Latest Dallin H. Oaks Quotes from Interviews

Quotes about:

• It is Christ's atonement that makes it possible for us to be forgiven of our sins and His resurrection that gives us the assurance of immortality and the life to come. It is that life to come that orients our views in mortality and reinforces our determination to live the laws of God so that we can qualify for His blessings in immortality.

  Dallin H. Oaks

  Determination, Blessing, Views

  Source: www.mormonnewsroom.org

• We urge persons with same-gender attractions to control those and to refrain from acting upon them, which is a sin, just as we urge persons with heterosexual attractions to refrain from acting upon them until they have the opportunity for a marriage recognized by God as well as by the law of the land. That is the way to happiness and eternal life.

  Dallin H. Oaks

  Opportunity, Law, Land

  Source: www.mormonnewsroom.org

• If you are trying to live with and maintain ascendancy over same-gender attractions, the best way to do that is to have groups that define their members in terms other than same-gender attractions.

  Dallin H. Oaks

  Trying, Groups, Way

  Source: www.mormonnewsroom.org

• God loves all of His children. He has provided a plan for His children to enjoy the choicest blessings that He has to offer in eternity. Those choicest blessings are associated with marriage between a man and a woman by appropriate priesthood authority to bring together a family unit for creation and happiness in this life and in the life to come.

  Dallin H. Oaks

  Children, Blessing, Men

  Source: www.mormonnewsroom.org

• The 19th century Mormons, including some of my ancestors, were not eager to practice plural marriage. They followed the example of Brigham Young, who expressed his profound negative feelings when he first had this principle revealed to him. The Mormons of the 19th century who practiced plural marriage, male and female, did so because they felt it was a duty put upon them by God.

  Dallin H. Oaks

  Practice, Profound, Feelings

  Source: www.mormonnewsroom.org

• The time has come in our society when I see great wisdom and purpose in a United States Constitutional amendment declaring that marriage is between a man and a woman. There is nothing in that proposed amendment that requires a criminal prosecution or that directs the attorneys general to go out and round people up, but it declares a principle and it also creates a defensive barrier against those who would alter that traditional definition of marriage.

  Dallin H. Oaks

  Men, People, Principles

  Source: www.mormonnewsroom.org

• There are people who oppose a federal Constitutional amendment because they think that the law of family should be made by the states. I can see a legitimate argument there. I think it's mistaken, however, because the federal government, through the decisions of life-tenured federal judges, has already taken over that area.

  Dallin H. Oaks

  Taken, Thinking, Government

  Source: www.mormonnewsroom.org

• Law has at least two roles: one is to define and regulate the limits of acceptable behavior. The other is to teach principles for individuals to make individual choices.

  Dallin H. Oaks

  Law, Individual Choice, Two

  Source: www.mormonnewsroom.org

• If people want to legalize a particular relationship, we need to be careful if that kind of relationship has been disapproved for millennia.

  Dallin H. Oaks

  People, Needs, Want

  Source: www.mormonnewsroom.org

• There are certain indicia of marriage - certain legal and social consequences and certain legitimacy - which if given to some relationship other than marriage between a man and a woman tend to degrade if not destroy the institution that's been honored over so many thousands of years.

  Dallin H. Oaks

  Men, Years, Social

  Source: www.mormonnewsroom.org

• Let's not forget that for thousands of years the institution of marriage has been between a man and a woman. Until quite recently, in a limited number of countries, there has been no such thing as a marriage between persons of the same gender. Suddenly we are faced with the claim that thousands of years of human experience should be set aside because we should not discriminate in relation to the institution of marriage. When that claim is made, the burden of proving that this step will not undo the wisdom and stability of millennia of experience lies on those who would make the change.

  Dallin H. Oaks

  Country, Lying, Men

  Source: www.mormonnewsroom.org

• The coup de grace which ends the patient's life altogether is quite equivalent to the drastic modification in the institution of marriage that would be brought on by same-gender marriage.

