Each human being is different, so it is inherent for different individuals to have different opinions on the same subject. Many, however, are not respectful of other people’s perspectives and tend to be judgmental. Famous singer and host Donny Osmond knows this all too well.
Donny, 63, was dubbed a teen idol back in the day. His incredible talent for music has been capturing the hearts of many ever since he was just a five-year-old boy.
He and his four brothers, who were older than him, formed the group Osmond Brothers and performed on stage. People fell for the charisma of the sweet boy and Donny’s fame only grew bigger and bigger over the years. The group earned several top ten hits and gold albums, success that Donny later achieved again as a solo artist and while performing with his sister Marie.
When he was nine, Donny felt like he was done with touring and felt homesick. He even recalls writing his mom a letter and begging her to go and bring him home while he was performing three shows a day in Sweden with his dad George. In fact, it was George who pushed his children into the music industry and believed Donny’s marriage would affect his career.
Donny spoke to The Guardian in 2017 of the time he was 20 and told his dad he would marry Debbie Glenn, saying, “When I told my dad, he said, ‘Well, there goes your career, but this is ushering in your personal life.”
Loved for his music and his appearance on shows like Dancing with the Stars and The Masked Singer, Donny is one of the most appreciated music stars.
However, it is his religion and his beliefs that caused stir among the public and many of his fans in the past. Being a Mormon, Donny took a stand on homosexuality and many got mad at him for his outdated thoughts on gay marriage.
In fact, he said how he has a lot of gay friends, among which many who are part of the Mormon church, but said how he supports the church’s position to only accept gay people who are in celibacy.
“I do support our church leaders who say that we can accept those with gay tendencies in our church as long as they do not act upon their temptations,” Donny said in 2006. “My beliefs about marriage [are] beautifully stated in The Family – A Proclamation To The World, a document published by the leaders of our church back in 1995. I am going to include it here.”
“Marriage between a man and a woman is ordained of God and… the family is central to the Creator’s plan for the eternal destiny of His children,” the church stated.
He then finished his reasoning saying, “I am not a judge, and I will never judge anyone for the decisions they make unless they are causing harm to another individual. I love my friends, including my gay friends. We are all God’s children. It is their choice, not mine, on how they conduct their lives and choose to live the commandments according to the dictates of their own conscience.”
He stated how he doesn’t condemn homosexuality but he is against gay marriage.
During an interview with Barbara Walters who believed fans would expect from her to ask Donny and his sister Marry about their view on why their church didn’t allow black people to be priests there, she said, “I have to ask you something that I know you have heard about, and if I do not ask it people will wonder why I did not. And that is, in the strength of your religion, the whole business about blacks not being allowed to be priests… Tell me how you feel about it and what the explanation of that is.”
“Well, I’m not an authority on the subject,” Donny answered. “But I will mention that we are not prejudiced people. We offer more, I think, than any other religion to the black person.”
He also said, “[Black people are] not allowed to hold priesthood right now, and I do not know why, but that’s the way the Lord wants it.”
When asked of the secondary position of the women in the Mormon Church, Marie said, “Secondary, no. But you have to remember that you need a patriarch at the head of the home, and this is the way that I feel. You need someone to run the home. The woman is equally as important but as far as speaking her mind, that should be the man’s job.” This interview took place around 40 years ago, and things have drastically changed since then.
In fact, Marie’s daughter Jessica came out as gay in 2009 and got married to her girlfriend Sara after same sex marriages were legalized and Marie took to Twitter to congratulate them on their marriage.
In 2013, Marie explained, “The God that I believe in is a god of love, not fear. I believe in [my daughter’s] civil rights, as a mother… I don’t think God made one color flower, I think he made many.”
Today, Donny and his wife are grandparents to ten grandchildren and raised their five sons as Mormons. He spoke during one occasion, while answering a fan’s question about missionary work that he deeply regretted he didn’t go on a full-time missions, but four of his sons have and his fifth is about to.
“At that time, some church leaders encouraged my brothers and me to continue to perform because we were getting a lot of attention as ‘Mormons,’ and yes, it did bring a lot of attention to the Church and may have even caused some to investigate our faith, but I still missed the personal experience of serving,” Donny explained.
Today, Donny leads a quiet life with his family and he still performs together with his sister.