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Show 236 Kimball not only encouraged confession of "hidden sin," but considered its exposure inevitable: Heaven knows and nothing can be hidden .... There is recorded like a continuing television picture all the imagery which passes through your The Lord knows everything that goes on in automobiles, in bedrooms, in public restrooms, in dark comers. One cannot hide his perversion any more than Cain could hide his murder." mind .... During the church's Fall 1977 General Conference, Kimball stated that "Homosexuality is an ugly sin, but because of its prevalence, the need to warn the uninitiated, and the desire to help those who may already be involved with it, it must be brought into the open.'?" Use of surveillance and informants at BYU literally ensured that "nothing could be hidden," but church leaders did not want homosexuality within the church publicized either. Church leaders wanted gays to emerge from the shadows, but only for the sake of submitting to church counsel. However, a dialectical relationship existed between gay visibility and LDS policy. While the church cracked down on homosexuality in response to gays' increased visibility in American culture, harassing gays in private often drove them into the public sphere, generating further visibility and expanding the gay community. Church leaders faced a conundrum: unrepentant gays were a public relations problem inside or outside the church. Inside the church, they could influence others and tarnish Mormons' uncorrupted image; outside the church, they could expose the ethically questionable methods used against LDS gays. 95Kimball, New Horizons for Homosexuals, 14-15, 18. 96Spencer w. Kimball, Official Report ofthe One Hundred Forty-Seventh Semi-Annual General Conference of the Church ofJesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, October 1 and 2, 1977,5-7. |
