Utah Democrats Cheered by Church Letter
Don’t look for Utah to turn blue in the near future, but The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has cheered the hearts of Democrats in Utah and elsewhere with a letter that corrects some misconceptions. Here are some new reports. From the Deseret News:
Each political season, leaders of the LDS Church send out a letter to stake leaders encouraging members to be good citizens and participate in the political process. This year's letter reiterates that the church does not endorse any political candidate nor any political party. But the letter this year includes some language not in previous letters, a comparison with older such letters provided by the church's public information office shows.
"Principles compatible with the gospel may be found in the platforms of all major political parties. While the church does not endorse political candidates, platforms or parties, members are urged to be full participants in political, governmental and community affairs," the letter states.
Church spokesman Dale Bills said besides the letter itself, the church has no further comment.
Local Democrats — who have felt since the 1970s that local Republicans too often try to tie together their political and religious beliefs to the detriment of Democratic candidates — are saying this year's letter is a good turn of events.
"The Democratic Party, like The Church of Jesus Christ, believes there is a clear responsibility for society to care for the poor, help working families in their challenges of raising children and providing a decent income for them, and reach out to those in society who are often left out," Taylor said in a written statement.
"We hope members of the church will take this as an opportunity to find out more about the Democratic Party's principles that are closely connected with those of The Church of Jesus Christ and realize that the Democratic Party represents the same values shared by many Latter-day Saints."
From KSL:
Frank Pignanelli, Deseret Morning News: "I think this is huge. It's good news for democrats. It's good news for Utahns.
Democrats believe the statement could help remove a stigma, especially in rural Utah.
Wayne Holland, Chair, Utah Democratic Party: "The statement of the first presidency in our belief is a clear comfort to the many thousands of Utah LDS democrats. We're very encouraged that the principles of the democratic party and the teachings of the LDS faith are very consistent."
And from the Salt Lake Tribune:
…veteran political pollster Dan Jones said the statement is "very important" because it removes an anti-Democratic Party argument used by one segment of the LDS community.
"There are those who truly believe you cannot be a good Mormon and a Democrat, and I think this really dispels that notion," said Jones. "I think there are many Democrats in the Legislature and in public office at all levels that have encouraged the church to put out a statement."
Leo Brown | March 26, 2006 | Comment on This Post (1 so far) |
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Comments
October 10th, '06
Many times I've said the Mormon church should stay out of politics. It should matter no one bit to the Mormon church what the state of Utah is doing. Generally, as far as I've seen, the state stays out of Mormon church business. On the other hand the Mormon church NEVER keeps itself out of the civil matters of the state.
The Mormon church's mixture of the their church with the state is an abomination. In fact the Mormon church is so horrifically bad about mixing the church with the state that many times when a person applies for almost any kind of social services--food stamp assistance, help in paying utility bills, housing help, and the like--one of the first things done is to refer the applicant to "their" bishop. If the applicant is not LDS and therefore doesn't follow up, hence, then she or he is denied the requested help.
Oscar McConkie and his relative David McConkie of the law firm Kirton & McConkie--the Mormon church's lawyers, in other words--both are registered lobbyists of the Mormon church. This means these church lawyer/lobbyists infiltrate political matters of the state and consequently mixes the church with matters concerning the state.
Maybe I wouldn't feel so aggrieved if these Mormon church lawyers' prejudices toward non-Mormons and people like myself, an out-spoken feminist who always has bitterly complained of David McConkie specifically and his biased treatment of non-Mormons and feminists. He hates my guts because of my grievances against him mixing the church with the state which is how he enabled himself and the Mormon church to rip my son away from me in the first place.
Even aside from this personal matter it's NOT right for these Mormon church lawyers to mix the church with the state especially when it causes social services applicants to be denied services plus other denials and deprivations that result from the Mormon church's lawyers unconstitutionally mixing the church with the state. David McConkie and his fellow lawyer/lobbyist Oscar McConkie in addition to other lawyers in the law firm of the Mormon church's lawyers so routinely mix the church with the state they don't even consider they are forbidden from doing such by the United States Constitution which, I might add, IS still in force.
It doesn't matter that the Mormon church looks favorably upon Utah's Democrats because, instead of focusing on receiving favorable attention from the Mormon church, the Democrats in Utah should pay more attention to the under-handed and dirty politics of the state's Republicans. Orrin Hatch is one of the more shamefully corrupt politicians because he commits acts that border on criminal conduct for David McConkie and Kirton & McConkie in exchange for protection from the Mormon church's lawyers.
Utah's Democrats NEVER will prevail so long as corrupt politicians from the state like Orrin Hatch et al NEVER are held accountable for their wrong-doing they commit in collusion with the Mormon church's lawyers. Of course I realize I'm asking Mormons to examine their own church, herein, and look deep into their consciences to realize the dirty political realities of the Mormon church. It MUST be done, however, if the Democratic party in Utah has any kind of hopeful future.
Kathy Caudle
Salt Lake City
Posted by: Kathy | Oct 10, 2006 8:57:14 PM
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(and yes, we know that sometimes they're very, very wrong. Other times, they're right on.)
