“We did do the nose. And the hat. But she’s a witch !”
— Monty Python and The Holy Grail
Apparently, some LDS Bishops are on a witch hunt. According to the latest Mormon Stories podcast, after not attending church for more than four years, Taylor Knuth-Bishop has been called before an LDS disciplinary council to face possible [likely] excommunication. Taylor and his husband, Sean, were among those happy couples married, on-stage, by Queen Latifa at the Grammy Awards in 2014.
Taylor lives in New York, but recently moved back to Utah for the summer in order to help plan his sister’s wedding. One night, while preparing dinner, the Bishop of the LDS ward he attended as a teenager called and asked to speak with him. Taylor was informed that they intended to hold a disciplinary council based on his “choice” to marry Sean and the “lifestyle you have chosen.”
If God really wants to remove from Church membership, those of us who no longer believe and who live “lifestyles” that irritate The Almighty, He’d best get crackin’; there are millions of us.
As much as it doesn’t make sense to me that otherwise faithful people like The September Six or Kate Kelly are excommunicated for pointing out inconvenient facts, it makes even less sense to go after people who no longer really have any interest or affiliation with the LDS Church. In fact, it seems very much like an old fashioned witch hunt – which stokes the fire, anger, hatred, and persecution complex of the still faithful and the expense of those deemed to be disposable.
According to Mormon Stories, at least two other couples have claimed that they now face disciplinary councils for the same reasons.
Taylor declined to attend his trial and, instead, sent this letter.