It has become clear to me recently that the reason rampant wickedness causes great civilizations to fall is because wicked societies allow selfish incompetents to take over the government. Then, when a crisis comes along, it gets mishandled and turns into a disaster. (Yes, the coronavirus pandemic is what helped me see this).
In the Book of Mormon, when the government was threatened by the tyranny of Amalickiah, Captain Moroni rallied the people of the church to repent and rise up to oppose the king-men. The king-men were men of wealth and influence who were corrupting the government – just as we have today.
I keep waiting to hear a warning from my Church — about an incompetent lying President, about an insidiously evil propaganda network, about corrupt enabling politicians, about the dangers of extreme inequality in our economy, about the climate catastrophe about to overtake us.
These threats are warned about in the Book of Mormon. Perhaps Church leaders are hopeful that by encouraging us to read the Book of Mormon, we will get the message and recognize the danger we are currently in as a society. I personally find the Book of Mormon very enlightening – and frightening.
But the Latter-day Saints in the United States are not getting the message. It appears that the majority of them will once again vote for Trump and the Republicans this year. Is this “strategic” blindness? innocent naivete? lazy habit? stubborn tradition? crazy fanaticism? Actually, depending on the person, it could be any of these reasons.
Lies and deception are moral issues
Complacent political behavior and voting by habit is now dangerous. Our democratic republic is being actively destroyed by corruption at the highest levels.
God has never been silent about the constant need for honesty, integrity, morality, equality, compassion, and stewardship. He has never condoned the type of lying, cheating, immorality, inequality, meanness, and negligence that we see in our government now.
These are not public policy issues. Neither are they political issues. They are moral issues – issues of personal character.
When the wicked rule the people mourn.
Doctrine and Covenants 98:9
Too many Latter-day Saints are being perniciously deceived by the lies of Fox News, Donald Trump, Mitch McConnell, Sean Hannity, and others. They need strong, clear, honest voices to help them open their eyes to reason and truth. They need help to reorient their moral compass away from hatred and resentment and toward love and compassion for all. They need to be taught to put the Gospel of Christ ahead of the politics of power and gain. They need to be encouraged to repent of their racism, sexism, materialism, anti-intellectualism, scapegoating, pride, and tribalism. They need to be told to turn off the propaganda channel and stop worshiping their false savior.
The law does not prevent churches from speaking out on political topics
People presume that the Church will not speak out publicly on political topics because it is “against the law.” It is not. The law is narrow in scope and only applies to supporting or opposing specific candidates. The law does allow clergy to talk about social and political issues, organize voter registration drives, and publish “issue guides” for voters.
The 1954 law known as the “Johnson Amendment” prohibits churches and other non-profit organizations that are exempt from taxation from speaking out for or against any political candidate or collecting money for political campaigns. Clergy are not supposed to endorse a candidate from the pulpit. The consequence is supposed to be a loss of the organization’s tax exempt status.
Yet, thousands of Evangelical Christian churches regularly defy this law with no legal consequences. In fact, since 2008, a group called the “Alliance Defending Freedom” has organized an annual “pulpit freedom Sunday” during which pastors are encouraged to defy the law by giving politically explicit sermons.
The fact is, the IRS does not enforce the Johnson Amendment. Of more than 2,000 clergy who have deliberately and publicly challenged the law since 2008, there has only been one audit and no punishment. Still, the LDS Church is not likely to disobey the law just because that law is not being enforced.
This is not the time for neutrality
On May 4, 2017, Donald Trump signed an executive order on religious liberty that, while it cannot change the existing law, specifically orders the Treasury Department to not enforce the Johnson Amendment. After the signing, the LDS Church announced they would remain politically neutral.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been and remains committed to political neutrality. Today’s executive order will not affect that longstanding policy.
Eric Hawkins, church spokesman
In both 2017 and 2018 the Republican House of Representatives voted to overrule (2017) and repeal (2018) the Johnson Amendment. Neither measure got through the Senate, but clearly many Republicans believe that Churches should have the right to be involved in politics.
Personally, I like the Johnson Amendment. I wish it was being enforced. I don’t like that churches are promoting political candidates, and I certainly don’t wish for my church to tell me who to vote for.
But the law does not, and never has, prohibited churches from addressing social and political issues. And I believe widespread moral and financial corruption, incessant lies, rampant propaganda, and legislation that harms the poor for the benefit of the super-wealthy, is destroying our country and needs to be addressed by the Church. I believe now is not the time for “political neutrality.“
The Church should never be neutral about evil. The Trump/ Republican Party/ Fox News triumvirate is indisputably a hub of evil. The Church of Jesus Christ should not remain “neutral” just because a source of evil is “political.”
