“Stick to the Weather:” The Memo I Never Got

I have heard that in order to avoid discord, there are two topics that should not be discussed among friends. The first is religion (we have long since broken that rule with this blog). The second topic is politics. Even worse than these two topics individually is that scary world where the two seem to collide. Since I am feeling particularly daring, for the next couple of weeks, I want to test these dangerous waters.

Most of you by now are familiar with my religious persuasion. I feel it might be useful to briefly address my political beliefs as well as I begin this post. I am a moderate (I’m a real one, I swear, not one of those people who says it to try and sound smart). I have never been registered as favoring any political party, and believe that the middle-ground viewpoint on any given issue tends to reflect the most effective solution to any given social problem. I believe that democracy is the best form of government we currently have at our disposal, but that there is no “one-size-fits-all” form of democratic government that can be applied universally. Ultimately, I believe that the real power behind any government is the level of civic participation in the democratic process.

Now to add religion: Essential to democracy is the freedom for people to worship as they see fit. If that means no religious worship whatsoever, then people have that right as well. Government policies can reflect the moral viewpoints of their constituents, but should not be justified solely on the religious beliefs of politicians or others. To preserve true religious freedom, a secular government is a necessity. Any government based on a singular religious viewpoint is setting themselves up for hypocrisy.

In the United States, the most contested social issues are often influenced by religious beliefs. Politicians are expected to state their viewpoints on these issues when running for office. Unfortunately, these issues have become very polarized for many, and are most easily digested in a simple, black-and-white format. This further obscures these issues and leads to political and religious discord. Many contest that on certain issues, there are only two opposing viewpoints. These viewpoints are often interpreted as the “religious” viewpoint and the “non-religious” viewpoint.

In Mormonism, religion seems to have an enormous impact on politics. Mormons tend to be very cohesive, and over the past few decades, this cohesion has somehow fixated for many on the Republican Party in the United States. Utah is consistently the most “Republican” state in terms of national voting, and it seems as if this may be a growing trend. This has occurred despite the fact that church leaders have consistently stated a neutral viewpoint concerning parties and candidates. Though many tend to associate Mormonism closely with the Republican Party, there are many Mormon politicians who hold prominent positions within the Democratic Party. This includes current Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid from Nevada, who holds the highest political rank that any Mormon has ever held in the legislative branch.

Notwithstanding their stated neutrality concerning party politics, church leaders do encourage their members to actively engage in the civic process. They also “reserve their right as an institution to address, in a nonpartisan way, issues that it believes have significant community or moral consequences or that directly affect the interests of the Church” (LDS Newsroom). These cases often becomes the high-points of political controversy, both when church leaders do speak out on certain issues, or when they do not speak out on others. The instances of when the Church has taken an official stance on an issue are very few, but when they do happen, they stir up quite a bit of discussion. Over the new few weeks, I hope to look at a few of these cases. This week, please begin discussing these issues that you find most interesting. To prepare you, I will tell you that for sure we will address abortion and the Proposition 8 (definition of marriage) amendment in California.