The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — my church — is asking its members to fast and pray that religious freedoms will be strengthened worldwide. In a March 12 letter, the faith’s governing First Presidency is putting its weight behind every good and appropriate opportunity to celebrate America’s founding documents as our nation celebrates its 250th birthday.
Religious freedom around the world is in terrible shape and needs every prayer of relief. But the First Presidency’s letter is about religious freedom in America. Its focus is America. We are to celebrate America’s 250th anniversary and the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.
I have a 40-plus-year career in politics, so my bona fides are solid in my defense of our founding documents, especially the often-overlooked Declaration of Independence. This is what authentic political and intellectual conservatives do — we defend and articulate anything that advances true freedom. Our founding documents clearly advance true freedom.
(Chris Greenberg | The New York Times) A copy from the first print run of the Declaration of Independence at the National Archives in Washington.
But those documents are only as good as the people who live under their protective umbrella. Even closer to reality, those documents are only as good as the individual judgments of nine persons sitting on the U.S. Supreme Court. And it always has been so.
As a Latter-day Saint, I know our founding documents were inspired to help create a safe place from which to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ. But before we get too excited about this First Presidency request, we should pause for a moment to align the request with a few realities.
A sometimes friend
First, the U.S. Constitution is only a friend to Latter-day Saints when political and judicial leaders are our friends. Again, the document is only as good as the people invoking its text. Frankly, the U.S. Constitution, as inspired as it is in its construction, is often not a friend of the Saints. The Constitution did not protect the religious rights of the early Saints. It did not save church founder Joseph Smith. In fact, before his murder, Joseph created and called upon a Council of Fifty to rewrite a constitution that would protect the Saints and, failing that, he asked the group to find the Saints a home outside of the United States.
(National Archives via AP and Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) President Dallin H. Oaks, with the U.S. Constitution.
Second, what religious freedoms are we being asked to fast and pray for? The church has limited religious freedoms because it long ago decided to bend a knee to the secular state through its quest for tax-exempt status. The church can only exercise religious freedoms the state grants it. No? Then why the need for the church to request so many legal exemptions from laws with which everyone else is forced to abide? Accepting tax-exempt status also limits the degree to which the church can aid its members’ rights of individual religious conscience.
Third, I ask again, what religious freedoms are we concerned about? I ask because there have been a couple of highly visible examples of the church protecting religious freedom at the expense of its members and its doctrine.
The most obvious example is the church’s political machinations in 2015 to create the “Utah Compromise” that gave LGBTQ+ Utahns rights in employment and housing. But the compromise was really more about religious freedom. The compromise permitted the church, any Utah church to be exact, essentially to discriminate against LGBTQ+ individuals — exempting itself from the antidiscrimination laws the compromise created. There would be no “gay pride,” for instance, on Temple Square.
But the compromise also raised other concerns over religious freedom in Utah. While the institutional church was able to exempt itself in the name of religious freedom, its members were not afforded the same luxury. The religious freedom of individual Latter-day Saints in Utah was diminished by the compromise. They were forced to accept the full terms of the compromise. So I ask, just which religious freedoms are we fasting and praying for?
The marriage act
(The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, center, joins former U.S. Sen. Gordon H. Smith of Oregon, left, and general authority Seventy Jack N. Gerard for a photo before the signing of the Respect for Marriage Act by President Joe Biden at the White House in 2022.
Another problematic issue over religious freedom arose from the church’s behind-the-scenes orchestration and public endorsement of the Respect for Marriage Act in 2022. Evidently, religious freedom was so threatened by same-sex marriage that the church agreed to Congress codifying same-sex marriage in return for even more exemptions from the new law of the land.
In each case, members were told that the doctrine has not changed. The church opposes same-sex marriage and says acting on same-sex attractions is a sin. In each case, members were told religious freedom required both agreements. But, as a matter of legal fact, no religious freedoms were threatened in either scenario. The Utah Compromise was political, not legal, and the marriage act did not provide any new religious freedom protections.
So as obedient Latter-day Saints fast and pray for religious freedom, they should ask, in all humility, just which religious freedoms in Utah and America are under attack and why.
(Courtesy) Commentator Paul Mero.
Note to readers • Paul Mero is the author of “Defeated: A Latter-day Saint’s Witness and Warning From 40 Years Deep Inside the Modern American Culture War.”