I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot.
Revelation 3:15
Some inspired guidance, please
The Church does reserve the 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.
Official Statement on Political Neutrality
The LDS Church has spoken out before on issues it considered “moral issues.” What could be a greater moral issue than wholesale lies and deception? Isn’t that Satan’s primary play? And, do our scriptures not warn us about corruption and inequality? These are causing “significant community consequences” right now in plain sight.
If the Apostles can’t address these issues in General Conference, could we please at least have some arm of the Church take a public stand against the current destruction of our democracy, our economy, and our planet? Can someone please point out to the LDS voter that the conditions, people, organizations, lies, and threats that the Book of Mormon warned us about are here and active among us today?
How about some articles in the Ensign? or a few editorials in the Deseret News or on KSL? Perhaps a Carole Mikita documentary?
People are now literally dying because of who we voted for. The crisis is here. Where is the voice of warning?
And if the time comes that the voice of the people doth choose iniquity, then is the time that the judgments of God will come upon you; yea, then is the time he will visit you with great destruction even as he has hitherto visited this land.
Mosiah 29:27
Photo Note: The 12 foot, 5 inch statue of the Angel Moroni atop the Salt Lake Temple lost his trumpet during the 5.7 magnitude earthquake in the Salt Lake Valley on March 18, 2020.
I selected this photo because I thought it was a good metaphor for this blog post about what I feel is a missing “voice of warning.” It was only later that I realized the pun in “Moroni drops Trump!”
Sources: Fintan O’Toole, “Donald Trump has destroyed the country he promised to make great again,” originally published in The Irish Times, April 25, 2020.
Tom Gjelten, “The Johnson Amendment In 5 Questions And Answers,” NPR, February 23, 2017.
NPR Staff, “Annotated: Trump’s Executive Order on Religious Liberty,” NPR, May 4, 2017.
Genelle Pugmire, “LDS Church Responds to President Trump’s religious liberty executive order,” Daily Herald, May 4, 2017.
Brian Faler and Aaron Lorenzo, “House votes to prevent IRS from punishing churches engaging in politics,” Politico, July 19, 2018.
Well said, you’ve articulated many of the same questions I’ve had.
Hear! Hear! The Church has publicly encouraged us to take a stand against many things…things that have hurt people who are not actively living the Gospel of Jesus Christ…and yet…one of the most abhorrently evil administrations I have witnessed in my 70 years on earth…they say nothing…..I wonder why every day. SAD
It would be nice. Though, I prefer institutional silence on the topic to allowing any LDS advocacy of Trump from the pulpit. And in saying “silence” I remember the line from A Man for All Seasons, in which Thomas Moore tried to save his own neck for a time, by saying “silence gives consent”, which in the case of this administration and its chronic moral bankruptcy, open corruption, trampling on Christian principles, and dangerous incompetence, is a problem. In the meantime, we as LDS have minds that can read the scriptures for ourselves, and we can see the difference in what they recommend and what Trumpism embodies. For instance, we have seen Trump act to cover his sins (payments to cover affairs as well as obstruction during investigations, and firing inspector generals, etc), gratify his pride (rallies, tweets, boasting, making every public occasion about him, even when is it supposed to be about someone else), vain ambition (lying about crowd size), to exercise control or dominion or compulsion in any degree of unrighteousness (caging children, refusing to show charity, cultivating Nazis and white supremicists). That we see daily. And no demonstration persuasion, long-suffering, gentleness, meekness, love unfeigned, pure knowledge, which shall greatly enlarge the soul, without hypocrisy, and without guile, and after reproving when guided by the Holy Ghost, showing an increase of love, lest he esteem thee to be an enemy. We can talk about those leadership values, and talk about charity, and a willingness to suffer long, be kind, not puffed up, not seeking one’s own, not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, rejoiceth not in iniquity, but in truth. It couldn’t be more obvious. Hence the need for self pity, and accusing everyone else, and scapegoating failures. And we can at least speak when and where we can and tie our criticism to our most profound values.
The Church has abandoned us.
The problem is that the church is a world organization with members living under many different political systems. If the church started judging these political systems, we wouldn’t have members in countries that don’t live up to Christ’s standards. The church was able to build a temple in Communist East Germany because the government knew that the church and it’s leaders could be trusted to live with their restrictions. A temple was announced for China. Who would have thought that could ever happen. There have been times when the church has withdrawn from countries and the local members have had to worship and lived under trying experiences. The church and it’s leaders are not afraid of any world leader. They are following instructions from the Lord. These are His decisions.
So here’s where we are. Many of us will die of coronavirus because the demonic fool we have in the WH. Our leaders have offered no guidance. I may well die of this plague. What will I find on the other side? I’m not sure at all.
