Same-Sex Marriages in LCR

[thebundok]

This topic has been asked before, but not recently.

We recently had a marriage between a member of our ward and a member of another ward. Apart from the church's general stance on same-sex marriage, there don't appear to be any guidelines on whether or not to record their marriage in LCR.

However, if I try to use the other member's MRN the system only reports that "No matching records were found using the information provided." I'm assuming the sub-text is that no matching "legitimate" records were found, but that's not the point of my question.

I could add the new spouse manually as a non-member, but does this conflict with any church guidelines I have not been able to uncover in the General Handbook?

[russellhltn]

Interesting situation. I see Same-Sex Marriage listed in 32.6.2.5 as a situation that a "Membership Council May Be Necessary". But I'm not seeing a definitive statement on results. In the past, I thought it called for termination of membership. (At which point, recording the marriage on the membership record would be moot.)

You need to resolve any disciplinary situation first. If the bishop has questions, he should consult with the stake president. If the stake president isn't sure, he should consult with the area presidency (32.6.3)

[jdlessley]

Apart from the church's general stance on same-sex marriage, there don't appear to be any guidelines on whether or not to record their marriage in LCR.

General Handbook, 38.6.16, in the first paragraph states: "The Church also affirms that God’s law defines marriage as the legal and lawful union between a man and a woman." Programing functionality of LCR adheres to the handbook. That paragraph indicates recording a same sex marriage in Church records is not possible since it violates doctrinal principle, based on the scriptures.