September 2005 @ 9:20 pm

Oh, the wonders of Flickr!: Reenacting a rated-R sci-fi flick in the MTC. I hope we were never this goofy back in our day but we probably were.
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I found an interesting clarification on the difference between the Church’s stands public policy and Church doctrine. The Church has expressed serious concerns about changing the Utah income tax to a “flat tax” that would eliminate charitable deductions. This prompted one lawmaker to express concern if the Church’s position represented a moral stance that would obligate its members (including 80% of the state legislature) to support.

Jonathan K. Butler, a partner in the law firm of Parsons Behle & Latimer, read a statement that he said was approved “by church leadership” that expanded on previous church statements opposing cutting the deduction. Butler said the church could support a modified flat-rate income tax, as long as that system kept the charitable deduction.
 
After Butler read his statement, Rep. John Dougall, R-Highland, a flat tax supporter, asked if the church statement “was moral” in nature. In other words, was it a matter of doctrine and faith for church leaders, “or just a public policy statement?” Dougall asked. More than 80 percent of legislators are members of the LDS Church.
 
“That’s a good question. I don’t know,” Butler said.
 
Several task force members, who are also church members, had told the Morning News that they were confused after meetings with church lobbyists: Were they being asked to support the charitable deduction as a matter of church doctrine?
 
LDS Church spokesman Dale Bills said Thursday evening: “Church statements on public policy issues reflect the united voice of church leaders. While such statements often reflect church teachings and practices, positions on matters of public policy do not rise to the level of doctrinal declarations.” [emphasis added]

Could this distinction be less applicable when the underlying reasons for the policy are more a matter of fundamental doctrinal? I doubt the Church would encourage its members to oppose the loss of charitable deductions like it did to oppose gay marriage in California several years ago.

Speculation that some GOP 2008 contenders including Gov. Romney could be painted as racists. Chalk it up to another possible liability of being a Mormon politician. Another reason why I hope Romney runs and overcomes such pathetic attacks should they arise.
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U.S. News and World Report’s Washington Whispers column reports that an anti-Romney whisper campaign has already begun.

The Mormon Thing: The Sniping Begins

?A nasty little whispering campaign is targeting likely 2008 presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, the Republican Massachusetts governor. Those who’ve heard it won’t identify the source, other than to quote “Christian leaders,” but say it focuses on Romney’s Mormonism and whether evangelicals will vote for a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. “The thrust is that he’s not a real Christian. He’s a Mormon,” says our tipster. Mormons have heard it all before and say again: They’re Christian.

This is certainly to be expected but is this news? The words “Romney” and “Mormon” go hand in hand in every national profile of the governor. And why so soon? While Romney has received plenty of positive press among conservative outlets, I would think it’s way too early for anything like a whisper campaign to be effective. If anything, it could backfire and make Romney seem more sypathetic and help him dismiss the Mormon issue as alrady having been dealt with.

I wonder (put on the tinfoil hat now) that this whisper campaign is just more of the well-calculated press that Romney has received of late to help place him as a front-runner and to in fact get a handle on the Mormon issue well before the race seriously begins. I think that right now, Romney’s biggest challenge is to not peak so soon with over-exposure while making himself the prime target for other GOP contenders to focus on. (Plus, he might want to run for reelection in that state he governs. )

Just as everyone was confused last year about whether John Kerry was a Vietnam vet, there seems to be a similar confusion this year Mitt Romney’s religious affiliation. To alleviate the confusion, National Review, the Weekly Standard, the Atlantic, and the Boston Globe among others, have profiled Governor Romney’s increasingly obvious presidential aspirations and while breaking the news that, yes in fact, he is a Mormon.

Sarcasm aside, the big question is of course whether evangelical christians could support a Mormon candidate. My take is: who knows? Sure many evangelicals are outright vocal and hostile towards Mormons and our church. But does this translate to politics? Unfortunately, it too often does. Amy Sullivan offers an excellent look at why Mormonism has been a liability in politics (outside Utah of course):

By now, reporters are used to Protestant candidates, but they eat up any chance to explore a new religious angle. They peppered Lieberman with questions in 2000 about whether he could campaign on the Sabbath and followed John Kerry to mass every week during the 2004 campaign to probe his views on the Eucharist. As the first serious LDS presidential candidate, Romney is an oddity. News outlets will feature charts comparing Mormon theology to Christian doctrine, and stories detailing various dietary and clothing restrictions. Again, this may help demystify Mormonism for average voters who may be generally uneasy about the faith, but it will only serve to remind evangelicals of the differences between the two religions. Indeed, Romney faces an unwinnable dilemma: The more information that circulates about the specifics of his faith, the more hesitant evangelical voters will be to support him.