  Dallin H. Oaks

  Grace, Would Be, Patient

  Source: www.mormonnewsroom.org

• The Parliament in Canada and the Congress in Washington do not have the authority to revoke the commandments of God, or to modify or amend them in any way.

  Dallin H. Oaks

  Canada, Way, Authority

  Source: www.mormonnewsroom.org

• We should remember that none of us is perfect and none of us has children whose behavior is entirely in accord with exactly what we would have them do in all circumstances.

  Dallin H. Oaks

  Children, Perfect, Remember

  Source: www.mormonnewsroom.org

• We feel great compassion for parents whose love and protective instincts for their challenged children have moved them to some positions that are adversary to the Church. I hope the Lord will be merciful to parents whose love for their children has caused them to get into such traps.

  Dallin H. Oaks

  Children, Compassion, Parent

  Source: www.mormonnewsroom.org

• It seems to me that a Latter-day Saint parent has a responsibility in love and gentleness to affirm the teaching of the Lord through His prophets that the course of action he is about to embark upon is sinful.

  Dallin H. Oaks

  Teaching, Responsibility, Parent

  Source: www.mormonnewsroom.org

• The Atonement of Jesus Christ is powerful enough to reach out and cleanse you if you are repentant and give up your sinful behavior, but I urge you not to embark on that path because repentance is not easy.

  Dallin H. Oaks

  Jesus, Giving Up, Powerful

  Source: www.mormonnewsroom.org

• The ultimate defining fact for all of us is that we are children of Heavenly Parents, born on this earth for a purpose, and born with a divine destiny.

  Dallin H. Oaks

  Children, Destiny, Parent

  Source: www.mormonnewsroom.org

• We have the agency to choose which characteristics will define us; those choices are not thrust upon us.

  Dallin H. Oaks

  Agency, Choices, Characteristics

  Source: www.mormonnewsroom.org

• I think it is an accurate statement to say that some people consider feelings of same-gender attraction to be the defining fact of their existence. There are also people who consider the defining fact of their existence that they are from Texas or that they were in the United States Marines. Or they are red-headed, or they are the best basketball player that ever played for such-and-such a high school. People can adopt a characteristic as the defining example of their existence and often those characteristics are physical.

  Dallin H. Oaks

  Basketball, School, Marine

  Source: www.mormonnewsroom.org

• A person with homosexual inclinations, where they're kept under control, or, if yielded to are appropriately repented of, is eligible to do anything in the Church that can be done by any member of the Church who is single.

  Dallin H. Oaks

  Church, Done, Members

  Source: www.mormonnewsroom.org

• Every teaching position, every missionary position can be held by single people. We welcome to that kind of service people who are struggling with any kind of temptation when the struggle is a good struggle and they are living so as to be appropriate teachers, or missionaries, or whatever the calling may be.

  Dallin H. Oaks

  Teacher, Struggle, Teaching

  Source: www.mormonnewsroom.org

• Life is full of physical infirmities that some might see as discriminations - total paralysis or serious mental impairment being two that are relevant to marriage. If we believe in God and believe in His mercy and His justice, it won't do to say that these are discriminations because God wouldn't discriminate. We are in no condition to judge what discrimination is. We rest on our faith in God and our utmost assurance of His mercy and His love for all of His children.

  Dallin H. Oaks

  Children, Believe, Two

  Source: www.mormonnewsroom.org

• There are people with physical disabilities that prevent them from having any hope - in some cases any actual hope and in other cases any practical hope - of marriage. The circumstance of being currently unable to marry, while tragic, is not unique.

  Dallin H. Oaks

  Unique, People, Disability

  Source: www.mormonnewsroom.org

• There is no fullness of joy in the next life without a family unit, including a husband, a wife, and posterity. Further, men are that they might have joy. In the eternal perspective, same-gender activity will only bring sorrow and grief and the loss of eternal opportunities.

  Dallin H. Oaks

  Husband, Grief, Loss

  Source: www.mormonnewsroom.org