There is perhaps no document in recent years that has been more polarizing for Latter-day Saints than The Family Proclamation. Is it a prophetic document? Is it doctrine? Is it scripture? Or just good advice? It seems there is hardly any consensus amongst Latter-day Saints on this matter. Conservative members tend to use the document as a bludgeon against people who are LGBTQ+, seeing their sexual and gender identities as violating God's commandments given to present-day prophets, seers, and revelators. Whereas liberal members tend to negotiate more with the text, trying to adjust the document to meet their present-day sensibilities or simply calling for the dismissal of the document entirely. In this episode, we challenge dogmatic readings of this text by analyzing its history as an amicus brief for a civil rights case in Hawaii. We further discuss the history of the ideas contained within the document. What does the text say? What did the original authors intend for the text to say? Where do these ideas come from? How does that original intent get swept away by the passage of time and through how the text is used? These questions are particularly pertinent since Latter-day Saints are famous for polygamy—a sexual orientation that was quite deviant from the norms of the time. The Family Proclamation, with its staunch stance of monogamy and cisgender heterosexuality, stands as an awkward contrast to the sexual and relational history of the Church, particularly in its infancy. Please check out Dan McClellan's podcast episode on the matter if you'd like to learn more about homosexuality in the Bible. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gW6w-AOiKNM&pp=ygUeZGF0YSBvdmVyIGRvZ21hIGFkYW0gYW5kIHN0ZXZl To access David Scott and Boyd Petersen's article, use this link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NmPbiKVlj0XdPdpWLdkYFyHGT5Me9ut7/view?usp=drivesdk --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theanalystandthefool/support