Gender, Politics, and Eternal Marriage


Readings in the Student Manual:

Chapter Pages

The Family: A Proclamation to the World 83-84
Same Gender Attraction 294-302
Same Sex Marriage 303

Recommended Readings:

Author Title Pages

LDS Public Affairs Dept. The Divine Institution of Marriage Internet only

Readings in this Page:

The First Presidency, 1995

The Prophet Joseph Smith

Elder Bruce R. McConkie

Marriage and Parenthood are Essential

Populating the Eternal Worlds

The Nature of Mortal Birth


The First Presidency
Marriage and Parenthood are Essential
The Proclamation on the Family, 1995

All human beings—male and female—are created in the image of God.  Each is a beloved spirit son or daughter of heavenly parents, and, as such, each has a divine nature and destiny.  Gender is an essential characteristic of individual premortal, mortal, and eternal identity and purpose. ...

We declare that God's commandment for His children to multiply and replenish the earth remains in force.  We further declare that God has commanded that the sacred powers of procreation are to be employed only between man and woman, lawfully wedded as husband and wife.  We declare the means by which mortal life is created to be divinely appointed.  We affirm the sanctity of life and of its importance in God's eternal plan. ...

The family is ordained of God. Marriage between man and woman is essential to His eternal plan. Children are entitled to birth within the bonds of matrimony, and to be reared by a father and a mother who honor marital vows with complete fidelity.


The Prophet Joseph Smith
Populating the Eternal Worlds
The Words of Joseph Smith, p.232
[brackets added]

The earthly [being] the image of the Heavenly [cf. D&C 77:2] shows that is by the multiplication of lives that the eternal worlds are created and occupied ...


Elder Bruce R. McConkie
The Nature of Mortal Birth
Ensign, April 1977, p.3

[Mortal birth] is the process by which mature, sentient, intelligent beings pass from preexistence into a mortal sphere. It is the process by which we bring from premortality to mortality the traits and talents acquired and developed in our long years of spirit existence. It is the process by which a mortal body is created from the dust of the earth to house an eternal spirit offspring of the Father of us all.


This web page was published only as a support for classroom discussion.
For more information, contact Dr. Marcus Martins at: martinsm@byuh.edu