What Would Jesus's Church Do?

Two days ago news broke that two prominent Mormon church activists were facing excommunication: Kate Kelly for her roll in founding the Ordain Women movement that has drawn attention to gender inequality with their peaceful protests during General Conference, and John Dehlin, founder of Mormon Stories, for speaking out on issues facing the LGBT community.  This news has quickly gone viral in several online communities.  Dehlin posted the following quote on Facebook from Mormon founder, Joseph Smith.

"I did not like the old man being called up for erring in doctrine. It looks too much like the Methodist, and not like the Latter-day Saints. Methodists have creeds which a man must believe or be asked out of their church. I want the liberty of thinking and believing as I please. It feels so good not to be trammeled. It does not prove that a man is not a good man because he errs in doctrine."
-- Joseph Smith, History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints, ed. B. H. Roberts, 2nd ed. rev. (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1957), 5:340.

In taking these actions, not only is the Mormon church at odds with its founder, but it is also at odds with Jesus himself who was far more inclusive in who he invited to be part of his movement than the modern Mormon church.  In standing up for equal treatment of women and inclusion of the LGTB community Kelly and Dehlin are being called to task for behaving in a more Christlike way than the church itself.

Thirty-six years after the church belatedly revoked their racist priesthood policy by extending the priesthood to men of African descent they once again find themselves on the wrong side of history.  Recently the church published this essay as one in a series to explain controversial or difficult issues.  The essay admits that denying the priesthood to those of African descent was not doctrine, but due to the racist climate that prevailed when the policy went into effect.  Once again the church has a chance to be proactive in extending equal rights more broadly, but once again they are failing and will have to be reactive when their current policies are no longer tolerable in the society at large.

Old Testaments prophets frequently spoke hard truths to those in power.  As the moral voice of the people they put themselves at great risk to speak up for what they believed to be right regardless of the consequences.  In taking a stand, Kelly and Dehlin are behaving more like prophets than are the leaders of the church, who claim to be prophets.  The behavior of church leaders has been both immoral and cowardly.  Immoral because they are seeking to punish people for advocating for the disenfranchised, and cowardly for not addressing the issues openly and directly themselves.