Introduction
With the close of the primaries on Tuesday, June 3, and the concession of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton on Saturday, June 7, Senator Barack Obama has become the presumptive Democratic Party nominee for the office of President of the United States. The purpose of this blog is to explore some issues related to Senator Obama’s candidacy, specifically from the point of view of the Latter-day Saints, known popularly as ‘the Mormons.’
In my opinion, Senator Obama is clearly the preferable candidate for President, compared to the now-presumptive Republican nominee, Senator John McCain. There are many websites and other resources to consult in comparing the two candidates in terms of the usual issues (such as the economy, the war in Iraq, and so on). However, there are relatively few places that consider Senator Obama’s candidacy from the LDS viewpoint—and there are certainly issues raised for Latter-day Saints by Obama’s candidacy, both from the position of LDS history and the LDS faith itself. It is my intent here to consider those issues thoroughly in the blog format, inviting and responding to comment from readers.
This blog is not sponsored or endorsed or ‘vetted’ by any organization or group, including the Obama campaign, any other political organization, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or any independent LDS-oriented group. This is the viewpoint of one Latter-day Saint, who happens to be somewhat well-versed in LDS history and doctrine.
There are other blogs that address these issues, most notably the “Mormons for Obama” page on Sen. Obama’s website (http://my.barackobama.com/page/group/MormonsforObama). However, there is an obvious advantage to publishing an independent point of view, hence this blog.
Who I Am
I choose not to disclose my personal identity as the author of this blog, for personal reasons. (There are some careers that preclude taking a partisan political stand in a presidential election). I also desire to focus less on personality and more on substance in political discourse. For this reason, I shall not respond to questions about my personal life, or inquiries that essentially hunt clues to my identity. I do have an e-mail account (mormons4obamablog@yahoo.com) for readers who must contact me off-line--on any topic other than my identity.
Suffice it to say that I am an active, temple-attending Latter-day Saint (i.e., a member of the 13+ million-member church, headquartered across the plaza from Temple Square in Salt Lake City, Utah).
Forthcoming Topics, and an Invitation
I plan to address the following topics in future blog posts. Please feel free to let me know which of these, if any, is especially interesting for you; in addition, please let me know what other topics you would like to see me address. Some forthcoming topics:
- “Obama wants to end the war in Iraq soon. As faithful Latter-day Saints who obey the law and cherish America, aren’t we supposed to support our troops?”
- “The Latter-day Saints, at least in Utah, have voted Republican for over half a century, partly for reasons of fiscal policy. How can Latter-day Saints vote for a tax-and-spend Democrat now?”
- “How about the oft-quoted comment by a now-deceased LDS General Authority, to the effect that no Latter-day Saint could, in good conscience, be a Democrat?”
- “The Democratic Party supports abortion rights, while the Republican Party favors greater legal restrictions on abortion. How can Latter-day Saints vote for a Democratic candidate, rather than a Republican one?”
- “The Democratic Party supports gay rights, while the Republican Party does not. How can Latter-day Saints vote for a Democratic candidate, rather than a Republican one?”
- School prayer.
- The teaching in schools of evolution versus creationism or intelligent design.
As you can see, I do not plan to duck any controversial issues here. My own analysis of the situation is that, on each of these issues, Obama’s stance is not only defensible, but is preferable to the stance of McCain—from the viewpoint of the LDS gospel.
I plan to make a major posting to this site once or twice a week, addressing some major topic like those above. I shall probably respond to comments more frequently. In addition to postings on major topics, I may also make postings regarding other blogs addressing these issues. Please join in the discussion.
Some Ground Rules
Readers are welcome to state their disagreement with me (or, for that matter, their agreement) in the most vigorous terms. However, I shall not tolerate the following:
- Profanity—not even the mild stuff. It is unnecessary, and I shall delete comments with profanity.
- Personal attacks. Disagree all you want with the idea that someone states on this blog (either me, or some person submitting a comment). Say something nasty about that someone (particularly some person submitting a comment), and I shall delete your comment immediately.
Make it a point to focus on the ideas, not the persons sharing them.
I look forward to discussing these important issues with you.
6 comments:
Delighted to find your blog. I ponder many of the issues you raise, and welcome the dialog. I also welcome the company. Whether it is because I am Mormon, female, a resident of Manhattan or white, I do not know, but my little blue Obama button seems to elicit surprise more often than not.
Regarding war, I distinctly remember certain points in my younger days when I learned harsh truths about my own government. As an active Amnesty International member, I had been horrified to learn that CIA operatives were training Central American troops how to torture. I remember how I felt when I learned that President Richard M. Nixon had authorized secret military action in Cambodia and Laos, and that the bombings and assasinations had gone on for a year before they became public.
