Dear Brother Page,
Thank you for your understanding ways and for allowing me to visit your sweet wife recently. I was touched by your love and tenderness for her in spite of her condition. You have had a wonderful marriage and life together worthy of emulation by everyone.
We understand your desire that she hold a temple recommend, especially where the Church Handbook does not address specifically the matter of conducting a temple recommend for those with mental disabilities. However, it is clear that (1) those with mental disabilities must have "sufficient intellectual capacity to understand (the endowment) and to make and keep the associated covenants;" (Handbook 1, 3.3.3) and (2) children under the age of accountability "do not need recommends…" (3.3.5).
As I have expressed to you personally, we probably wouldn't even be addressing this issue if the request hadn't come from you. We have such love and admiration for you, including our gratitude for your service both on our stake high council as well as a coordinator in the temple, that we have a great desire to make sure we seek the Lord's guidance on this matter.
The core question is: what would it hurt for us to issue a recommend to a faithful, endowed member—such as your wife—even though she is no longer able to answer the recommend questions for herself?
As I have pondered and prayed over the subject, following a discussion with the stake presidency (with no consensus, by the way), my heart was drawn to chapter 8 in Moroni where Mormon explains to his son that infant baptism is an "evil abomination." I was further drawn to the fact that he twice called infant baptism a "mockery before God." In verse 22 Mormon adds that the Savior's redemptive power also applies "on all them that have no law."
Please know I am not suggesting what we're discussing here is a "mockery," but we must be careful not to do anything to suggest that there is a limit to the Lord's redemptive power. Your sweet Kay is not a child, but she is in a child-like state, completely out of Satan's reach. For her to hold a recommend is akin to a parent wanting their 1-year-old child to hold a temple recommend as added evidence that the child is pure and worthy to enter the Lord's presence. Can we see why Mormon was so firm in his language? The Lord's magnificent and merciful teaching on infant innocence, along with agency and accountability, is one of the sweetest of doctrines, eternal and universal, and we must be careful not to do anything that would suggest otherwise.
You were so good to assure me that you would accept my decision without complaint or appeal. Thank you again for your understanding and acceptance as I ask that we not put priesthood leaders in a position of conducting a temple recommend interview with anyone who is unable to respond with "sufficient intellectual capacity."
Faithfully yours,
President Lewis
