Like many other Mormons, I’ve been appalled in the last several years to see how many of my co-religionists are only too happy to cast their lot with Donald Trump. Trump seems like exactly the type of person who would have us clutching our collective pearls, given his history as a proud sexual assaulter and serial adulturer, not to mention his complete lack of interest in or knowledge of Christianity. And even setting aside his personal failings, his presidency has been a continuous series of policies that seem designed to be as anti-humane as possible, for example, his policy of separating families of asylum seekers at the US-Mexico border or his attempt to use remotely taught classes as an excuse to send all international college students home. And even setting aside his personal failings and vicious policies, there’s his naked racism, his constant shout-outs to and encouragement of white supremacists.
Of course none of these things about Trump are news. This thing wasn’t done in a corner. What’s puzzling is that so many Mormons–American Mormons anyway–are so supportive of Trump, so anxious to rush to defend him. I’ve even seen Mormons using the “God’s flawed vessel” language that I think is borrowed from evangelical Christians. How did this come to be, that a religion that is so big on rules around sex in particular, and rules in general for that matter, produced so many adherents who happily and even eagerly support such an awful person? I think the answer is that the Church set them up for it.
There are two things the Church consistently teaches that I believe set members up to become Trump apologists. The first is that loyalty to the right organization is the highest virtue. The second is that the Republican Party is the true political organization.
First, loyalty. I think of Mormonism as being a commandment-happy religion, and I think there’s certainly a lot of truth to that. But I think there’s a separate strain of thought that’s perhaps even stronger. It’s the idea that more than following any rules or even principles of right or wrong, it’s most important to be loyal to a true organization, which is, of course, the LDS Church. General Authorities make this point frequently, hitting on how important it is to never question Church leaders and always do what they say. Here are a few examples:
- In 2010, then-Elder Oaks famously talked about two lines of communication with God, with the personal line being completely subordinate to the institutional (he called it “priesthood”) line, as it is considered valid only to the degree that it matches up with what the institutional line says.
- In 2019, President Eyring reminded listeners that they will one day be interviewed by Jesus about how well they had followed through with their sustaining votes, and that they (listeners) should check themselves by asking things like “Have I thought or spoken of human weakness in the people I have pledged to sustain?”
- In 2017, President Eyring approvingly told a story of a young man he had given bad advice to when he (Eyring) was a new bishop. The young man carefully kept quiet so that nobody else in the ward would know that a bishop could be wrong.
- In 2008, Elder Bednar told a story of how a visiting GA thoughtlessly pushed his (Bednar’s) wife to give a prayer where she asked for nothing, unconcerned with discovering the fact that “Earlier in the day Sister Bednar and I had been informed about the unexpected death of a dear friend.”
The dots are not difficult to connect. President Eyring points out that it is wrong to even think, to even notice, that a Church leader has a fault. Then, in his earlier story, he’s clearly concerned that nobody realize that he as a bishop was giving bad advice, for fear that it would reduce their confidence in him, even though the reality was that he was by his own admission giving bad advice. In Elder Bednar’s story, he frames it as how he and his wife learned the importance of expressing gratitude in prayer, but the much stronger metamessage is that when a GA does something that’s clearly wrong, it’s our duty as members to figure out how it’s actually right.
These are just off the top of my head. Of course there are many more examples. And this doesn’t even get into all the many Conference talks and other messages about obedience. Or the regularly scheduled sustainings of General Authorities. These occur on average every other month (two ward conferences, two stake conferences, and two General Conferences per year). It’s clear that GAs aren’t concerned about hearing from the general membership that often about what we think of their performance. It’s rather that they want to be sure that our loyalty to them is always uppermost in our minds.
The second teaching is that the Republican worldview is the correct one. I suspect that this isn’t even a thing that most GAs even consciously set out to teach. It’s just that they are overwhelmingly Republican, and to them, a politically conservative view of the world is just the way things are. As a result, many of them pepper their talks with Republican dog whistles.
For example:
- They talk a lot about religious freedom, but their discussion of it really never extends beyond their concern that the LDS Church be legally allowed to discriminate against gay people, and be not seen as bigoted for doing so. Freedom of, say, non-Christian religions to worship as they please is absolutely not on their radar.