The scriptures speak of many unrighteous rulers, and of military and nonmilitary action against such rulers. Rulers are fallable human beings. I understand that as Latter-Day Saints we are called to uphold the laws of the land, but if we truly cannot sustain the laws or the rulers I feel we should prayerfully speak up and do something about it. I believe the Savior would look very kindly on someone who was a conductor on the Underground Railroad or smuggled babies out of Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Looking forward to your next post.
Ms. Peach,
Thank you for your comment. You bring up an issue that is often problematic for Latter-day Saints. I have decided to treat that in my next post today, although I shall also return to this in my forthcoming post on the Iraqi War. (To those of you who have contacted me off-line to ask me to address other issues: patience, please. All in good time.)
You bring up the CIA torture instruction and the illegal war in Cambodia and Laos. You could also have mentioned all sorts of other illegal CIA activity, such as the MK/ULTRA and MK/SEARCH experiments in mind control, both of which were exposed in the 1970s and caused a great deal of scandal for the CIA. (Best reference: Gordon Thomas, Secrets and Lies: A History of CIA Mind Control and Germ Warfare, Old Saybrook CT: Octavo Editions, 2007.)
There is certainly no reason to flog the CIA exclusively. The FBI has yet to apologize for its illegal COINTELPRO operation, in which it attempted to destablize the civil rights movement of the 1960s. The Department of Defense has more than its share of immoral activity to answer for, including the nuclear bombing of southern Utah itself (!) back in the 1950s to explore the effects of nuclear fallout; the state of Utah was chosen because it was felt that the local population, being LDS, would be less likely than the populations of other areas to question governmental authority. (Best reference, although long out of print: The Day We Bombed Utah.)
I do not bring this up because I have an ax to grind against the CIA, the FBI, or the Department of Defense. Quite the opposite, actually; I admire the lawful activities of the CIA, FBI, and DoD, which are necessary to the security of the United States. However, the fact that they are, as you imply, human agencies, means that they have the potential to head in the wrong direction--as they clearly have, on several occasions. This, then becomes the question: In the face of governmental activity that is clearly illegal and/or immoral, what are Latter-day Saints to do? For my consideration of this issue, please see my new post, today.
As far as why your Obama button elicits surprise, I would point out that, with Senator Clinton as a senator of New York State, she was the clear favorite for the nomination among Democrats in New York--right up until four days ago. With Senator Clinton's graceful concession, I think your button will elicit much less surprise--because it will have a great deal more company.
Please feel free to tell your LDS (and other!) friends, in Manhattan and elsewhere, about this blog.
Dear Mormon for Obama,
Have been sharing your link. :-)
You mentioned prayer in schools as one topic for consideration. I understand Obama is opposed on constitutional grounds but would, for example, allow the chorus to sing a Christmas song at the winter concert. Is that your take?
I have been concerned about what I see as pressure from the right (not Obama) in support of prayer in school. One thing baffles me. Setting aside whether public moneys should be used for this, whether teachers should be forced to teach prayer and so forth, there seems to be an assumption among such supporters that the prayer experience would be conducted as they would wish, respectfully and in a way that would align with their faith. Given not only our country's diversity of faiths but also the many permutations and combinations within any given faith, this seems unlikely.
At this point in my children's lives, 1) teachers have a lot of power in their eyes and 2) when things concern the kids at school sometimes it is a while before I hear about it, and then sometimes indirectly. If a teacher were to say an LDS-style prayer without the Spirit, or pray to Beelzebub, or even roll his or her eyes and resentfully announce that they HAVE to pray now so let's get it over with, this would make an impression. Not ideal religious education.
Leading characters in landmark civil liberties cases tend to be flawed humans like the rest of us rather than angels, and so it seems was Madalyn Murray O’Hair, the atheist whose 1960 lawsuit Murray v. Curlett (one of her many lawsuits) reached the Supreme Court, ultimately ending organized prayer in public schools. O’Hair, her family, their property and their pets were tormented for years.
On August 27, 1995, O'Hair and two family members vanished and their mutilated bodies were found years later. While greed was the motive for the killings, her atheism has been implicated in local police (mis)handling of the case. The pattern of persecutions for people who hold beliefs outside the mainstream is shocking and can approach witch trial proportions. My kids have it tough enough in school already.
Ms. Peach,
I will be dealing with the school prayer issue at length in a future post, but because of your interest I shall address it briefly here.
School prayer seems so 'right' from the perspective of many Latter-day Saints. "The world is going to Hades on greased skids--why not bring prayer and Bible study back into the public schools?"
