Facebook group supports Elder Packer

Excerpts of Facebook campaign supports Mormon leader's speech, By JENNIFER DOBNER (AP)
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A Facebook campaign launched in support of a Mormon church leader's sermon on same-sex relationships has drawn more than 4,500 responses.

The "I support Boyd K. Packer" page was started Oct. 5.

In the speech, he said: "Some suppose that they were born pre-set and cannot overcome what they feel are inborn tendencies toward the impure and unnatural. Not so! Why would our Heavenly Father do that to anyone? Remember he is our father."

On the website, the word "temptations" has replaced "tendencies" and the question about God's motives has been removed entirely.

National gay rights activists, including the Human Rights Campaign, have denounced the speech as factually inaccurate and dangerous, and have called on Packer to recant his remarks.

A poster from the United Kingdom said those who speak at conferences "say the things we, as a Church, and the world as well, need to hear. They speak the words that Jesus Christ Himself would say, if He were here."

The HRC has said it will deliver more than 150,000 letters to the Mormon church's downtown Salt Lake City office building Tuesday.

A second Facebook site started by a group described as LDS Young Men and Women seeks to counter the HRC effort with its own "We Love You President Boyd K. Packer" campaign. The page calls for Mormon youth to send 100,000 letters of support to Packer by Friday.

"... simply tell him how much we love him and sustain him as a prophet, seer, and revelator," the site organizers wrote. More than 6,800 people had signed on as fans by Monday afternoon.