Mormonism & the Mormon church

My brother Michael drove up from Las Vegas and stayed with me for the weekend of General Conference (the Mormon church’s bi-annual worldwide conference) earlier this month. We watched four of the General Conference sessions on TV and attended the Priesthood session in person. We didn’t have any tickets so we were fortunate to be given one by a stranger, and then we ran into Dave Blake who gave us a second ticket.

I enjoyed the talks in the Priesthood session quite a bit, especially Elder Hales on “being there,” Bishop McMullin on “unencumbering our lives,” and President Hinckley on being clean. The music by the BYU Men’s Chorus was phenomenal.

Right before the Priesthood session started, the big screen flashed a message I hadn’t seen before (roughly): “We realize there are people outside the Conference Center that may try to disrupt the special spirit that you will feel during this meeting. Therefore we urge you to be courteous to those people.”

This statement referred to anti-Mormon protesters who always gather outside the Conference Center, but the most interesting phrase was “we urge you to be courteous to those people.” (It didn’t say, “We wish they would be courteous to us so we can enjoy this Conference.”) The phrasing seemed to imply that feeling a spirit of peace depends only on us, not on outside influences. Arguing with a street preacher would most certainly disturb one’s peace, but being courteous protects it.

This morning the Las Vegas Review-Journal published an editorial from UNLV professor of journalism Daniel Stout contending that Mitt Romney’s Mormonism isn’t likely to be an issue in his presidential campaign or his politics. The article points out that the Mormon church advocates a separation of church and state much more than protestant churches do. Its 12th Article of Faith states a belief in “obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law” and it regularly emphasizes that the Church is neutral on political issues and candidates. The Mormon church gets involved in politics only on rare issues that affect families, marriage, and other related topics.

Current Mormon politicians like Harry Reid and Orrin Hatch span the range of political ideologies, showing that members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints don’t walk in lock-step.

While no one can say definitively what a Mormon president will be like, fears about a closed system in the White House or strong denominational influence seem premature. If elected and Mormonism turns out to be salient in a Romney administration, it is likely to be manifest in some other than partisanship or biased communication.

Article: Romney not likely to wear religion on his sleeve

The Church recently released a new beta version of its Newsroom site. It includes lots of statistics and information about several countries and each state in the U.S. Here is some info on Nevada:

In 1852, three years after the discovery of gold in California, seven members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon church) established a trading post in what is now Genoa (near Lake Tahoe)…. In 1855, 30 men were called to establish a mission at the Meadows in southern Nevada…. In the late 1920s, many Utahns moved to Nevada in search of better economic conditions. The Las Vegas Nevada Temple was dedicated in 1989 as “an oasis of peace and light.”

The Reno temple was dedicate in April 2000. Of the 2.4 million people in Nevada, 167,822 are Mormons (6.9%). Nevada has 2 missions, 2 temples, 5 family history centers, and 304 congregations (ward/branches).

Famous Mormons in/from Nevada include Brandon Flowers, Gladys Knight, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

Source: LDS Newsroom, statistics on Nevada and Wikipedia

My senator, Harry Reid (D-NV), happens to be a Mormon. Rumors of Mormon governor Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign have brought a new wave of attention to Mormonism, but Senator Reid’s shared religion goes mostly unnoticed. (I wonder why.) When Harry Reid becomes Senate majority leader in 2007, he’ll be the “most powerful Mormon in Washington.”

USA Today reports that 15 members of Congress are Mormon. The Church encourages participation in civics, which explains this more than proportionate participation by members of the Church. As to whether a Mormon can become president of the United States, BYU Professor Quin Monson says, “If a Mormon can be elected as governor of Massachusetts and a Mormon can be Senate majority leader, certainly a Mormon can be president.”

When Tucker Carlson mentioned that some Southern christians don’t consider Mormon christians, Michael Graham responded that “evangelicals [don't] consider Judaism a form of Christianity either, and yet Joe Lieberman is wildly popular and is probably the most popular Democrat among Southern Republicans. In the modern era, it is not one religion versus another.” (MediaMatters.org)

Speaking of the Church, Senator Reid said: “The church has been a wonderful thing in my life. It helps me try to always do the right thing, understand that what you do has consequences.”

Source: USA Today