This would be the absolutely, positively wrong thing to do, from multiple directions. Perhaps the biggest of the brick walls here is that most forms of school prayer and Bible study (by which I mean religious Bible instruction, not instruction in the history of religion) is a violation of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which forbids Congress from establishing a national church or religion--even a 'nondenominational' form of religion.
The Saints who advocate school prayer need to consider several things:
(1) Trying to slip religion into the public schools as a means of 'preparing' people for the LDS gospel message is almost certain to backfire. The form of religious belief or practice that would be implemented in schools would reflect the religion that is numerically most powerful, among those who wish to use public education as a vehicle of religious instruction. That religion is a certain type of so-called 'evangelical Christianity'--and, of course, these people are virulently anti-Mormon. My guess is that over 70% of the anti-Mormon literature published and sold today originates with these people. Let's not make their influence any stronger.
(2) Exposing children to prayer in school will not make the world a better place. We would do better to expend our energies in teaching people how to pray outside of school, and teaching parents how to teach their children how to pray in their homes. (Here's a thought for the brothers and sisters at LDS Church HQ to consider: how about magazine inserts aimed at young families, teaching them how to teach their children to pray at home? The Readers Digest inserts of the 1970s had a good response; maybe this will work, too. Many of the young parents of today do not really know how to pray. Let us be the one's to teach them.)
(3) We are an intensely multicultural nation. (This is most obvious in a place like Manhattan, where various types of Christian, Jewish, Hindu, Jain, and Buddhist kids--and others besides--will all be in a single classroom. However, with each passing year, the mix of cultures grows in communities throughout America.) Multiculturalism is one of the strengths of America, and we need to respect that, build on that, not try to subvert it. Trying to force one mode of prayer on a multicultural class will not work.
(4) We need to respect the rights of all people--including atheists. Atheism is not more evil than other forms of religious belief. (In the Book of Mormon, yes, there are some militant atheists who also happen to be evil people. However, the modern atheist has come to his or her convictions in very different ways--including a consideration of the violent religious wars of the last 2000 years. The typical American atheist today has a lot more in common with the atheist or agnostic Lamanite king, Lamoni's father, who simply did had not had a spiritual experience: see Alma chapter 22.) Believers tend to villify atheism, because (a) we tend to villify that which we do not know or understand, and (b) it is easy to make Atheism into a big, external threat. We (the LDS) need to come to understand it, to develop effective answers to it; we need to be the ones who show respect for atheists (along with Jews, Hindus, Jains, Buddhists, and other non-Christian forms of belief), and that respect will allow us to share the Gospel much more effectively. (Of course, you must know your own religion before you seek to know another.)
(5) Perhaps most importantly, the core values of the LDS Gospel are opposed to making captive audiences listen to our message. We are all about free moral agency; our very hymnal teaches that God does not compel people to accept the Gospel; our uniquely LDS scriptures teach that it was Lucifer who proposed forcing people to be exposed to the truth.
All of this is on top of the very worthy concerns you bring up. We cannot expect public school teachers to be effective role models for teaching prayer. Frankly, one wonders why the school prayer advocates are so quick to push onto school teachers a responsibility that is actually parental in nature.
There's so much more to say about this issue, but that is for a future post.
Thank you for spreading the news about this blog. Have a great summer in Manhattan with the kids.
Dear One Mormon for Obama,
Bless you for your clarity. As an English teacher I recognize your eloquence as a great gift. As a Mormon I recognize your decernment as a great gift.
As a Mormon English teacher in South Central Los Angeles I have a few thoughts on school prayer:
1. Teachers have MORE than enough to teach already. Society should by no means inflict yet another responsibility on teachers! (Just curious, after we teach them to pray, will we subject them to standardized tests to assess their learning?)
2. Teachers should teach students to read well and to think critically about what they read. Ability to do these two things prepares people for the Book of Mormon. Inability to do these two things serves as a great tool in Satan's hands.
3. Pray for your students, but not with them. Love them and they will feel the Spirit.
Where can I find more information about "The Day We Bombed Utah?" My mother was a down-winder who died almost 30 years ago. I remember learning that the government had done this to her. But the government is us. And we will be held responsible if we fail to make our voices heard.
Dear One Mormon for Obama,
Because you are smart I will ask you this question. Maybe if you get the chance you can address it. But maybe I am the only one who doesn't get it.
Why don't Mormons seem to have much interest in poverty as a political issue? Where is the concept of social justice in Mormonism? Are we really off the hook if we pay tithes and offerings and let the government, I mean church government, take care of the rest? The church welfare program in its many facets is the work of God, but is that really all we have to do? Can we really read the words of our Savior, really understand the Book of Mormon, really listen in the temple and really think that there are more important political issues to Jesus than how we personally respond to poverty?
Just wondering.
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