How The Family Proclamation Went From Obvious to Controversial and Divisive

October 2020 General Conference marks 25 years since President Gordon B. Hinckley delivered the Family: A Proclamation to the World. When President Hinckley read the Family Proclamation declaring with prophetic authority that marriage is between a man and woman and it is ordained of God, the need to have families, and that gender is eternal, it was widely accepted. There was nothing new, it was obvious. Anyone paying even a little attention to the decades of teachings regarding the Plan of Salvation would’ve heard these doctrines being taught and retaught repeatedly over the pulpit and thought: This is worthy of a proclamation?!

And even if you looked at the world in 1995, most of the doctrines of the Family Proclamation were also widely believed and accepted by people and by the governments of the world. The idea that gender was eternal was obvious, almost no one was pushing for transgenderism. And when the Family Proclamation was given in 1995, NO nation in the whole world had legalized gay marriage. let me repeat that, no nation in the ENTIRE world had legalized gay marriage. To stress my point about how widely traditional marriage was believed, and defended in 2004 Hillary Clinton went on the United States Senate floor and said she took offense at the very idea that she supported gay marriage instead of traditional marriage (see a clip of her speech below).

But much like how Noah warned about the flood before it started raining, President Hinckley warned us about the Lord’s definition of marriage and the importance of family in preparation for Satan’s Blitzkrieg against the family, which is simply put an assault against the Plan of Salvation. And if you missed that connection then you missed the entire purpose of the Family Proclamation.

What I am about to say is very important to understand both WHY the Family Proclamation was given, as well as WHY it is under a full-blown assault today.

Why the Family Proclamation was given.

The Family Proclamation contains an insane amount of doctrine for a document of its size. It declares the fatherhood of God, the brotherhood of man, and that we lived with God before we were born. But more importantly, it outlines the Plan of Salvation, that when we lived with God before we were born, that we choose to accept a Plan that promised us the reward of becoming like our Heavenly Parents. This is called Exaltation or Eternal Life. The Family proclamation is, in essence, the abstract of the Plan of Salvation.

The Family Proclamation unequivocally declares that the family is the center of this Plan of Salvation. Why is the family at the center of the plan? Because the entire plan is about us forging eternal families. Exaltation is about creating an eternal family unit, and that family unit, as defined by God, is a husband and wife that have been sealed by the Holy Priesthood and entered into the Patricharal Order of the Priesthood with the ability to have children in heaven. This is why President Benson declared that “Exaltation is eternal fatherhood and eternal motherhood.” and that “the glorious concept of home and the enduring family relationship lies at the very basis of our happiness here and hereafter.”

The Plan of Salvation does not just ‘include’ families, it is completely about families! For those of you who are not understanding, the crux of the Plan of Salvation, the entire reason Christ came to earth and suffered through the atonement, was to give the opportunity for every child of God to receive the reward that they left home in search of, namely, an eternal heterosexual marriage with the ability to have an eternal increase in your posterity. The Family Proclamation declares this boldly and clearly to warn us of Satan’s attack plan in the last days, his war on families.

Why Satan hates the Family Proclamation.

Satan was denied a body. He will never have a family of his own. The scriptures call this state damnation. He bitterly wants to ensure everyone is miserable like unto himself. Therefore he goes after the Plan of Salvation. Make no mistake, his multipronged attacks against women, and men, and the family is merely a continuation of his war against our Father in Heaven.

Because the Family Proclamation is the abstract of the Plan of Salvation, it is also the antithesis of Satan, he hates it because it is the roadmap to what he has been eternally denied, namely family and fatherhood. As Satan seeks to undermine the Plan of Salvation, he teaches and speaks out against the doctrines contained in the Family Proclamation.

25 Years Later

Now we stand here, 25 years later. We understand why the family proclamation was given, and why Satan hates it. If we take a look around us, the Family Proclamation, which was once considered common sense, is now under full assault. It is under attack not only from without the Church, which is to be expected, but more shocking is the consistent attacks from members within the Church! It is amazing to realize how controversial the Family Proclamation and the doctrine therein has become. The doctrines that once were obvious are now considered divisive and controversial.

