At a time when most Christian churches are moving away from old disciplinary practices, the LDS Church continues to use excommunication as a tool to threaten, control, discipline, and expel its members. In the early 1990s the LDS Church also established a system of informal discipline, which allows bishops to control the most personal aspects of members' daily lives. However, Church leaders keep policies about discipline confidential, thus making it difficult for members to know what rights and privileges they have.

Gays and lesbians are at particular risk of being subjected to the Church's disciplinary practices. Therefore, we at Affirmation: Gay and Lesbian Mormons have prepared this new guide. It replaces the old guide All About Excommunication, incorporating all the procedural changes made in the 1998 Church Handbook of Instructions. If the time ever comes when a Church leader attempts to discipline or excommunicate you, we want you to be prepared and make educated decisions. Moreover, we want you to be able to turn this act of abuse into an educational opportunity for your leaders and a growing experience for yourself.

Some Church leaders want you to believe that by excommunicating you they are taking everything from you, but the truth is that they can only take what you let them. They cannot take away your spirituality, your testimony, or your salvation. There are many gay and lesbian Mormons who have gone through this process and have survived. They prospered. They became better Christians. If you ever feel that you have been abandoned, or if you wish to discuss excommunication with someone who shares this experience, we invite you to contact Affirmation. We will put you in touch with someone who can help.

Excommunication vs. Name Removal

In practice, most gay and lesbian Mormons become inactive before the LDS Church can discipline them. Often the Church loses track of where they live or simply loses interest in them. There is also a growing number of Mormons who choose to have their names removed from the Church's records. Even though a request for name removal could potentially trigger an excommunication, many bishops are willing to let gay and lesbian members go, especially if they do not have any hard evidence of homosexuality when the request is made. Once the name is removed, the Church cannot investigate or punish that person ever again.

Many gay and lesbian Mormons, however, choose to remain on the Church rolls. Many of them are proud to be Mormon, and do not see why they should sever their formal association with the Church. They can be active, semi-active, or inactive. Some are celibate and some are sexually active. Some are living with a partner in a committed relationship. In some cases, bishops know about gay and lesbian members in their wards and choose to look the other way. But according to the 1998 Church Handbook of Instructions, homosexuality is "a serious transgression" and practicing gays and lesbians should be disciplined.

Informal Discipline

If you are gay or lesbian and your bishop knows it, you may have already encountered the Church's system of informal discipline. As part of this system, a bishop may suspend your right to partake of the sacrament, hold a Church position, exercise the priesthood, or enter the temple. Thus, informal discipline allows a bishop to punish a member without holding a "disciplinary council" (a church court). According to church policies, a bishop can apply informal discipline to a person who confesses voluntarily, who commits the fault for the first time, who has not violated temple covenants, and whose situation has significant mitigating circumstances.

In the case of gays and lesbians, informal discipline works only for those who are willing to abandon their homosexuality. Through a program of frequent interviews, the bishop could attempt to control the most personal and intimate aspects of your daily life. He may ask you if you masturbate, if you have sexual fantasies, or if you are sexually active. He may suggest or require that you participate in some "ex-gay" group such as Evergreen. More dangerously, he may suggest or require that you undergo some form of so-called "reparative" or "conversion" therapy. Some bishops will even offer to pay for this therapy.

We strongly caution you to think twice before submitting to any form of therapy that claims that homosexuality is a psychological disorder. The American Psychological Association insists in no uncertain terms: "The reality is that homosexuality is not an illness. It does not require treatment and is not changeable" ("Answers to Your Questions About Sexual Orientation and Homosexuality," APA Public Interest Fact Sheet, July 1998). We caution you against so-called "therapies" that may harm your social, emotional, and spiritual well-being. We also caution you against groups that claim that homosexuality is a sin that must be abandoned. Affirmation agrees with the APA, and other mainstream mental health organizations, that health and wellness are possible for gay and lesbian people if they accept themselves for who they are.

