Quote:
Originally Posted by MikeWaters
The church "is" more controlling of its membership than any major/minor USA religion that I am aware of.
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That's probably true, but I think that discipline is applied very inconsistently in the Church. A lot of things depend on local leadership. To me this is essentially a political issue and so I'm disappointed the Church would discipline members for a disagreement on a political issue rather than a core doctrine of the Church.
When I lived in St. Louis and there was legislation regarding expansion of riverboat gambling, the Church asked us to donate money and campaign against the legislation. One of the more prominent, active members stood up in Priesthood meeting and said he didn't like being told how to vote and he wasn't going to participate. I don't think it ever occurred to anybody that he should be disciplined for this. Maybe if we had different local leadership things would have been different, though.
I may be wrong, but I think the majority of the Quorum of the Twelve and First Presidency support an individual member's right to disagree on Proposition 8 or other similar issues. However, there are probably a lot of Bishops and Stake Presidents who feel differently.