- They largely view social problems as boiling down to individual bad choices, rather than any type of systemic issue like racism or sexism or social policy that keeps poor people poor. For example, in April Conference, Elder Bednar quoted the following lines from Ezra Taft Benson:
The Lord works from the inside out. The world works from the outside in. The world would take people out of the slums. Christ takes the slums out of people, and then they take themselves out of the slums. The world would mold men by changing their environment. Christ changes men, who then change their environment. The world would shape human behavior, but Christ can change human nature.
This Republican worldview is, if perhaps not fully prosperity gospel, at least prosperity gospel adjacent. It’s comfortable with the just world fallacy. People get what they deserve, and if they have bad things happen (e.g., women getting assaulted) then they probably brought it on themselves. When people don’t choose the right, it’s never attributable to economic circumstances, only to personal lack of righteousness.
- They’ve made a huge deal about fighting gay marriage, while ignoring so many other concerns that seem so much more pressing to those of us on the political left, like, just for example, income inequality or racism or sexism or discrimination or lack of access to health care for so many people.
- Although it has been supplanted recently by their opposition to gay marriage, their rhetoric on abortion lines up nicely with Republican rhetoric. Both GAs and Republicans show a lack of trust in women who might seek out abortions. GAs, although allowing in the Handbook that there are circumstances where abortion might be allowable, make clear from their surrounding rhetoric where they minimize such situations and tell stories of faithful women who of course never actually get an abortion even when their lives are threatened, make clear that they don’t actually expect these circumstances to be used as justification for an abortion. Along the same lines, Republicans, even when unable to ban abortion outright, make women go through waiting periods or ultrasounds or anti-abortion literature, clearly evidencing like the GAs do that they don’t trust women to take the decision seriously.
- Their belief in patriarchy as divine matches nicely with the patriarchal leaning of Republicans in general.
- The gender and racial makeup of Republican leadership looks a lot more like the gender and racial makeup of the Church’s general leadership than do the gender and racial makeup of Democratic leadership.
Like I said, I don’t think that most GAs are consciously trying to inject their Republican worldview into their talks. It just happens naturally. (Similarly, you can fairly point out that I’m injecting my Democratic worldview into my posts.) But given that the GAs hammer the idea of loyalty to the Church so hard and that they clearly if unconsciously communicate that the Republican way of seeing things is the right way, then it’s no wonder that so many American Mormons reach the conclusion that supporting Trump is the right thing to do. They’ve done as the Church told them to and picked a true organization to support in the Republican Party. They’re remaining loyal in the face of any evidence that they might have made a wrong choice, just as they remain loyal to the LDS Church even in the face of revelations about the Church hiding its history or hoarding wealth. So when Trump does or says awful things or puts in place awful policies or says he wants to be president for life, their critical evaluation mental processes are overridden by their rationalization engines. They remind themselves how great it is that maybe Trump and his judges can finally overturn Roe v. Wade, and how wonderful it is that Trump and his holy Congress were able to reduce the criminally high tax burden on the ultra-rich. Just as they’ve trained themselves never to notice faults in GAs or Church policies, they’ve trained themselves to never notice faults in their chosen President.
Another Republican dog whistle that occurs periodically in general conference talks is denouncements of “political correctness”. I don’t think the term has been used for a few years though. In this era, I think Trump has been defined so much by his opposition to political correctness, that to refer to it now might come across as an endorsement of Trump. For this reason I predict the term may never be used again, which would be just fine with me.
Oooh, that’s a great point, Q.
I remember that talk by Oaks in 2010. I was stunned. My mouth fell open. He’s preaching false doctrine right from the pulpit. Individual personal revelation is literally the foundation of the restored Church. Joseph Smith, a boy with no priesthood of any kind and no authority of any kind, spoke directly to God. The news later reported that night that there was controversy at Conference. I was SURE that it was Oak’s talk. Nope. Nobody seemed to notice that he shot the Joseph Smith story out of the water.
Excellent point, Lily. Personal revelation was okay just at the beginning. You know, to get the institution going. Then its raison d’etre vanished, so it’s really just kind of like legacy equipment that you can’t quite bear to part with.
