We have an online letter in our newspaper, describing homosexuality as a crime against nature. Not surprisingly, it’s generated a lot of heated responses, most opposed. I find the letter offensive. It calls homosexuality a disorder, no different than bestiality. Appalling? I’d say so. Yet, I wonder how many of us would be surprised to see similar rhetoric in one of the LDS Church’s most popular books, “The Miracle of Forgiveness,” by the late prophet Spencer W. Kimball.

Kimball is arguably one of the most progressive LDS prophets. Besides ending the ban on blacks receiving full membership privileges, he was an advocate of helping American Indians and expanded the church’s efforts into Latin America. Yet, on...