Dear Gramps,

I have a friend who has been asked by his ex-wife to sign a permission slip to allow his 8 year-old daughter to be sealed to her mother and stepfather in a Mormon temple ceremony. Will you please tell us what exactly “sealing” is and how it effects the biological father’s parental rights both now and in the afterlife?

Pamela

Dear Pamela,

One of the distinctive beliefs of the Mormon church relates to the eternal nature of sacred ordinances. Ordinances performed under the authority of the holy priesthood are as valid in heaven as they are on earth. Baptism in the Mormon Church, for instance, is a universal requirement for all persons, who are accountable for their own actions, to enter into the celestial kingdom of God. (There are other lesser kingdoms of glory into which people may enter after mortality that do not require compliance with the laws of the gospel [see 1 Cor. 15:40-42], but that is another subject). The baptism, in order to be valid in the eyes of God, must be performed by His authorized servants who are endowed with the power of His holy priesthood.

The family was designed by God to be an eternal union of husband and wife, together with their children. In other words, the family unit, when composed according to the word of the Lord, will exist as such in the celestial (highest) kingdom of glory in the eternities–indeed, families may be forever.

For the family unit to exist as such in the afterlife, the family must be organized under the authority of the holy priesthood. The union of husband and wife for eternity is such a sacred ordinance of the gospel that it may only be performed in one of the Mormon temples that have been constructed for that purpose. In addition, for the ordinance of eternal marriage to retain its validity, both partners must live in strict accordance with all the laws and ordinances of the gospel. If one of the partners in such a marriage does not live up to the covenants of obedience to the gospel that are part of the marriage covenant, that marriage is null and void in the eternities. After this life such a marriage does not exist.

In the case you cite, apparently the husband violated the laws of the gospel, which resulted in a divorce, and possibly in the excommunication of the husband from the Mormon church. The faithful wife would have had her eternal marriage covenant annuled by the church, and would then be free to marry again for the eternities. Having remarried, she would like to have her daughter sealed to her new father and herself as birth mother in a Mormon temple ceremony. Such an act would require the permission of the birth father, whether he was in or out of the Mormon Church.

This ordinance of sealing families together is a religious rite pertaiing to the eternities only. It has nothing to do with any relationship that may exist in mortality. Earthly relationships are all handled by the laws of the land in which the person or family lives.

In the eternities, if the final mortal state is as postulated above, the recreant husband, unless he fully repents of all his sins, and marries another worthy person in the temple, would continue to exist as a single person, in his saved condition, throughout the eternities, forever denied the unspeakable blessings that accrue to those who comply with all the ordinances of the gospel and live in righteous obedience to all the related covenants associated therewith.

The daughter, having been born within the covenant of eternal marriage, remains sealed to her birth mother, and could be sealed also to her new father in a sealing ordinance in the Mormon temple. If all the family members were to live worthily during the remainder of their mortal lives, they would continue to exist as a family unit in the highest degree of glory in the celestial kingdom of God throughout all the eternities and forever.

Gramps