Opining about opinion

Karl Marx once opined that religion was the opiate of the masses.  Chaz proposes another view: that politics is the true opiate, giving the masses such a nice big bone to worry, they’re too busy with it to look up and see the real folks who are breaking into their houses.  My own opinion is that religion and politics are best kept apart—unless you have a government that is actually run by God himself, which does not often happen.  And if you think your version of government fits that bill, you are a dangerous person.

The LDS religion is very different from other religions in many ways.  But in one very essential consideration it is no different than any other: all of its earthly members are human beings.  It is on this point that every religion from the beginning of time has run into trouble: for as many people as there are, there are just that many ways of skinning a  – I don’t want to say cat.  Fish.  Fish fits.

There is no uniform quality of character in LDS members.  Some try very hard to do what is truly right and good.  Some just try.  Some give it a shot.  Some glide.  Some just hedge their bets.  And some swing their religion like a club—defending their opinions, or their comfort or advantage, or their neat little view of the world—manipulating and intimidating and generally making a hash out of the very gospel they claim to espouse.  As I said: human.  I suppose all of us pass through all of these states constantly as we progress through our lives.  Thus, an assessment of our character should probably be more a matter of proportion than of purity.

This morning, Chaz sent me a link to this article.  I had never heard of this “proclamation” before I read Scott Card’s editorial.  Evidently, the thing’s been making the rounds.  I just shake my head.  Anybody can proclaim something – all you need is a raised surface and a loud voice.  But to make a proclamation is another thing all together.  The word suggests a formal and definitive statement made by those with the authority to back up the words.  To cobble together a “statement” out of sound bites is questionable practice and smacks of a certain prejudicial thought practice.  It also is a sham, a pretence of authority.

And here is one of the places where religion and politics depart from one another: a political government has the power to compel its people physically.  Religion’s power is in persuasion, including the regulating and denying of membership.

Here I will say that I find web sites and magazines that mix Mormonism (or any religion – but I know my own best, and am most sensitive about it) and politics distasteful, no matter which “side” of center they adopt.  If a person has political opinions, let him speak them – but let him leave his religion out of the deal.  Politics should be satisfied by reason and logic, by history and social science: what works socially and what doesn’t.  I’m fairly sure that, in the end, what works is going to turn out to be exactly what would have been dictated by a true religion.  But that’s beside the point. 

The point is, no man has the right to claim that as he stands on his political soap box, God is standing behind him, smiling and nodding in agreement.  And I don’t like it when some opinionated Voice sets himself up as representative of me and my very official religious affiliation and then spouts political opinion.  I resent it.  I am disgusted and repelled by it.  I wanna sue.

In my time, the actual church has made only ONE formal and official proclamation, and that was the Proclamation on the Family.  That, you may not agree with (sadly), but you may trust it is representative of the beliefs of the LDS church.  What that means to you in terms of politics, you must argue out with all the other political folks out there, and may you have a rousing good time with it.  If you want a religious debate, then find someone interested in doing that.  I’m not, by the way.  I don’t debate my beliefs.  I love discussing, but not debating.

So here is my point, I guess: just because somebody has slapped the moniker “Mormon” on some site or some article or some publication – DON’T ASSUME IT HAS ANYTHING TO DO WITH THE LDS CHURCH, unless you find that it has been copyrighted by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (or however they spell it).  And even if you see that copyright, be careful, because anybody can write anything on line.   Anyone is welcome to opine about the LDS church, or to speculate on its meaning.  But there are NO “Mormon Experts” who are either Mormons commenting on politics or non-Mormons commenting on Mormon beliefs who can speak definitively for the church itself.  Only those in Authority in the church can make defining statements.  And it is rare as hens’ teeth when they make any political statement at all other than “Vote and let your voice be heard.”

And as for those who think every LDS person is right wing?  That’s a statement of prejudice.  My friends and plenty of people I have reason to respect fall on “both” sides of the aisle and in every degree.

If there’s a question that makes a diff to you, check out everything at LDS.org, where they have drawn the lines in the sand very clearly.  I’d rather not have you judge the stable by a couple of ill-gotten asses out in the field.