Posted by:
ificouldhietokolob
(
)
Date: February 26, 2018 05:54PM
isthechurchtrue Wrote:
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> The LDS Church has members of all political
> persuasions.
"Seven-in-ten U.S. Mormons identify with the Republican Party or say they lean toward the GOP, compared with 19% who identify as or lean Democratic – a difference of 51 percentage points. That’s the biggest gap in favor of the GOP out of 30 religious groups we analyzed, which include Protestant denominations, other religious groups and three categories of people who are religiously unaffiliated."
(Pew Research,
http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/02/23/u-s-religious-groups-and-their-political-leanings/ )
> The LDS Church has never to my
> knowledge excommunicated anyone for voting for a
> political candidate.
I don't know of any, either.
But since ballots are secret in this country, how would they know anyway?
> Neither has the LDS Church to
> my knowledge endorsed a political candidate in the
> last 100 years.
Given that doing so would cost the church its tax exemption, that's neither surprising nor unique in any way. No US church endorses specific political candidates.
The church *did* endorse CA Prop 8. And tell its members to give time & money to its passage. And spend a bunch of money on passing the measure itself, which it lied about and failed to properly report, resulting in fine for violating CA election laws.
> In fact the LDS Church has a
> policy of not endorsing political candidates.
Again, since doing so would cost them their tax exempt status, that's neither surprising nor unique (practically every church in the US has the same policy).
The church also *heavily* influences legislation in Utah. Representatives themselves have admitted to getting "suggestions" from the church for legislation, and of being called to the church office building for meetings on the church's position on issues -- expressed privately, not publicly, and which LDS representatives are expected to go along with.
Bottom line: the church tries really hard to make a good public show about "not being political" most of the time. However, many of the church's private and public actions belie that carefully crafted PR image of neutrality. Mormons know how the church wants them to vote, and they often do so.