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Poll: Republicans Fine With A Mormon President- Democrats Not So Much

CQUIRK

By CQUIRK
in Miscellaneous

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california boy Grand Master

california boy

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The article is very unclear whether this is a national poll or a Utah poll. I would think that the results would be completely skewed if this is just a Utah poll since most Mormons in Utah are Republican.

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LeSellers Veteran

LeSellers

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Not surprising as it is impossible not to be conservative politically if one believes and practices LDS doctrine.

I'd say it was impossible to be a good Saint and not be a libertarian (notice: no capital "L").

Joseph Smith said, "I teach them correct principles and they govern themselves." That is the libertarian's creed: no coercion desired nor needed.

Lehi

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BCSpace Grand Master

BCSpace

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Not surprising as it is impossible not to be conservative politically if one believes and practices LDS doctrine.

So in order to be a faithful LDS person, we need to vote Republican?

A faithful LDS person will believe and practice the doctrine. For example, a faithful LDS person will be opposed to Socialism which LDS doctrine is specifically against. (see D&C Institute Manual Enrichment Section L regarding the Law of Consecration). Other issues raised by LDS doctrine are war, homosexual marriage, abortion, feminism, etc. LDS doctrines on these subject match conservatism and so yes, voting preference is informed by religion and vice versa and the poll merely shows it. Conservatives today heavily favor certain parties and liberals heavily favor others. Jesus himself predicted this kind of split in Matthew 10.

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BCSpace Grand Master

BCSpace

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I'd say it was impossible to be a good Saint and not be a libertarian (notice: no capital "L").

Notice that I've not mentioned any political parties whatsoever in any of my posts.

Joseph Smith said, "I teach them correct principles and they govern themselves." That is the libertarian's creed: no coercion desired nor needed.

Libertarianism (capitalized because it's the beginning of a sentence), is attractive at first glance. But looking at JS's statement one realizes that "governing themselves" does not inform us of the underlying doctrines that were taught as correct principles. So the conclusion is that, without coercion, we should be doing it properly according to the correct principles we were taught, and that means following the doctrines of the Church and using them as a model.

I certainly wouldn't go so far as a certain BoM people, who brought a certain teacher of false doctrine before their leaders and they kicked him out of the land. That would be contrary to JS's teaching. ;)

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Jaybear Mentor

Jaybear

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A faithful LDS person will believe and practice the doctrine. For example, a faithful LDS person will be opposed to Socialism which LDS doctrine is specifically against. (see D&C Institute Manual Enrichment Section L regarding the Law of Consecration). Other issues raised by LDS doctrine are war, homosexual marriage, abortion, feminism, etc. LDS doctrines on these subject match conservatism and so yes, voting preference is informed by religion and vice versa and the poll merely shows it. Conservatives today heavily favor certain parties and liberals heavily favor others. Jesus himself predicted this kind of split in Matthew 10.

People vote their values. As Mormons are predominately republican, its seems rather obvious that Republican values are more in tune with Mormon values.

However, the mistake you make is to assume that that Mormon values are derived from Mormon doctrine, rather than from Mormon culture. One can always pick and choose verses from the bible/book of Mormon to rationalize why they are liberal/conservative. Liberal verses ... love thy neighbor ... resonate with liberals. Conservative verses ... sodomy is an abomination ... resonate with conservatives.

Bear in mind that your church is led by a group of (1)wealthy, (2)white, (3)men, (4) most of whom are in their 80s. Its not surprising then considering the influence that the brethren yield that Mormon culture would be conservative. If, by contrast, Mormons were led by a charismatic 30 something leader ala Joseph Smith, Mormon culture would likely be far more liberal.

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BCSpace Grand Master

BCSpace

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People vote their values. As Mormons are predominately republican, its seems rather obvious that Republican values are more in tune with Mormon values.

My point exactly.

However, the mistake you make is to assume that that Mormon values are derived from Mormon doctrine, rather than from Mormon culture.

This is not true. For example, LDS doctrine is expressly against socialism, abortion, and homosexual marriage. Those are just a few, and the most glaring, of many examples where LDS values are derived from doctrine.

One can always pick and choose verses from the bible/book of Mormon to rationalize why they are liberal/conservative.

One can. But Mormons don't have this problem because the doctrine is often spelled out in black and white.

