Mormon Republican Arizona Senator Jeff Flake has written a $100 dollar check to the campaign of Democrat Doug Jones in his race against Republican sexual predator Roy Moore for the open Alabama Senate seat. In the “For” line on the check Flake wrote “Country over Party.” Mormon Republican Mitt Romney has tweeted “Roy Moore in the US Senate would be a stain on the GOP and on the nation. … no majority is worth losing our honor, our integrity.”
On the other hand, Donald Trump and the Republican National Committee have both, after initially backing away from Roy Moore (Trump endorsed his Primary opponent and the RNC had withdrawn their financial support) are now fully supporting Moore’s campaign.
We’ve seen this before. Legion are the number of Republicans who opposed the Presidential candidacy of serial adulterer, con artist, sexual predator, and malignant narcissist, Donald J. Trump, before they traded in their morals for political expediency and began to support him.
Romney’s moral consistency is hard to determine. He first referred to Trump as “a con man, a phony, a fraud” in March of 2016, but if Trump had actually offered him the job of Secretary of State, Romney’s wife, Ann, said (“Today Show,” March 27, 2017) that he would have accepted it. Flake’s stance against Moore, and his recent criticisms of Trump, are honorable, but his position is weakened by the fact that he has decided not to run for re-election.
One person who has clearly put party over morality is Mormon Republican Utah Senator Orrin Hatch. He has made excuses for Moore (“Many of the things he allegedly did were decades ago.”) and defends Trump’s endorsement of Moore (“That’s the only Republican we can get down there.”). This is in contrast with the principled moral choice made by conservative columnist George Will who, just prior to the 2017 Republican National Convention (which nominated Trump), announced that he had changed his voter registration from Republican to unaffiliated. He said, “This is not my party.”
LDS scripture describes this situation. When a society begins to decay, the righteous send out missionaries to call them to repentance. Sometimes the people turn away from evil and the crisis is averted. Sometimes, however, the society becomes so corrupt that the righteous have no choice but to leave. This happened to Enoch’s people and to Lehi’s family. Joseph and Mary took their new baby to Egypt for a number of years. The Mormon pioneers left the United States just prior to the bloody and devastating War Between the States.
The five Mormon Republican Senators have failed as missionaries of morality to the US Congress. Indeed, except for Jeff Flake, they all seem to have adopted Hatch’s politically flexible version of morality. If the leading Mormon Republicans have surrendered to the loss of values, there is little chance the Republican party will change direction.
Politics is messy and politicians are always vulnerable to corruption, but given the increasing Republican embrace of depravity, isn’t it time for Mormons to abandon the party?
I have found the muted response to Trump in Utah by the Republican Party, by the Deseret News, even by the Church to be confusing and dismaying. I have concluded that many in Mormondom are afraid of Donald Trump, or like what he might do for them despite his flaws. Regardless, I am depressed beyond measure. I am also scared stiff, because I believe the Trump dictatorship is abuilding.
As a non Mormon who grew up and still lives in Utah now over fifty years and does not surprise me of the muted response from Utah Republican Mormon politicians.
Jesus warned in the Bible that God and money do not mix.
Most, if not all of the Mormon church hierarchy are business owners and thus attracted to politicians who can enhance their personal bank accounts.
To assure the church leaders have ” friends ” in political office they subtly let it be known to followers of the faith ” good ” Mormons support the Republican party.
I have spoken to many Mormon faithful who assumed I was LDS and spoke openly of this and the fear they face of retribution, including being shunned, job loss if it’s a LDS owned business they work for and more importantly, loss of family if they defy church leaders edicts.
Until the LDS church rids itself of businessmen running the faith nothing will change and corruption will continue to grow within it’s church members ranks.