I think it is also very fair to draw on the much more direct influence of Ezra Taft Benson and his acolytes that very much directly taught and acted as if there was a direct line between Mormonism and American conservative political thought. I really believe the best way to think about the current modern LDS church is we are living in Benson’s church. He was the head of quorum of the 12 apostles starting in 1973 and was the president of the church from 1982-1994 (and actively until the early 90s). While he (thankfully) didn’t take politics back up when he became president, he and his family and close associates worked tirelessly from the 1960s onward to tie Mormonism to the rising Christian conservative right during the great political realignment. He used the pulpit tirelessly (until muzzled by Lee) and was much admired in Mormon circles. Just as importantly and something that has received less systematic scrutiny behind the his family was doing straight up political organizing and institution building that tied the next level of church leadership (bishops, SPs, university leaders) to the conservative political apparatus and members of the conservative political apparatus to church leadership. For example, while ETB was denied by church leadership to become a member/leader in the John Birch society his son Reed became one of its core officers, running the political operation in DC and eventually head of PR (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reed_Benson). His connection with Ernest Wilkerson and activities at BYU are well known. So it wasn’t just perception or symbolic to have ETB as among the most prominent Mormons, he used his power and status to work through family and friends to make it clear to Mormons through the US and the world that conservative American politics was intrinsically tied to Mormon belief and thought. Even when he was censured for his most public and egregious efforts (something that happens soooo rarely among the 12), there was an entire extension of him that was doing the dirty work. However, Reed and Wilkerson are just a few examples. I believe is active, personal network and patronage was much larger. IMHO this is a dissertation/master’s thesis that REALLY needs to be written to fully understand the current theological, rhetorical, social and political make up of the modern church. Not just focusing on Benson as apostle but Benson and his family/acolytes as political organizers. If something like this has been written I would love to have a reference to it.
Yeah, good point, rah, that it hasn’t been that long since ETB and his friends made the connection much more explicit. Did the Church make similar protestations of political neutrality back then? It seems like it would have been hard to take them seriously, but then, the GAs might have thought it was even more important to do so if they had any qualms about ETB’s views taking over the whole Church.
Also, I haven’t read this book, but if you haven’t already read it, it sounds like you might enjoy “Thunder from the Right.”
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42298174-thunder-from-the-right
Yes, this is really bothering me living in Utah during this administration, and seeing church members line up behind the appalling president. From Julie Beck giving the opening prayer at a Trump rally, to the MoTab singing at his inauguration, to Mike Lee and Orrin Hatch and Jenny Oaks Baker at the Trump-Pence rally, it’s all been really disheartening. Given the damage this presidency has done to America and how others globally now view Americans, I think the church’s missionary and temple efforts will suffer–not to mention how hard it is to imagine building up Zion when we are so divided. It has certainly become harder for me to love my neighbor/parents/church leaders when they support Trump, but it seems like the Republican party is part of their religion now and they’ve become single-issue voters on abortion/religious freedom. (Just a minor correction in the OP, ward conference is only held on an annual basis.)
Exactly, acw. I so agree. I’ve lost a lot of respect for a lot of people over their love of Trump. (And thanks for the correction on ward conference!)
I’ve been disappointed at how political our bishop and stake president have become. Our bishop continually posts misinformation about Trump and Biden and tells folks they must vote for Trump. He also visits the elderly and infirm, telling them they must have faith and start attending Sacrament Meeting again. The stake president knows this is happening and has done nothing to stop it.
Wow, Andrew, I’m sorry. That’s awful! I seriously have been worried about the issue of local leaders pushing people to “have faith” and go back to church sooner than they’re comfortable ever since church was canceled for COVID. It does seem like such a sadly predictable thing, when for so many people it seems like having faith means you have to ignore reality.
And telling people how to vote, yikes! That’s so out of line!
https://www.reddit.com/r/mormonpolitics/comments/iyi8lj/mormons_and_the_2020_presidential_election_its/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share
Compare the 2014 letter to the 2016 letter. You seem to be right on the spot
That’s an interesting edit, Frustrated. I’d like to hope that it was coincidental that they took out the words about “leaders who will act with integrity and are wise, good, and honest” just at the moment the Republicans put forward a candidate who was none of these, but it does seem like suspicious timing.
Trumpism is fundamentally about straight white English-speaking male grievance. The Church has largely abandoned the white and English-speaking part, but still promotes straight male grievance. That is enough to give members permission to get on board. And the Church’s effort to convince American members to abandon the white English-speaking grievance has been half-hearted at best, so members feel little cognitive dissonance when they embrace that too.
The church has been underming science for years, Trump not only ignores science, but truth/honesty. He is responsible for 200,000 deaths because he ignored and undermined the medical advice on how to handle the virus, and he and his followers do the same on climate change. I really think there may be some accounting on “bearing false witness” when conservative members describe democrat policies as marxism. They are more Christlike than Trump policies.
