Just when I thought I had given in to despair over deep, personal objections to the anti-same-sex marriage policy change within the Mormon church, I read a piece about the Mormon church's response to widespread Republican rejection of Syrian refugees that made me feel uplifted, joyous, and hopeful. In fact, the Mormon church had previously donated $5 million to help refugees headed to Europe, and encouraged members to help refugees who came to the United States, as well. A Mormon Idaho grandmother responded to Donald Trump's anti-Muslim rhetoric by giving her Muslim doctor hand-crocheted animals as a gift to remind him that he was loved, an image that has now gone viral.
Many of my non-Mormon friends make assumptions about the Mormon church's Republican leaning, older leadership and the general red-voting trend of Utah. Not all of these assumptions are true. The Mormon church has banned guns in its church buildings, for instance, and in many other church-owned places of worship. Mormons are often assumed to be anti-abortion, but the church's stance on abortion is quite nuanced and moderate to the point that other pro-life groups do not consider us allies. Mormons believe that there are important exceptions to opposition to abortion rights, including life or health of the mother, rape or incest.
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