Formal Discipline

Church leaders are instructed to make a distinction between merely feeling same-sex attraction and acting upon those feelings. They cannot convene a court merely because you are attracted to people of your own gender. If your bishop knows that you merely have same-sex feelings, he is likely to handle the situation through personal interviews with you (informal discipline). But if you have received your temple endowments and are sexually active with someone to whom you are not married, your behavior is considered a serious transgression and subject to stern discipline. This usually means excommunication.

Whereas informal discipline is administered by the bishop alone, formal discipline is administered by church courts known as disciplinary councils. Cases involving women and Aaronic Priesthood holders are usually handled by ward disciplinary councils convened and presided over by a bishop. Cases involving Melchizedek Priesthood holders are usually handled by a stake disciplinary council convened and presided over by a stake president. Ward councils are composed of a bishop and his counselors. Stake councils are composed of a stake president, his two counselors, and the members of the high council.

Many situations can trigger a disciplinary council, including an accusation that someone makes against you, an investigation conducted by your bishop or stake president, or your own disclosure. In contrast to past Mormon practice, information you disclose in an ecclesiastical interview cannot be used as evidence in a disciplinary council without your consent. However, if you make a disclosure, the leaders can still convene a disciplinary council against you on the basis of other evidence. In all decisions concerning church discipline, the leaders are supposed to take into consideration a number of factors, including whether or not the member has been through the temple, the member's position in the Church, and the member's age, maturity, and experience.


Preparation for a Disciplinary Council

If a Church leader convenes a disciplinary council against you, you will receive a written notice that includes the date, time, and place where the council will be held. The letter must be delivered personally and privately, with courtesy and dignity. If they cannot deliver it in person, they may send it by registered or certified mail, with a return receipt requested. In the letter, the charge against you will be set forth in very general terms, without including any details or evidence.

If you are interested in attending the council but have a schedule conflict, let the leaders know; they may be willing to reschedule. If you object to the participation of a counselor in the bishopric or stake presidency, the presiding officer must evaluate your objection. If you object to the participation of the bishop, the matter must be referred to the stake president. If you object to the participation of the stake president, he must consult the Office of the First Presidency.

You may prepare yourself for the disciplinary council by writing a statement or response, by gathering any relevant evidence, and by summoning your own witnesses. If your witnesses are not Church members, the presiding officer must determine in advance that the nonmember witnesses will respect the purposes and procedures of the court.

The Mechanics of the Disciplinary Council

The meeting begins without you present. The presiding officer tells the council what the charges are. You are then invited into the meeting and introduced. The council is opened with a prayer. Then the presiding officer, or someone designated by him, states the charges and asks you to respond by admitting or denying them. If you deny the charges, they will present the evidence, including written or oral statements of witnesses, reliable documents, and, if you have given your consent for it, the substance of your own disclosure. If they bring witnesses, you have the right to question them. Any member of the council may ask you or the witnesses questions, but they must be brief, relevant, and polite.

You then present your response. You may bring in witnesses, one at a time, submit other relevant evidence, comment on the evidence, and make any other statement you want. If you are sexually active and admit it from the beginning, the disciplinary council can be over in a few minutes.

You also have the right to refuse to answer certain questions. Most of us in Affirmation are willing to state that we are indeed gay or lesbian. However, many of us also believe that sexuality is a sacred, personal, and private matter. Therefore we do not deem it appropriate for the council to ask us about our sexual lives, just as council members would not deem it appropriate for us to ask them about theirs.

When all relevant matters have been presented, you are asked to leave the room. Then the presiding officer, his counselors, and the high council deliberate over what action to take. They may reach a decision at that time or adjourn the council temporarily to seek additional evidence. If you declare that you are a practicing homosexual and have no intention of changing, they will most likely reach a decision right away.

