church leaders urged California Mormons last weekend to support a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, Nielsen wrote his own open letter to them, encouraging them not to support the amendment.

"I've come to appreciate and respect a lot of gay and lesbian members of the Church, and non-members, and I felt that they and their families are probably still suffering and being negatively affected by this, and so I felt an obligation just out of a sense of justice and friendship to write a letter of support for them," said Nielsen.

Nielsen, who is Mormon but not gay himself, says marriage equality would strengthen the institution of marriage.

The professor says that while religious leaders have every right to speak out on moral issues, they can't use purely religious principles to mandate what public policy should be.

 LDS Professor Speaks Out Against Anti-Gay Marriage Amendment
KCPW - Salt Lake City,UT,USA