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Show 103 pathology, or as Susan Sontag has observed, illness served as a metaphor conferring moral stigma on activities or people society disapproved of.24 Kimball also promoted missionary work and marriage as "remedies" for homosexuality. In his public statements, Kimball employed the concepts of sin and sickness with equal facility, and his "treatment" for "mental and physical sin" included constructive activity "so full of good works there is no time nor thought for evil." In 1963, Kimball addressed an assembly of . LDS psychiatrists on how the church handled transgressions among its members, especially sexual transgressions. He focused on the role of Mormon bishops because so much "personality work" depended on them, and he described their divine source of inspiration as "the Master Physician, the Master Psychiatrist, the Master Psychologist.'?" In particular, Kimball discussed the church's responsibility for helping "deviates," whom he defined as "peeping Toms, exhibitionists, homosexuals, and perverts." It was a matter of some urgency since "quite a number of men were being arrested in these ugly practices." The cases were handled by an unnamed LDS bishop and former mission president known to local police and judges, who referred many cases to him directly through a probation program. Kimball defended the bishop's credentials thus: "His methods of helping in the cures might not pass a state board of examiners, but they seem to pass well with the offenders and with the Lord for there have been numerous cures 24Susan Sontag, Illness as Metaphor (New York: Farrer, Strauss, and Giroux, 1978), passim. 25Spencer w. Kimball, "Speech Before A Group of Psychiatrists, Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints," 1963, archives, historical department, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Salt Lake City. |
