Testimony of a twelve-year-old girl Savannah

In the past week, numerous newspapers, online sites and other media have reported on a video of a twelve-year-old girl who speaks and gives her testimony in a Mormon meeting. She says she is lesbian, that she does not believe God made a mistake but then she is suddenly asked to sit down.

Certainly here in Europe this causes a lot of consternation. I admit that the video also hurts me. Pain as a Mormon to see how this puts my faith and my church in a bad light, but also to see how a young girl is searching for herself and, like so many young people, feels the pain of a growing teenager.

That's why I want to provide some background information, because I find that it is presented quite succinctly and unilaterally in the media.

Fast and testimony meeting

Our church is a lay church. There is no paid clergy. Everyone contributes by fulfilling tasks for which he or she is called. Rarely, if ever, does anyone receive professional training for this. The local leaders are therefore just people like you and me, who fulfill their calling with great love alongside their normal daily work. They naturally make mistakes in doing so, but they do want the best for everyone.

Every Sunday, Mormons gather to partake of the sacrament. During such a sacrament meeting, usually a few people speak to give a talk. They are invited to do so by the local leaders and are usually given a topic. The themes are usually chosen by the entire ward council, again a body consisting of volunteers each with their own task.

These themes of the speeches often revolve around gospel topics, doctrine, the scriptures, etc... In our handbook, the following is stated about the Sunday service:

Every sacrament meeting is a spiritual experience in which church members renew their covenants by partaking of the sacrament. The other objectives of the sacrament meeting are: worship, gospel instruction, performance of ordinances, handling of ward business, and strengthening of faith and testimony.

Every first Sunday of the month is a special Sunday for Mormons. Then we fast and with the money we save, we support various charities. On that Sunday, we do not have a normal meeting, but a fast and testimony meeting. The special thing about it is that everyone is invited to briefly and powerfully share their testimony, if they wish.

A testimony is a typical mormon lingo: it has nothing to do with a lawsuit but everything with the fact that Christ said that where two or three people testify, it will be accepted as truth. A Mormon testimony is then typically something like “I know this church is the true church” or “I know that Christ died and rose for us”.

Many members supplement their testimony with a spiritual event that has strengthened their testimony. It is never intended for this to be lengthy and certainly not speeches. Some members consider it an opportunity to give a lengthy account of something, but if it becomes too long or too little like a testimony, someone in charge will dare to interrupt or even stop it (please remember that).

The church's stance on homosexuality

We now know that Savannah's mother considers herself an ex-Mormon. She stopped being an active member of the church because she disagrees with the Mormon stance on homosexuality.

This always remains very difficult and we are often attacked for it, but The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is very clear:

• feeling attracted to the same sex is  no sin. I repeat: the Mormon stance is that being gay or lesbian is not a sin (it is not even a choice).
• sex, according to God's commandment, only belongs within a marriage of man and woman, therefore:
  • no pornography
  • no masturbation
  • no premarital sex
  • or outside of marriage

The Mormon church in Utah has even actively lobbied for laws to be passed that protect LGBT people in areas including housing and employment.

But that does not change the fact that the doctrine remains: sex only in a marriage between a man and a woman. Consequently, children can only be in a family with a mother and a father.

Savannah's speech

Through her mother, we know that Savannah is currently struggling with her sexual orientation. That is her right. How many teenagers would not be struggling with that in our over-sexualized world today. Growing up, young people are practically forced to make a choice in the sexual offerings. While actually everyone says it's not a choice. You are simply gay or lesbian, you don't choose that (mostly, I think).

Savannah has only been going to church occasionally for a while now. Yet she wanted to give this speech herself and invited many friends. I am a bit surprised by this. Twelve-year-olds usually don't immediately feel the need to be in the spotlight with their problems, let alone such intimate problems. It is more often adults who want to take a stand. I wonder to what extent Savannah is not a victim of a mother with a strong opinion.

Also noteworthy: one of the invited friends is someone involved with  MormonLeaks and who enjoys entering temples and filming what is not meant to be filmed.

Also, during our Sunday meetings, nothing is photographed or recorded. Not that it's a secret, because everyone is welcome. But religion is something very personal, something very vulnerable. You don't want to just throw that away. During such a meeting, as a member of the church, you want to feel safe, among like-minded people. You don't want to be exposed to a camera and the rest of the world. I therefore find it logical that the rule is that no filming or demonstrating takes place during a church meeting.

Additional striking fact: a friend of the house declared on Reddit that he edited the film for 40 hours [footnote]“I offered to edit and distribute the video as well as promote the hell out of it. I’ve spent at least 40 hours in the past ten days editing and promoting the video to every media contact I’ve made (and a lot of new ones).”[/footnote]. Excuse me, 40 hours? For such a short film? What was cut and pasted together to maximize the effect?

If we listen to what Savannah has to say, we must conclude that her first sentences still fit perfectly within a testimony, including the mention of her sexual orientation. Only in the next part does she start to engage in “politics.” She states that she can be perfectly lesbian and still have everything she wants: living with someone she loves, children, … She even says:

I believe God would tell me if I were wrong in this

Well, that is actually what we as Latter-day Saints believe. That God speaks to us through His prophets. Prophets who have declared that someone like Savannah is indeed not a terrible sinner, but who have also repeatedly declared that marriage can only exist between a man and a woman. Just read: “The Family: A Proclamation to the World”.

So what really happened?

So we have a young girl who, with her testimony, is essentially saying that she does not believe in the guidelines that God has given us. With that, she calls for (a part of) the doctrine to be set aside. In such a case, every leader on the pulpit intervenes and asks her to stop.

You also see that it is not a harsh reaction. The leader involved himself still stands and confirms what Savannah said: that God loves all His children. There was no harsh language, no condemnation. You only see a leader who rightly felt that things were going wrong, because he also noticed that many people in the hall were behaving as if at a demonstration. People who are otherwise never in that church and who also disappeared immediately after the recording.

You also don't see that the leader later had another conversation with Savannah and her mother, in which he probably offered to help and once again emphasized that Savannah would always be welcome. You don't see that many people there thought what I also thought: 'Child, we will support you, you are still young, you might be going through a difficult phase and might change your mind, but either way, we love you'.

So what do we see? A staged act. If this were an adult, I would say I've already seen it myself. Someone no longer agrees with God's guidelines and decides to leave the church, and on the way out, tries to justify themselves and convince others of their viewpoint.

What I see is a young girl who should have the right to have intimacy and a little privacy with the problems she is struggling with. She was absolutely right that none of us are born perfect. We all have our problems that we are struggling with. Only she can judge how big her problem is. So what I see is a hurt girl who will now have an even harder time finding her own way because so many others had to get involved. And what I still see is a church leader who had to make the choice in these difficult circumstances what was best to protect everyone, Savannah and the other sheep in his church.