I watched the Mormon Leaks videos. Gordon Smith talks about how devout Mormons in US Senate and other Government office offer the Mormon Church access and influence. Just out of curiosity, could there be some deal between the Mormons and the U.S.government? And what kind of deal will it be?

The interests of cult-like 3-letter agencies and the hyper-nationalistic Mormon cult align well. Mormons are taught obedience to authority. They are the kind who would administrator the lethal shock in the Milgram experiment. These agencies would shake their hand and say, "You're our boy".

There are laws against influence peddling, but there is also the Lord's work. The recent SEC fine may be an example of having friends in high places. The SEC had to do something because too many people knew. So the church got a slap on the wrist.

Having Mormons in government does not necessarily bother me. At least they are honest. They are good worker bees. They are safe hires because of their brainwashing. It's like buying pre-washed jeans. This brainwashing may have insidious effects in the workplace, such as a tendency to replace due diligence with spiritual discernment.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/07/2023 05:54AM by bradley.

Maybe the LDS hierarchy has been a little bit horrified listening to Mike Lee and Chris Stuart report back on US Congress. (I did hear Gordon Smith mockingly dis' the Democrats on the Mormon Leaks Video.) Chris Stuart has resigned and Mike Lee is an embarrassment to both Utah citizens and the Mormon church.

LDS does like having people in high government places but I doubt any line of reasonable communication is up and running smoothly right now. The church is perceived as a criminal organization accumulating hordes of cash that needs to be watched.

The recent statement by Russ on voting for the person and not the party is indicative of big problems associated with the ultra right Looneys being in charge.

State GOP senators just over the weekend showed their flag of hate by demanding to know why a UTA bus was allowed to be decorated in Rainbow flag colors for Pride month. The fallout has yet to be seen. What hateful people we have in government leadership positions.

Very good analysis.

I think Lds Inc. misses LDS people like Harry Reid who could present issues from a different democratic perspective.

And Romney.

The polarization of the church is a disaster for the Q15.

Mormons obey a 'higher law' than Honesty!

the list of examples is too long to even start!!!

We are fortunate that church leaders do not issue fatwas. They would carried out, just as in the case of Salman Rushdie.

Why is it that Ancestry.com, a wholly owned Mormon company, has all the US census data?

You must pay to get access to Federal Government data, the feds paid (ie tax payers) to collect and organized.

Ancestry.com has never been owned by the church. It was private, went public a dozen years ago, and was bought by BlackRock a few years ago.

Lot's Wife Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Ancestry.com has never been owned by the church.
> It was private, went public a dozen years ago, and
> was bought by BlackRock a few years ago.

Yes, for the genetic data. Very useful in building up a database of the public and for resale to health insurers.

Do you have any evidence that they have sold data to insurers?

Evidence? We don’t need no stinking evidence.

Besides, it is now illegal to deny policies to people based on preexisting conditions and genetic factors, so what exactly would the health insurers do with genetic data, data only released in aggregate form anyway.

Are you suggesting that Carraig Dubh (nom d' jour, subject to change at any moment) is making stuff up?

Who would've thought?

Brother Of Jerry Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Besides, it is now illegal to deny policies to
> people based on preexisting conditions and genetic
> factors, so what exactly would the health insurers
> do with genetic data, data only released in
> aggregate form

That ship has already sailed. The data is being shared. Don't just think it's only being given to law enforcement. That's not where the money is.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/27/magazine/dna-test-crime-identification-genome.html

Your DNA Test Could Send a Relative to Jail
Thanks to “genetic genealogy,” solving crimes with genomic databrs is becoming mainstream — with some uncomfortable implications for the future of privacy.

The CIA has used Protestant missionaries for low level intelligence gathering in Latin America for decades. I don't see why they couldn't use senior LDS couples the same way.

The other thing is that the church is obsessed with power and authority, and obedience. The Articles of Faith tell members to obey those with power outside the church without question. If society as a whole took that attitude, we'd never progress.

If there was a deal, it was the church agreeing to the $5 million in fines. They could have appealed and gone to court, but did not.

None of the media or legal observers have written that the fines were out of line with typical fines for the type of infraction involved.

If the fine is $100 for parking in a handicapped spot, and Bill Gates gets ticketed for parking in a handicapped spot, he gets fined $100. The fact that that wouldn’t even be a rounding error on his cash available, let alone his net worth, is beside the point. No special deal needed.

Yes, but the US government is owned by Ancestry.com.

Did you take that into consideration?

I wouldn't surprise me to have someone on the "inside" pulling strings to keep prying eyes from looking too closely into mormon finances.

What incentive would the govt. have to come down hard on the mormons?

I suspect that the govt. is just fine coasting along hoping that nobody rocks the boat anymore.

From living in the area, my impression is that the church had a "moment" pre-pandemic, which has largely faded. I don't think the church has any more or less political influence than any other large organization at the present time.

I would suggest that the church has far less influence than some large organizations.

It's power cannot rival that of the NRA, Big Pharma, the "too big to fail" financial institutions, Big Oil, the Israel Lobby, evangelical Christianity, etc.

But I do agree with your basic point: that the LDS church is not politically powerful on a national level even if it is in a few Western states.