Last Lemming, that’s a great point about male grievance. Geoff-Aus, for sure it’s really sad that when the Church makes such a point of honesty being a crucial principle that Trump is such an example of just making crap up and expecting people to swallow it and so many Mormons don’t seem to mind.
I have an example of what you have written about. Two days ago I placed a Biden/Harris lawn sign in my yard. I live near an elementary school in a Mormon bedroom community in Utah. Both days one or more elementary students have stomped on and damaged the sign. How can elementary school students have such hate for Democrates? It can only be something they have learned at home. Obviously, the parents are not explaining the policies of both sides in a rational manner. They are just learning hate. I feel so sorry for America.
Wow, Dakin, yeah, that’s really sad. I’m sorry that parents are teaching their children that the way to respond to your political opponents is to try to silence them. I mean, it would be merely sad if it were a random politician. That they’re teaching their kids to do this in support of Trump is just horrifying.
I’m struck by how important abortion is the proverbial deal breaker that keeps Mormons from voting Blue when Trump is the other option. Making abortion illegal will only increase the frequency of babies being killed in utero while also increasing maternal deaths, poverty, single parenting, child abuse, etc.
So I hope Mormons on the fence so to speak take abortion off the table as a mark against Joe Biden, and realize that because legal abortion reduces the frequency he’s the better choice when Trump is the alternative.
and it’s the more christ-like thing to do if you want to look at behaviors.
You completely left out the gun angle. When I joined the church in 1974 (I was 21 years old) I was shocked at how many members not only owned guns, but how often they talked and bragged about them. No one in my family had ever owned a gun and we were all pretty much anti-gun people. Being in priesthood each Sunday made me uncomfortable whenever guns (or right-wing politics) were brought up. But you can see the Trump attraction: Trump loves gun culture and gun owners, so Mormon men love Trump. Sickening, but true. As for me, the number of guns I will own will always equal the number Jesus owned.
O God thou hast elected us that we shall be saved, whilst all around us are elected to be cast by thy wrath down to hell [because they support Trump]; for the which holiness, O God, we thank thee; and we also thank thee that thou hast elected us, that we may not be led away after the foolish traditions of our brethren [who vote for Trump], which doth bind them down to a belief of [false political ideals], which doth lead their hearts to wander far from thee, our God. And again we thank thee, O God, that we are a chosen and a holy people [and so superior to those Trump supporters in our wards”]
O God, I’ve been appalled in the last several years to see how many of my co-religionists are only too happy to cast their lot with Donald Trump. O God, how did this come to be, that a religion that is so big on rules around sex in particular, and rules in general for that matter, produced so many adherents who happily and even eagerly support such an awful person? I think the answer is that the Church set them up for it. They and the church are evil. O God cannot these Trump supporters see how flawed our church leaders are who lead them astray?
O God, I am so blessed to be superior to all of these church leaders and Trump supporters. They’re remaining loyal in the face of any evidence that they might have made a wrong choice, just as they remain loyal to the LDS Church even in the face of revelations about the Church hiding its history or hoarding wealth. Cannot they see how evil they are and how righteous and woke I am?
O God, I heard Elder Oaks and I was stunned. My mouth fell open. He’s preaching false doctrine right from the pulpit. Cannot they see how wrong and evil they are? I am the smart one: I see that Individual personal revelation is literally the foundation of the restored Church. Joseph Smith, a boy with no priesthood of any kind and no authority of any kind, spoke directly to God.
O God, this is really bothering me living in Utah during this administration, and seeing church members line up behind the appalling president. I am so much more righteous than they are so I see how wrong they are. It has certainly become harder for me to love my neighbor/parents/church leaders when they support Trump, but it seems like the Republican party is part of their religion now and they’ve become single-issue voters on abortion/religious freedom. I am so much more woke, intelligent and righteous than they.
O God, I hope those deluded Mormons on the fence take abortion off the table as a mark against Joe Biden, and realize that because legal abortion reduces the frequency he’s the better choice when Trump is the alternative. We who support killing babies right up to birth and even directly after are the righteous and smart ones.
O God the number of guns I will own will always equal the number Jesus owned and I will always be more like Jesus than any of those Trump supporters. I will also follow Jesus and call on Ceasar to solve all of our problems.
Gospel Topics: Pride, hypocrisy, arrogance, evil speaking of the Lord’s anointed.
Wow, Rameumptom, thanks! I think that’s a pretty great contribution, even if you are smacking me down.
An impressive low-key response, Ziff.
Thanks, at!