From KU we are news in Salt Lake City. This is Radio West.

I'm Doug Fabrizio. It's hard to say what people were expecting from the Mormon church

about same-sex marriage. The policy that leaked late last week, the one that officially declared

those who enter same-sex marriage as apostates, shouldn't have surprised anyone.

Church leaders had always been clear about their opposition to these marriages,

but going by the reaction, the question doesn't seem to be whether the church could change the policy.

It's whether they should have. And maybe people were just hoping leaders would find some kind of accommodation

or leave the issue open-ended. But an official policy with mandates for local leaders

seems to set the issue in stone. There are a lot of questions to talk about today as we discuss

the LDS Church's actions. The biggest ones may be about the children of same-sex couples.

So we invite you to join us after the news.

This is Radio West. I'm Doug Fabrizio.

Facebook feeds exploded on Fridays. People were trying to make sense of a new policy

that had appeared in the Mormon Church's handbook. That's the rulebook for local leaders.

What to do when members have committed crimes or sins. And for Mormons, if you're gay and you act on it,

that is if you have sex, that's a sin. Technically, the handbook could already cover it.

It made a broad reference to fornication and a particular reference to homosexual relations.

But this is a new policy and it's very specific. It directly states that those in same gender marriage are apostates.

That's new. Now that may not have been all that surprising or even outrageous to those reacting over the weekend.

But it was the policy about their children that really got people talking.

That policy says children of a parent in a same gender relationship.

It doesn't matter if they're married or living together. Those children may not receive a name and a blessing.

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