On divorce...

[Tex]

Originally Posted by ute4ever

It seems as though Richard Dutcher isn't the only one with an ego as large as Delicate Arch. Has it ever crossed your mind that maybe, just maybe, you don't have an all-encompassing knowledge of every last policy in the church, past and present?

It crossed my mind once. Back in Primary, I think.

Originally Posted by MikeWaters

Administration in the church is codified in the handbooks. One of the books is for public consumption. The other isn't. (someone correct me if I'm wrong).

No, not wrong, but there's no prohibition against a bishopric member showing you a section you're curious about.

Originally Posted by MikeWaters

I've not looked in the private handbook (I'm not invited to). However, it strikes me as unlikely that what Ute4ever has described is actually in that handbook.

Given that his stake president said what he said, I think we could consider a couple of possibilities:
1. It is the stake president's opinion.
2. (the more likely possibility)--that he was instructed to do these things from a traveling/regional general authority in one of the leadership meetings. It's a kind of "off-the-books" administration. Which is likely regional in nature to the extent that the purveyors of it are communicating it to stake presidents and bishops. When the church leadership wants uniformity and a clear understanding about something not in the admin manuals, they send out First Presidency letters to those leaders.

Possibly, although the idea a priesthood leader would automatically presume guilt and "yank" a recommend on no other detail than the fact of a separation seems highly unlikely to even be a regional verbal directive.

I also find the morality "scale" implausible. There are reasons to proceed deliberately in granting a sealing cancellation/clearance (for example, the impact it will have on children of the former union), but I don't view it as strictly a moral issue, and I doubt the GAs do either.

[ute4ever]

Originally Posted by Tex

I don't view it as strictly a moral issue, and I doubt the GAs do either.

Nice pedestal you place yourself on.