Will LDS support of the US Gay Marriage Bill Appease the Beast?

Salt Lake City – The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said Tuesday, 22 November 2022, it supports proposed federal legislation to safeguard same-sex marriages. It’s the church’s latest show of support in the lead-up to an expected congressional vote Wednesday.

The 17-million-member, Utah-based faith said in a statement that church doctrine would continue to consider same-sex relationships against God’s commandments yet would support rights for same-sex couples if they didn’t infringe upon religious groups’ right to believe as they choose.

US Protestantism has died on the vine in its quest to accommodate secular cultural trends. So why does the LDS Church, which believes that marriage can only be between a man and a woman, support formalizing gay marriage into US law? Does the Church hope that by agreeing to something against their principles they will keep the godless "enemy" at bay? It seems that the LDS hope to secure a "live and let live" compromise with US progressives that will enable the Church's ongoing survival. Another possible reason for compromise on this issue: the LDS has considerable wealth, all owned by the corporation of the Church and not dissipated amongst individual wards and stakes. LDS centralized wealth could be threatened by a vindictive progressive controlled government should the LDS Church actively resist secular progressive dogma now increasingly backed by the US Government.

There is precedent for the LDS Church's "compromise with the beast." During WWII in Germany, the LDS Church bent to accommodate Nazi rules, such as not professing biblical dogma about the role of the Jews in bringing about God's plan, survived there, coming out as an intact religion in Germany after the war. On the other hand, other Christian movements, such as the Jehovah's Witnesses (JW), publicly held fast to their principles such as advocating the importance of the Jews to their Christian beliefs. The JW's were shut down by the Nazis and many of their adherents ended up in death camps. So, today, perhaps one could argue that it might be prudent for the LDS to take the long view... compromise with the secular progressives running the US Government in the short term by not taking a hard stand about marriage being only between a man and a woman, to survive and live again in another day. Accommodation of progressive dogma hasn't worked for the US Protestants over the last one hundred years. Maybe the LDS can buck the trend.
Bishop

PS. As a young LDS missionary in France in the mid-60's, I would occasionally participate in informal bible scripture contests with the Jehovah's Witness missionaries. Temoins Jehovah. We called them TJ's. The TJs were well schooled in the Bible. It was a great debating experience on who knew the scriptures the best, not to mention the aid those discussions gave to my French speaking ability.