When Donald Trump gave his victory speech the other night, having been elected the 47th president of the United States, he mentioned something along the lines of what other sycophants have uttered and what many religious types continue to utter, namely that God spared his life for this moment, implying that the Almighty not only wanted him to be the next leader of the free world but also had arranged for it.
I could imagine the Great One up above hearing that and saying: “Good God Almighty, no, no, no, leave me out of this.”
The heavens, indeed, had nothing to do with Trump’s victory, although some Utahns, more than a few of them members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, might fall in with the God-has-spoken crowd.
At a minimum, they have spoken, joining tens of millions of other Americans — some of them educated, some of them not so much — who designated Trump, despite his flaws, his convictions, his lies, his wide-ranging character issues, as the man (emphasis, in this case, on man) — to be put back in power, to attempt to transform his vitriolic campaign rhetoric into reality.
While no candidate has ever been perfect, few have rivaled Trump’s level of personal imperfection. But the people have done their voting, and, as is tradition in this country, other than when Trump himself loses an election, the candidate on the short end of the count goes ahead and accepts the results. That’s what democracy-loving individuals do. That’s what country-first voters do.
They don’t have to like those results. They can be astounded by them, baffled by them, troubled by them, worried about the adverse effects those results will have on innocent people bound to be harmed in the months and years ahead and the benefits bound to be gained by guilty folks who will be pardoned or otherwise let off the hook.
That leaves many Latter-day Saints, at least those who not only vehemently disagree with Trump on his ideology and intentions but also are repulsed by his past behaviors, stuck in a kind of no-man’s-no woman’s land, with extra layers of concern.
There may be a way out or through, if the church and its followers are open-minded enough to make it happen. There is a chance, granted, that a proposed solution here could make it worse. But, all things considered, it’s a risk worth the potential reward. More on that in a minute.
Charity never faileth
Like other dissenting Americans, many Latter-day Saints are willing to acquiesce to the will of the people even as they are befuddled by and worried about the way the majority voted. The attendant distress put upon those folks comes in the form of an uneasiness stemming from so many of their fellow church members throwing in with Trump, even as so much of who he is, what he does runs counter to darn-near everything they are taught from the pulpit on Sundays, the opposite of so much of what they are instructed to do and be by their ecclesiastical leaders and by what’s written in their scriptures, including the Bible and the Book of Mormon.
They don’t trust Trump, and now they don’t trust the judgment of their fellow churchgoers, asking, “How can these others hear what they hear and profess what they profess and believe what they believe, and still champion this particular individual?”
One of the reasons Latter-day Saints gather on the first Sunday of almost every month for a service that’s called “fast and testimony meeting” is to bolster one another’s faith, to take turns standing and publicly bearing witness to their beliefs to other congregants. This is supposed to be a tide of faithful verbal expression that lifts all boats. “If Sister Thompson and Brother Johnson believe that church President Russell Nelson is a prophet, yeah, so can I.” That sort of thing.
But if Brother Johnson and Sister Thompson are also gullible enough and uncaring enough to believe and/or accept Trump’s lies and embrace his vindictiveness, then … maybe their judgment on religious matters might not be so sound, after all.
American Latter-day Saints who would never vote for Trump and who can’t relate to or understand those who would or did are moving forward challenged by a collision of ideals, one American and one Christian. They are to accept — or at least tolerate — the will of the people as it pertains to a leader they so adamantly dislike, who they think will be a threat to the health of their nation, and to love their neighbors, including so many Trump supporters inside and outside of their faith.
A conundrum for Latter-day Saints — and for all Christians, really — is to reach out to and find charity for those Americans who accept Trump’s intentions enough to have voted for him, intentions and policies that sometimes evidence and extend to others so little Christlike charity.
On the campaign trail, Trump said, in so many words, that he would go after people, fellow Americans, whom he considers enemies. Some interpreted that as anyone who disagrees with him.
If that’s what he meant, that’s about as un-American, as defined by the country’s founders, as a president’s cause could be.
People who voted for Trump have their reasons. Those who can barely stand the man have their reasons, too. Inflation needs to be tamed; the economy needs to be strengthened; the borders need to be secured. In addition, racism must be stopped; women’s rights must be protected and advanced; leaders and others who commit crimes must be held accountable; homophobia needs to be squelched; transgender people must be respected and safeguarded; democracy must be preserved; and on and on.
Look to Christ
(The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) "The Sermon on the Mount," by Harry Anderson.
Instead of shying away from these issues and the differences that undeniably exist — and that at this moment are nothing short of raw inside the faith — church leaders should use their asserted inspiration to encourage greater education and civil discussion among their members. Yes, the church’s mission is presented as mostly spiritual, but at times political issues are spiritual or certainly have spiritual elements to them. When immigrants, even here legally, are made out to be human debris, a mix of the mentally ill and criminals, poison to the nation’s lifeblood, leaders could and should preach more pointedly to their followers the need for compassion than they typically do. Not just in some vague scriptural sense, rather as it pertains to pragmatics of the here and now.
Conversely, they could and should also ask the faithful to consider the importance of meaningful immigration reform. There are a multitude of other matters that could and should be explored, all against the backdrop of charitable Christian basics. Go ahead and talk about the important stuff. Stay neutral if need be. But on every subject, ponder, more literally, what Jesus, the purported center of the church’s teachings, would do. Would the Son of Man, a Messiah who spent much of his ministry among the marginalized, favor mass deportations?
That’s a topic worth addressing and discussing. Overlay the Latter-day Saint gospel on top of hot topics of the day, acknowledging what is real and the disagreements that emerge from them, while underscoring the importance of finding common ground. OK, the church might not want to take sides — what it did with California’s Proposition 8 was disastrous — but it could be helpful to emphasize what Jesus taught in turbulent times. Hit it, again and again.
It might also want to wash away whatever church leaders in the past — Ezra Taft Benson, anyone? — did to make conservative Republicanism such a one-sided deal among Latter-day Saints. To be clear, GOP is not short for God’s Own Party. The R-word does not stand for righteousness, and the D-word does not stand for the devil.
That’s a signal top church leaders repeatedly send — reminding members that “principles compatible with the gospel may be found in various political parties” and warning against “straight-ticket” voting — but the message seems to get lost in partisan translation.
God said in the Good Book, if you believe in it and roll that way, to love your neighbor, not just your neighbor who agrees with you. It’s complicated, I get it, because what if your neighbor, or your president, doesn’t seem to love others the way God commands? Everyone, present company included, can do better following that edict.
Donald Trump, such as he is, will be president. All right, then.
With any good fortune, any good sense in and around the once and future president, and with resolve for what is good and just for individuals and the country as a whole, especially from a perspective inside a faith like Mormonism, and from those out of it, as well, bridges can be built, must be built, understanding can and must be found, compromise can and must be negotiated, extremism can and must be limited.
Maybe that’s naive, a pipe dream, but without hope for some degree of unifying connection, a religion such as The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is greatly compromised, not to mention democracy itself and everything it was meant to be.
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Tribune columnist Gordon Monson.