Bear in mind that your church is led by a group of (1)wealthy, (2)white, (3)men, (4) most of whom are in their 80s. Its not surprising then considering the influence that the brethren yield that Mormon culture would be conservative. If, by contrast, Mormons were led by a charismatic 30 something leader ala Joseph Smith, Mormon culture would likely be far more liberal.

Only in the classical sense, classical liberalism being today's conservatism. From LDS doctrine in the aforementioned source for example:

“This procedure [of providing deeds] preserved in every man the right of private ownership and management of his property. Indeed, the fundamental principle of the system was the private ownership of property. Each man owned his portion, or inheritance, or stewardship, with an absolute title, which, at his option, he could alienate [transfer], keep and operate, or otherwise treat as his own. The Church did not own all of the property, and life under the united order was not, and never will be, a communal life, as the Prophet Joseph himself said.

.....................

“They had all things common.” The phrase “they had all things common” ( Acts 4:32 ; see also Acts 2:44 ; 3 Nephi 26:19 ; 4 Nephi 1:3 ) is used to characterize those who lived the law of consecration in ancient times. Some have speculated that the term common suggests a type of communalism or “Christian Communism.” This interpretation is in error. The Prophet Joseph Smith taught the true nature of having all things common: “I preached on the stand about one hour on the 2nd chapter of Acts , designing to show the folly of common stock [holding property in common]. In Nauvoo every one is steward over his own [property].” ( History of the Church, 6:37–38.)

Each stewardship is considered private property (see Reading L-4 ), and the residues and surpluses consecrated for the storehouse became the “common property of the whole church” ( D&C 82:18 ). It is referred to as the “common property” because the covenant members of the order had access to it, according to their just “wants” and “needs,” including the need to improve their stewardship (see D&C 82:17–18 ).

The word equal is frequently used in the revelations in the Doctrine and Covenants: “In . . . temporal things you shall be equal” ( D&C 70:14 ); “for if ye are not equal in earthly things ye cannot be equal in obtaining heavenly things” ( D&C 78:6 ); “appoint unto this people their portions, every man equal according to his family, according to his circumstances and his wants and needs” ( D&C 51:3 ). The Lord gave His definition of the term equal: “And you are to be equal, or in other words, you are to have equal claims on the properties, for the benefit of managing the concerns of your stewardships, every man according to his wants and his needs, inasmuch as his wants are just” ( D&C 82:17 ).

So economically, JS matches today's conservatism very well and so the Church essentially has always been conservative (or classically liberal) on this issue.

Regarding other issues, do you honestly think JS would have accepted homosexual marriage and abortion as a general method of birth control? I certainly don't.

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thesometimesaint Grand Master

thesometimesaint

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BCSpace:

Tell us exactly what is the Lords position on Socialism. BTW "Am I my brothers' keeper". Further If you cut out every time the Bible talks about how to treat the poor. You have enough space for Rushs' daily hillbilly heroin drug use.

Tell us exactly how "Bomb Bomb Iran" McCain, and all except Rand Paul on the Republican presidential primary circuit, is how God sees war.

Tell us exactly what is Gods position on abortion. I doubt it is the Republican one.

http://thinkprogress.org/health/2011/12/27/395239/the-gops-10-most-extreme-attacks-on-a-womans-right-to-choose-an-abortion/

Tell us exactly what God has said about how men are supposed to treat women. Some how I doubt it was the Republican idea that women are to submit to the husbands demands..

Funny that you should mention voting with the Republicans denying voting rights across this county.

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/national-affairs/ag-holder-to-gop-dont-block-the-vote-20111214

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BCSpace Grand Master

BCSpace

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I’m just extremely wary of certain members of the Church who imply that in order to be a good Mormon,

What you must do is govern yourself based on the correct principles taught. Therefore, if one supports that which the Church doctrinally opposes, then how can one be a good Mormon?

we must support only Republican or extremely conservative candidates for office

What is extreme and what other type candidates are more in line with LDS doctrine and how so? I'm certainly not claiming certain candidates to be perfect, but I do claim there is a certain political philosophy that is far closer than all the rest. The way to find this out is to simply compare positions with doctrine and that is a very useful and informative exercise.

- especially in light of the Church’s repeated statements about being politically neutral.

Sure, the Church must not support any candidates or parties in particular. So? What are the correct principles and is one following them? That is the real question.

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