Conservatives are beginning to worry about Romney’s viability with evangelicals, even if they’re not saying so publicly just yet. One LDS politician has been quietly making the rounds to Washington wise men to get their sense of what evangelical opposition would mean for Romney in the primaries. Meanwhile, Robert Novak, who is as closely connected to conservative sources as anyone in the nation’s capitol, wrote in June that Romney’s Mormonism is “his one great liability as a presidential candidate.”

The tragedy—or, depending on your point of view, the irony—is that Mitt Romney may just be the most appealing candidate Republicans can field in 2008, the one most likely to win the White House by shoring up social conservatives and rallying business interests without frightening swing voters. Yet the modern GOP’s reliance on evangelical voters and its elevation of personal religiosity—strategies which have served the party so well in recent years—may doom the chances of this most promising candidate. Or, to put it in evangelical terms, it might be easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for Mitt Romney to win the Republican nomination.

However, there has been some movement on the part of some Evangelicals to accept Mormon polticians. Charles Colson has offered some qualified praise for Romney and Senator Crapo participated in last month’s evangelical-run Sunday Justice II. I reserve some hope that if the choice for the GOP nomination is between Romney and Rudy Guiliani or a presidential race between Romney and Hillary Clinton, evangelicals would have the good sense to see that their politcal interests would lie with Romney.

Regardless, what Sullivan calls Romney’s “unwinnable dilemma” may be a good thing for Mormons everywhere. Greater scrutiny and exposure will result in a greater understanding and tolerance for future LDS politicians, if not now, then down the line. Those hardcore Mormon haters will only make themselves look like fools and hurt their cause as the Conference demonstrators do at Temple Square. I don’t need (or want) theological approval or validation. I would be happy with recognition that common political beliefs qualify us to work together regardless of the whatever theological differences we may have.

But hey, it’s 2005 people! I understand that the Mormon angle makes for good fodder and speculation right now in the off-off season but who knows what the next three years will hold for electoral possibilities?

This comparison of Apple Stores to Mormon Temples may explain why I nearly worship Steve Jobs as the demi-god he probably thinks he is. And with 11 (soon 12) temples in Utah, this may also explain why there are no Apple Stores in Utah (although one is rumored to be coming to the Gateway someday). “In my mind, Apple Stores are comporable [sic] to Mormon temples. Both are finely crafted from the best materials. Both are well lit. Both are designed in keeping with their brand identity. Both are closed on Sundays. Oh, wait. Apple Stores are actually open on Sundays.”
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Today’s APOD picture is a Quadruple Sky over the Great Salt Lake.
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The Church issued a statement Friday after the federal government approved a license for a waste storage dump on the in Utah. Salt Lake Tribune – Salt Lake Tribune Home Page:

We regret [the] decision by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to authorize the issuance of a license that would allow storage of radioactive waste in Skull Valley. Storage of nuclear waste is a matter of significant public interest that requires thorough scrutiny.

Interestingly, this pits Nevada Senator Harry Reid against his fellow LDS Congressmen in Utah with Washington considering dueling plans to put nuclear waste in each others’ states.

Terry Mattingly (whose always a worthwhile read) thinks Governor Romney’s Mormon issue is only beginning as our theology becomes painted as polytheistic.
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Till We Meet Again – Doctrinal:net.
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As his wife’s health was failing, President Hinckley took up cooking more and more at home and continues to do so today. It’s a good reminder to eat at home but I’m not so sure about the Prophet’s oyster dish.
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President Packer, Elders Nelson and Ballard, as well as some other General Authorities visited a Baton Rouge shelter before flying over New Orleans and on to Mississppi yesterday.

The General Authorities held a brief meeting at the Baton Rouge stake center. Some of President Packer’s remarks included:

“We want nothing except the opportunity to help,” he explained to them. To those in Baton Rouge, he said, “This is going to be a long, long, difficult road ahead of us. And at the end of that long road, we will still be there. We stick with it and we stay with it until we do everything we can to help.

“Our one concern is for the families. The biggest tragedy would be the dissolution of the families. Children from parents and parents from children, and their separation from our Father in Heaven.”

President Packer told the survivors, most of whom are from New Orleans, that he would offer the closing prayer in the form of a blessing upon them, and that the “power of blessings are the very best thing in the church. The blessings we invoke are not incidental . . . but contain all of the power we have as apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ.”

