Comments about ‘Study finds LDS politically conservative’

Nawh

While the headline on this brings a rolling of the eyes (as if we didn't all know this already), there are a few interesting tidbits in here.

I'm recalling that fifty years ago Utahn's leaned Democratic, or so I heard somewhere. I'm wondering if anyone could shed some light on Mormon political leanings historically. We all know what it is recently, and people's opinions on the issue (ranging from shallow to fanatical to insightful, and I imagine we'll see plenty of both on this thread) are aired in this forums often. I'm interested in insightful comments about the history of Utah's leanings, and thoughtful predictions about the future.

In the case of the Mormons, however, no single event pushed them in the direction of Republicanism. To the extent that 19th-century Mormons sided with any national political force, it was the Democratic Party, the party of states’ rights – of great interest to Utah Mormons trying to buck federal control. What made the Mormons Republican was simply their move toward the conservative center of American public opinion. With Eisenhower especially, the Mormons found a leader they could admire and with whom they could work. Ike himself was famously indifferent toward the particularities of religious doctrine. Moderate Republicanism was therefore the perfect conduit for bringing Mormons into the American political mainstream.
According to Jan Shipps, a renowned scholar of Mormon history, anticommunism also played an important role in making Mormons Republican–Ezra Taft Benson, the apostle who became secretary of agriculture under Eisenhower, had ties to the John Birch Society. In the 1960s, as the Democratic Party increasingly began to embrace an agenda of civil and cultural liberties, the Mormon allegiance to Republicanism was cemented further still. (from the Council on Foreign Relations)

They actually did a study to figure this out.

I think a lot of people point to Utah's non-ratification of the ERA (and the Mormon Church's involvement that) as the beginning of the shift of Mormons from Dem to Repub.

It's bizarre really because so many more of the principles of the Church are found in Democratic platforms, not Republican.

Hmmph. Who knew?

I agree with Anon @ 12:14am. My fellow Mormons don't seem to realize that the whole idea behind the law of consecration (which is where the world is headed during the Millenium) is a liberal principle. The idea that you share with everyone and the government (a theocracy btw) takes responsibility for the poor and needy clashes with everything the Republican party allegedly espouses. The whole idea of working for what you got and small government and not allowing the government to take your hard earned tax dollars and give it to the lazy person on the couch is very contrary to what the LDS Church teaches. The government that will be setup at the last day with Jesus at the head will be more intrusive and big government than anything you could possibly imagine right now.

That being said, I don't agree with the liberals and I certainly wouldn't identify myself as a Republican but I am a conservative so I guess I have some repenting to do since I can't agree with being a true conservative and the law of consecration at the same time...I got time though, no worries.

Whoa, I never knew.

I'd like to know what principles of the Church are found in Democratic Platforms:

. Abortion on demand?

. Rob from provident seniors' 401K's to give below prime mortgages to the improvident?

. Sex education and promotion of homosexuality to kindergarten children?

. Allow unions to get rid of secret ballots so they can intimidate workers?

. Ally with ACORN to intimidate voters and companies into voting for and contributing to the Democratic Party?

. Support a Marxist ex-president of Honduras, which was ousted by a democratically elected Congress and Supreme Court because he was subverting their Consitution and leading Honduras into Chavez and Castro's arms?

Please enlighten us. What are the principles of the Democratic Party which are consistent with Gospel Principles?

Logic dictates that people are to not be surprised by this. And if they are, they have never been to Utah, or near it.

Study: Ice cold.

"It's bizarre really because so many more of the principles of the Church are found in Democratic platforms, not Republican"

Huh? What are you talking about? The LDS Church teaches thrift, independence, morality, decency, family -- not abortion, abdication of responsibility, pseudo-family and related moral issues.

This isn't even close!!!

Not all of us are Republican Bushbots. I am an active LDS member who happens to be a devoted socialist and proud of it! Some of us believe in a limited liberation theology supported by the Book of Mormon.

Not this one.

Wow! Who funded that one?

I'd like to talk to them about my home in Olympus Cove.

We have Ezra Taft Benson and Reuben Clark to thank for Utah's bee-line to the right. When you're saying that you can't be "a good Mormon and Democrat too" or that "all govt welfare programs are of the devil" you're going to move people in one direction or the other. And since Mormons follow their leaders it's no surprise that the state became ultra, uber conservative after the 1960s.

To think the law of consecration will be a poltically run, not religiously run is just wrong

One of the great things about joining the LDS church is that I don't care about politics anymore.

The Mormon Church shifted to the Republicans in the 1970s and 80s after the issues of abortion and ERA became "moral" issues rather than women's rights issues.

Equal Rights Amendment obviously conflicted with the Mormon view of male dominance.

Abortion started as a gender and women's right issue, but eventually became a morality issue with regard to termination of human life.

The irony to me is that the study thinks that conservative and Republican go hand-in-hand. Yes, the party platform is conservative; no, the candidates are not held to upholding it.

The LDS church has ALWAYS been politically conservative. It's the parties that have shifted their focus over the years. But ask yourself why our tax burden is so unbelievably high in a "conservative" state. The Republicans have lost their way, if they ever had it in the first place.

Anyone who thinks that the Democratic Party has more in common with the Church, though, is seriously misguided. My guess is it stems from a complete lack of understanding of the difference between the Law of Consecration (voluntarily giving all you have to the Lord and His Church) and socialism (forced government income redistribution). God gives us choices; Satan takes them away. Of course, the Republicans are mostly socialists now anyhow.

Most of the true conservatives are found to be Republicans trying to return the party to its platform; independents; or members of the Constitution Party.

Rights come from God; you can't delegate to the government something you don't have the right to do yourself.