Satan has successfully crafted a counterfeit gospel plan that many members have bought into. Those who embrace this plan must give up every aspect of the Plan of Salvation and the Family Proclamation as Satan’s plan teaches that the ultimate principle of the gospel is not faith, nor is it love, not even obedience, but rather tolerance. He teaches that gay marriage is ok, because ‘love is love.’ Satan, knowing that gay marriage will not, and can not, lead unto exaltation (which is eternal fatherhood and motherhood), teaches and substitutes true family relationships with his counterfeits.

The greatest irony is that if you speak out against Satan’s plan for the damnation of all LGBTQ people, and remind them that they are children of God who have previously chosen that they want exaltation, that they already agreed to the Plan of Salvation, and that exaltation is still within their grasp if they but have faith, obey, and love. You are called a hater and attacked. If the Family Proclamation was released in October 2020 General Conference it would be considered a hate document. Progressive Latter-day Saints would protest and attack it, the news and social media would attempt to ‘cancel’ the Church and every member who would not denounce it. How do I know this? They do it already with BYU’s honor code protests, and whenever President Oaks speaks. He merely quotes part of the Family Proclamation and people on social media totally lose their minds, newspapers write articles denouncing it as hate speech, and people accuse him literally killing LGBTQ people.

But because these are true doctrines that are the underpinnings of the Plan of Salvation, they will always be retaught. And each time they are retaught people will be enraged. They will complain, they want us to change the doctrines of the Church they want the brethren to accept gay marriage. They will say that God loves them and wants them to be happy. They will want to define any group of people as a ‘family’ but God has already defined what a family is.

When you hear these complaints ask yourself, “Will this lead to exaltation? Or damnation?” Doing this will show you that they have missed the fundamental boat. The literal plan is exalting people! Heterosexual marriage is not a customizable feature of the Plan of Salvation that can be changed, it is the very essence of the Plan of Salvation! It is a plan to exalt people to live in a heterosexual relationship with the continuation of their family. That is Godhood!

To want the Church to accept and endorse gay marriage would be asking all Cemisitsts to throw away the periodic table because you don’t like it. It would be asking the Church to forsake the Plan of Salvation and the entire reason we came to earth and why Christ performed the atonement! It would be to tell LGBTQ people that they are not worth exalting! And that they should settle for less than their potential. Is that love? No! It is not love! True love will never tell someone to give up or settle for less than exaltation. Therefore as God is a God of love, He will never give up on each one of His children, and neither will His Son, His prophets, and His Church!

So when progressive members of the Church say we need to be more loving and accept gay marriage, they have missed the fundamental boat. The plan of salvation is about exalting people! And exalting people to live in a heterosexual relationship with the continuation of their seed. To want the Church to accept and endorse gay marriage would be asking the Church to forsake the plan of salvation and tell people to settle for less than exaltation. That is not real love! As our beloved prophet has taught, “Real love for the sinner may compel courageous confrontation—not acquiescence! Real love does not support self-destructing behavior.” Therefore, The Church will stand for the Family Proclamation. It will stand and teach everyone to strive for exaltation and there will not be a ‘revelation on gay marriage.’ Dallin H. Oaks taught this clearly in October of 2019 General Conference:

The work of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is ultimately concerned with preparing the children of God for the celestial kingdom, and most particularly for its highest glory, exaltation or eternal life. That highest destiny is possible only through marriage for eternity. Eternal life includes the creative powers inherent in the combination of male and female—what modern revelation describes as the “continuation of the seeds forever and ever.”

In his talk to young adults, President Nelson taught, “Abiding by God’s laws will keep you safe as you progress toward eventual exaltation”—that is, to become like God, with the exalted life and divine potential of our Heavenly Parents. That is the destiny we desire for all we love. Because of that love, we cannot let our love supersede the commandments and the plan and work of God, which we know will bring those we love their greatest happiness.

But there are many we love, including some who have the restored gospel, who do not believe in or choose not to follow God’s commandments about marriage and the law of chastity. What about them?

God’s doctrine shows that all of us are His children and that He has created us to have joy. Modern revelation teaches that God has provided a plan for a mortal experience in which all can choose obedience to seek His highest blessings or make choices that lead to one of the less glorious kingdoms.”

Two Great Commandments by President Dallin H. Oaks
(bold and italics added).