QUOTE: “The Church is dedicated to transparency.” –M. Russell Ballard, 13 September 2015. [source]
CHURCH WEBSITE: “Handbook 1 is available to bishoprics and stake presidencies through the leaders site.” –LDS.org, Manuals, Handbooks of Instruction. [source]
COMMENTARY: The church publishes its policies and procedures in a book it calls Handbook 1, which it makes available only to a relatively small subset of its membership. When it made changes to those policies to bar children of a gay couple from full participation in the church and to make gay marriage a cause for mandatory church discipline, it did so without intending to share that information with the church membership or the rest of the world. It makes me start to wonder what else is in that book that was as poorly thought out as the most recent policy. I would say it’s time for the church to live up to its word and truly be transparent by opening up its books. But what do I know? I’m just another apostate.
