One of the most subtle forms of intimidation is the gradual normalization of aberration.

We first endure, then pity, then embrace.

Remember the Mormons? They walked the earth not so very long ago. Here is the late Elder Neal A. Maxwell, of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, in 1993. The title of his address is "Behold, the Enemy Is Combined."

[I]t is the engulfing effects of [the] deteriorating world on Church members which is the “clear and present danger.” . . . Yet we must not be intimidated or lose our composure even though the once morally unacceptable is becoming acceptable, as if frequency somehow conferred respectability!

One of the most subtle forms of intimidation is the gradual normalization of aberration. Alexander Pope so cautioned:

Vice is a monster of so frightful mien,
As, to be hated, needs but to be seen;
Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face,
We first endure, then pity, then embrace.

Every Mormon used to know and quote those lines from Pope's Essay on Man. They used to turn up in sermons like Ezra Taft Benson's "Satan's Thrust -- Youth," prefaced with "Tolerance is a word valuable in the service of Satan." They seem to have fallen out of favor in recent decades; the formerly-Mormon hierarchy has switched its allegiance to the other Pope and all he represents.

(Pope : the Pope :: science : The Science)

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Here's what Elder Maxwell's successors at The Church That Can't Be Called Mormon Anymore have chosen to put on the homepage of their official website -- which is no longer lds.org because they have renounced the label LDS.

The "LGBT" article is about 1,400 words long and never once mentions, even in passing, that disordered sexual behavior is sinful. Here is the article's one and only use of the word sin:

The Church distinguishes between same-sex attraction and homosexual behavior. . . . Identifying as gay, lesbian, or bisexual or experiencing same-sex attraction is not a sin and does not prohibit one from participating in the Church, holding callings, or attending the temple.

Notice how they conflate experiencing temptation (which is the common lot of man) with choosing to identify as a particular sort of temptation-experiencer, to embrace the temptation as central to who you are as a person. The latter absolutely was considered a sin not so long ago. In my day, the Church never even used words like gay  -- preferring "those who struggle with same-sex attraction" -- precisely because they wanted to avoid encouraging people to identify with their besetting sins.

To see the fundamental dishonesty and cowardice of this stance, imagine replacing the temptation to indulge in socially-promoted sexual perversions with any other, non-socially approved, temptation. Alcoholics, pedophiles, necrophiliacs, men with roving eyes, lazy people. While it may be technically true that a disordered passion is only a sin if you act on it, there would obviously be something deeply wrong with an organization that was constantly harping on the need to understand and welcome necrophiliacs, without bothering to mention that they don't actually condone the sexual abuse of corpses.

In this modern world, where everyone is under overwhelming social pressure not only to tolerate but to celebrate sexual perversion, where it takes great courage even to say publicly that sin is sin, the Church has decided that the message its members need the most is that they need to be more accepting -- only up to a point, of course! -- of this evil. This is an act of moral cowardice and a dereliction of duty. It is indistinguishable from Bergoglio's "who am I to judge" crap and will lead to the same end. The ex-Mormon hierarchy needs to return to Mormonism, stop hobnobbing with the Pope, and reread their Pope.