There are four actions the council might take: (1) no action, (2) formal probation, (3) disfellowshipment, or (4) excommunication. If they decide to put you on formal probation or to disfellowship you, they will restrict some or all your privileges as a member of the Church, but these are intended to be temporary actions. As part of the action, they may instruct you to break contact with all your gay and lesbian friends or undergo so-called "therapy." If they excommunicate you, that means that they see your actions as a serious "transgression" and/or they don't think that you are likely to change.

After reaching the decision, the presiding officer will invite you back into the council meeting and inform you of the decision. The officer will explain the terms and conditions imposed. If these include the withdrawal of your temple privileges (as in probation, disfellowshipment, or excommunication), he will ask you to return your temple recommend. They will explain your right to appeal, and then they will close the meeting with a prayer. They will also send you a letter with all this information.

If you think that the evidence was unfair or that the council was biased, you may appeal the decision. You should present your appeal within thirty days to the presiding officer of the council that made the decision. An appeal of a ward council is addressed to the stake presidency. An appeal of a stake council is addressed to the First Presidency. They will read your appeal and send you their decision, but only rarely in the history of the Church has a stake council decision been reversed.

Remember: A bishop can start a disciplinary process against you even if you haven't consented that he use your disclosure. A bishop who learns about a transgression involving someone outside his ward must contact the corresponding bishop. Bishops routinely report on the "progress" of disciplined members to the stake, or, if you move, they might give a report to your new bishop. Sometimes a bishop may consider it beneficial to inform your family of the disciplinary action. This means that disciplinary actions, albeit supposedly confidential, may involve many people.


What Excommunication Means

Even though many members think that excommunication is a terrible thing, Mormon leaders and LDS publications are extremely vague when describing the spiritual consequences of excommunication. The reason is very simple: Excommunication is not a spiritual matter, but an administrative procedure. Your soul is not on trial--only your membership in the temporal Church.

In practice, excommunication means only that your membership on the Church records has been suspended. The Church doesn't even erase or destroy your membership record! It is interesting to note that when an excommunicated person goes back to the church, all the blessings are restored. The dates of the original baptism and temple ordinances are written in their record. What this really means is that they never took the ordinances away in the first place. They merely took away temporarily the Church's recognition of these ordinances.

The truth of the matter is that no one on earth can take away your baptism, your endowments, or if applicable, your priesthood. No one can take away your faith or your testimony. Most importantly, no one can take away your spirituality. The Spirit never withdraws from those who sincerely seek to do good. Your integrity, your morality, and your spirituality remain intact.

If the day comes when you are summoned to attend a disciplinary council, we encourage you to consider attending. If you attend your tribunal and bear your testimony as a gay son or lesbian daughter of God, you will be making a powerful statement that they cannot ignore. Go to the council and let those men hear what you know. You may not learn anything from them, but they may learn something from you. Let them see that you are not intimidated. Let them see that they cannot hurt you. Be a witness to your own integrity and a witness against their actions. If you touch only one person by being honest, then your attendance is invaluable.


A Final Word

Disciplinary councils can be an insidious system of control, manipulation, and abuse. We believe that they are contrary to the teachings of Jesus. But we also believe that every person who is excommunicated can find the way to transform a potentially painful experience into something positive, empowering, and uplifting.

With a few exceptions, excommunication does not prevent you from continuing to do the basic things that are at the heart of Mormonism. You can still attend Church meetings and conferences. You can still search the scriptures and feast on the words of Christ. You can still have family home evenings and work on family history. You can still be an example of integrity and find ways to serve your neighbor. Most importantly, you can still pray, fast, and keep in tune with the things of the Spirit.

We testify to you that no earthly court can take away your potential as a child of God. No Church leader can judge your life. No administrative procedure can condemn your soul. In the words of Nephi, "the keeper of the gate is the Holy One of Israel; and he employeth no servant there" (2 Nephi 9:41).

God bless you. Above all, remember that our Heavenly Parents love you. They want you to live in joy. They will always accept you the way you are.