Mormons are Republicans. OK, not everyone, but a lot of them. Especially the ones in the US West. This bothers me, not on the face of it, but because I’ve seen and heard so much from some of these members that suggests they have not fully considered the many relationships between this (or any) political ideology and the doctrine of the LDS church. I’m going to rant for a moment about one of these relationships.
Much has been made by liberals of the Right’s (and Americans’) apparently endless tolerance for violence in media juxtaposed with their moral indignation at representations of (certain kinds of) sex. For me, this was brought poignantly home when Mel Gibson’s “The Patriot” was the subject of questionably valid rumors that this or that general authority recommended members selectively lifting their “R-rated movie bans” to see it, because it was so patriotic–despite the horrific and occasionally senseless violence it portrayed.
Violence is a problem for me. I like a WWII gunfest or an explosion-riddled cop drama as much as the next guy, but I don’t convince myself that this enjoyment reflects well on the state of my soul. I also respond to scantily-clad ladies dancing on poles in videos, so I am aware that I am a flawed individual.
Money is a problem for me. Well, I wish I had more–that’s one problem. Another problem is the verbal and rhetorical contortions and gymnastics practiced by members of the church whenever anyone quotes one of the many, many passages of scripture warning about the dangers of wealth or condemning the love of money. If you have to work that hard to convince yourself that Jesus wasn’t really saying wealth is spiritually dangerous, then perhaps you need to reconsider your relationship to the words of Jesus. Nobody applies this level of forced analysis to the (arguably not-so-obvious-as-they-seem) scriptures apparently condemning homosexual behavior.
So yeah, about that homosexuality. How many times is it mentioned in all of the scriptures? Maybe half a dozen? And some of them are ambiguous, like the BoM reference to the “sin of Sodom,” which–according to our own prophets–is not limited to homosexuality, but refers to all immoral (even, potentially, nonsexually immoral) behavior. So you’ve got a handful of condemnations of homosexuality compared to….
…at least sixty condemnations or negative references to violence. One of these is in the Pearl of Great Price, when God Himself tells Enoch that the main reason for the flood that killed so many of His children was the proliferation of violence on the earth.
…139 hits for “oppression” (and variants). Nearly 150 hits for “justice.” Over 300 hits for “poor.” Over 200 for “money”–some of those will be neutral references, but guess how many are saying how awesome owning money is versus condemning or warning against this. The much more morally loaded terms “lucre,” “wealth,” and “rich” (and variants) give over 350 hits, the vast majority of which criticize, warn against, or actively condemn the substances and states referred to by the terms.
So when I see Republicans talking about “economic freedom,” and then look to see what they really mean; or railing against regulation of the financial industry–an industry based on playing with money to make more money–or, even more horrifyingly, Republicans actually opposing legislation that would ban “gifts” by lobbyists to lawmakers; I sometimes can’t believe what I’m reading. Aren’t many of these Republicans, at least nominally, Christians? Don’t they read the same Bible I do? What do they think these lobbyist “gifts” are? This is, as clearly as anything in history ever was, pure corruption: providing material goods or services to someone in power in order to influence that person’s judgments affecting his or her sphere of stewardship. And then I go to church and hear members casually mentioning that they don’t understand how any “thinking member of the church” can fail to be Republican.
Just in case my point isn’t poignant enough, we all know that our wars in the Middle East have turned into things much more reminiscent of the Mekong Delta than of the South Pacific. We all know there were no WMDs in Iraq, so we invaded a sovereign nation that posed no direct threat to us. The list of our wars of aggression is horrifyingly long. We claim our soldiers are “Fighting for our freedom,” while perhaps failing to ask ourselves how, exactly, our freedom is threatened by Taliban operatives in Afghanistan, and whether we will ever not be at war.
How many times do you think “war” is referenced in the scriptures? How many of those mentions are an endorsement of war?
Finally, I see recent reports that the US essentially floods the world with weapons. We sell to our allies, but also to our enemies, and certainly to people who are up to no good. I don’t dispute the many good things the US has done and represents; but I dispute the mindless practice of ignoring our concurrent and deep involvement in a great many explicitly anti-Christian activities. And I have a hard time understanding how members of the LDS church can ignore these things when they vote.
A vote for the “lesser of the evils” is one thing, and I respect that approach. Mindless devotion to an ideology in denial of its abhorrent elements is another, and I can’t respect that.