Toward the end of August 2016 the online journal The New Atlantis published a “special report” entitled, “Sexuality and Gender: Findings from the Biological, Psychological, and Social Sciences.” The article caused a firestorm within the LDS community. Today’s blog post presents the timeline of how The New Atlantis article has impacted our Mormon community for the worse.
Week of August 22, 2016
The New Atlantis publishes its junk science anti-LGBTQ article.
Shortly after the New Atlantis article, the blog, Mormon Women Stand (MWS), publishes a blog post entitled, “Groundbreaking Report on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Backs up the Family Proclamation and Teachings of Prophets.” The blog post applauds the junk science published in The New Atlantis.
September 6, 2016
Dr. Mikle South, Associate Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at Brigham Young University publishes an article on Rational Faiths entitled, “Mormon Women Stand…On Shaky Science,” pointing out the various problems with the New Atlantis article and the MWS blog post.
September 8, 2016
LDS therapist, Natasha Helfer Parker, writes a blog post entitled, “Atlantis Article…Are You Kidding Me?” where she also discusses the problems of the junk science in The New Atlantis article and with the MWS blog post.
September 16, 2016
Elder Dallin H. Oaks presides over a question-and-answer fireside in Frederick, MD. In this fireside, Elder Oaks cites the junk science from The New Atlantis article in order to reinforce the Church’s anti-LGBTQ teachings.
September 21, 2016
Michael Barker publishes an article on Rational Faiths entitled, “Elder Oaks Cites Bad Science…Again,” in which the many problems with Elder Oaks’ citation are pointed out.
September 26, 2016
The Baltimore Sun publishes Johns Hopkins University’s disavowal of The New Atlantis article which was co-authored by Dr. Lawrence S. Mayer, a scholar in residence at Johns Hopkins University.
October 4, 2016
Mormon Spotlight publishes an email from LDS Family Services entitled, “LDS Family Services Training Resources – September 29th, 2016.” In this email, LDS Family Services lists The New Atlantis article as a “Helpful Resource on Sexuality and Gender.”
What does this series of events tell us about the LDS Church’s leadership and general membership? Are they rejecting the scientific data and the opinions of professionals in order to maintain their doctrinal stance with regards to the LGBTQ community?
Miguel Barker-Valdez
Miguel is a Guatemalan-American Mormon living in the Northwest with his family. He is one of the proprietors of the Rational Faiths blog.
All posts by Miguel Barker-Valdez
Plain and simple. Confirmation bias. But remember we all do it (and all the time). That does not mean we point out the issue, but be a bit patient.
Sadly, what it most likely means is neither Dallin Oaks or representatives of Church Social Services read “RationalFaith” or scientific journals.
Thanks for the timeline. You might consider adding the response to the Mayer & McHugh paper by Warren Throckmorton (psychologist) and the resulting interchange with the editor of the Mayer & McHugh paper at Patheos: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/warrenthrockmorton/2016/08/23/the-new-atlantis-study-on-sexual-orientation-and-gender-identity-thats-not-a-study/ on 8/23/2016 and http://www.patheos.com/blogs/warrenthrockmorton/2016/08/27/editor-of-the-new-atlantis-responds-to-my-critique-of-the-mayer-and-mchugh-article/ on 8/27/2016.
Also, the response of Michael Bailey (psychologist) to the Mayer & McHugh paper found in the first Patheos reference above.
Additionally, of interest is the large review (which seems to take a more balanced approach than Mayer & McHugh) of the controversy surrounding the causes of homosexuality by Michael Bailey, Vasey, Diamond, Breedlove, Vilain and Epprecht in the journal of Association for Psychological Science titled, “Sexual Orientation, Controversy, and Science” Apr 25, 2016 http://psi.sagepub.com/content/17/2/45.full.pdf+html.
Good job with this post. I work in therapy here in Utah and the church has hurt a lot creating programs to “convert” gays to the “right gender”at their convenience” with their doctine. D&C 112 is manifesting. The Lord is so “angry ” with so much abuse, manipulation, from inside if the church that “He” is going to start “cleaning” from inside of His church but from the “TOP” to bottom. The media “tools” that everybody is able to use (not just a few like in the Medieval Age) is going to be used to discover all of the church (and many other churches ad well)”rubish”
Very appreciative of this timeline and links. Nothing has been more damaging to my relationship with the church than this issue–beginning with Prop 8 and continuing. It is obvious leaders still don’t get it.
And I don’t even have any close friends or family members who are gay
(that I know of). Frankly, if a religious institution has to resort to a campaign of fearmongering and lies/misrepresentations/distortions to make its case I have a hard time believing its leaders are being led by God on this issue. As with the priesthood ban, they go down the rabbit hole creating/crafting justifications for their position rather than simply saying we think it should be this way. (Of course, fearmongering is a very useful political tool).
One caveat:
Several faculty members at Johns Hopkins disavowed the Atlantis article, not Johns Hopkins as an institution.