Has the church ever taken a stand on a president of the United States since candidate Joseph Smith? It seems that they will take a stand on issues, but not personalities. Are there other examples?
From Kiwi Mormon: ” And the stark and terrible reality is, there’s nothing there. Trump and his cult followers have transformed the already disturbed cultural currency of America into an ocean of vapid, stabbing and dangerous meaninglessness. Language in this climate of swirling egos, flashing neon signs, and endless Fox News has been emptied of substance. The political debate is not about real lives and their value now, it’s between tangled false representations of reality.
And this rabid crowd of intellectually dulled frothers arriving in their Walmart tacticals (as my friend Brad so wryly noted) at the Salt Lake government buildings to protest efforts stop the spread of a deadly disease, is the pinnacle of all that is unsightly, untruthful and unGodly about America under Trump.
And, I really wish I could say that Mormons weren’t part of this reign of dangerous lunacy.”
We are witness to the collapse of the American system as we have known it. Destruction,. destruction even to riots in the streets. Salt Lake City will cease to be a stable base for Church HQ. What this means for us remains uncertain. I am at the end of my life, so I don’t much care for it, but I leave children and GRANDCHILDREN behind. What can I do for them. I hope I can do some things through the Socialist Party – USA.
The events unfolding are fulfillment of prophesy of Jesus Christ as well as prophets of old. The Book of Mormon, particularly words spoken by Jesus in 3 Nephi, is clearly a warning that the Gentile nations, in particular those living in the “chosen land,” would find themselves destroyed and swept off the continent because we ripen for destruction by choosing to embrace the rule of Gadianton robbers as they infiltrate the government at all levels and breadth and most of our citizens prefer pursuing and condoning “getting gain” at any cost, even lives. What’s more important? The economy or the caring for the weakest among us? We, as a nation, have soundly chosen Babylon, the great and spacious building and embrace the teachings of the father of lies who ever whispers falsities that we ought to rely only upon the arm of flesh and we are not are brothers’ keepers. One truly cannot love/worship God and mammon at the same time. The destruction
of the Gentile nations runs parallel to the awakening and rise of the tribes of Israel. And just like Jehovah turned from the Jews to the Gentiles, we are at a time where he will turn from the Gentiles to the Jews. The first will be last and the last will be first. These things were foretold by many, even the Savior himself. Make no mistake, Isaiah warned of this particular day of pandemic and the accompanying deceit by expressing what the prevailing thought of the proud and unrepentant would be : “We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves…” And just like ancient Israel who had only to gaze upon the brass serpent lifted on a pole in order to be saved, the “drunkards of Ephraim” (Isaiah 28) mixed with the blood of the Gentiles (branches of the tamed olive tree grafted into the wild olive tree) will bear strange fruit and will refuse to do something as easy as social distancing and wearing a mask and will embrace lies that refuse to accept such simple preventions and prefer the lies that refusing such simple remedies is the epitome of “freedom” and the exercise of refusal is a demonstration of patriotism. And indeed, there is truth embedded in those lies. We truly ARE given the ability to choose liberty or captivity, life or death, truth or lies. We were amply warned that in the last days the very elect will be deceived. And many will choose the great and spacious building, Babylon the great, over holding to the rod, sticking to the straight and narrow path which results in love of truth and charity and empathy for all mankind, and building of Zion where there are no poor (spiritually or temporally) among us. As always, we find safety in the arms of the Savior’s embrace, remembering that the creator of heaven and earth is indeed still in control and COVID-19 a part of a greater plan to sift the tares from the wheat.
You have not answered the question: why is there no Church response to Trump corruption?
Is there some understanding between the Church and Trump we don’t know about?
I think what you’re asking is essentially something akin to, “Why doesn’t the Church apply the principles they teach to what’s going on right now, rather than just teaching the principles?”
It’s easy to apply Church teachings to corrupt warmongering thieving liberty-hating lying politicians.
However, many Church members fall for politicians of this sort from one major party or the other, and somehow rationalize in their minds that whoever they support is good and who God wants them to support.
The Church then is not in the business of pointing out to the Church members who are caught up in the cult of statism what their true status is. But allows those who will, to eventually conclude that they need to stop supporting sociopaths who lust for power over others and whose entire existence is dependent upon lies.
Statism for many Church members clearly outweighs their adherence to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and it basically doesn’t do much good to tell cult members what their problem is, and that those they trust are evil and fraudulent through and through.
The better path is what the Church is taking. Teach true principles, and let people slowly figure it out themselves if they are willing and capable.
Of course, some end up choosing their other religion, the cult of statism, over the Church and leave because they think the Church is out of line. It’s quite sad.