President Packer petitioned a blessing in behalf of all those involved in the natural disaster, for “fathers and mothers and the children,” and for “those families where there is not a father present,” and for “the mothers and their little children who have little or nothing now,” and those “reaching out to help.”

He asked that family members can “find one another in all this difficulty of people moving back and forth.”

He noted that from day to day, some will push the tragedy into the background. “Bless us that we will not forget, and that others will not forget,” he said.

John Hesch and KZION are celebrating five years. Congratulations! Incidentally, this blog and LDS & Mormon Blogs are helpfully hosted by KZION. If you are considering a hosting service, I would highly recommend KZION.
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A little Mormon trivia from a widely-circulated obituary for Chief Justice Rehnquist. “He once gave a Mormon clerk an old square iron nail he had picked up in Utah, where he watched workers remodel one of Brigham Young’s pioneer homes.” Rest in peace.
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Get off the Internet and visit someone!
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I thought the Napoleon Dynamite phenomenon had peaked with $50 million at the box office and $104 million in DVD sales(!). But with it being the number one licensed merchandise among boys, it’s only getting stronger.
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A German media outlet interviewed Elder Dieter Uchtdorf. The article actually doesn’t include a lot from Elder Uchtdorf but gives an overview of his life as a refugee twice over who became Lufthansa airline’s chief pilot. It’s clear that the author finds some novelty in that Elder Uchtdorf has gone from being a successful airline pilot to being an “Apostle” (scare quotes theirs).

Among Elder Uchtdorf’s few comments: he takes issue that the Church is a sect and that other churches pretend to speak authoritatively on the Church’s true beliefs. He also had some very interesting comments on the differences between Germany and the United States.

Uchtdorf added that he believes that it is much easier to be a Mormon in the United States than it is in Germany and the rest of Europe. The freedom to worship is more accepted in the US due to Europe’s history of the state abusing the power of religion, according to Uchtdorf.

 

He also said he believes that Germany could learn a lot from the Mormons, in particular the rediscovery of the sanctity of marriage and the importance of the family. But the United States, he added, could also learn how to be more supportive and how to reduce its egoism.

Flickr: The original Cristus
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Churches are podcasting sermons for those who can’t make it in person. The Church has similar resources for General Conference and with the excellent BYU Speeches site. But it would be nice if they used RSS. LDS Podcast sites will be added tonight to Mormon-blogs.com.
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The Church has posted next year’s manual for “Teachings of Presidents of the Church – Wilford Woodruff“

In response to the Salt Lake Tribune’s articles on declining Church membership, Elder Merrill J. Bateman, of First Quorum of the Seventy, appeared on KUER on Tuesday.

Elder Bateman agreed that church members are a declining majority in Utah but that the percentage is still around 70 percent. Elder Bateman said that the Tribune’s numbers were off because it did not take into account “in-transit” members.

The Tribune “was absolutely right in saying there is a declining majority,” Bateman said. “We are aware of it.”

But he also said the data provided to the state excluded the “in-transit members.”

He defined “in-transit members” as “people who are moving,” but Bateman didn’t describe how the LDS Church counts those people.

One in 10 Utah Mormons – or 182,873 – were in the “in-transit” category in 2003, according to Bateman’s on-the-air explanation of why numbers the church provides to the state are significantly lower than those published in the Church Almanac. Using the higher numbers, 70.5 percent of Utahns were LDS in 2003, not 63 percent as The Tribune analysis showed relying on member numbers the church provided to the state. Those county-by-county numbers were kept secret by the church and state until The Tribune obtained them through an open-records request. Inactive Mormons who rarely, if ever, attend church meetings, are included in all membership numbers.

Regardless of which percentage is correct, “Bateman urged Mormons to be welcoming of their new neighbors and to make friends, even if they are not interested in learning about the LDS faith.”

Elder Bateman also agreed that conversions have slowed down but attributed it mostly to a smaller pool of eligible missionaries. While the “raise the bar” program has also lowered missionary numbers, the missionary pool has transitioned from the children of baby boomers to the the grandchildren of those from the depression era. That slump in birth demographics has produced the current decline in missionaries.

And as to low retention:

As to low activity rates reported in much of South America, Africa and elsewhere, Bateman said the rates will rise as the church becomes more established over the years.

He agreed the LDS Church’s worldwide membership, reported at 12 million, includes many who no longer consider themselves Mormon, but he disagreed with researchers who estimated active Mormons equal only 4 million.

Bateman said that number doesn’t count those in undeveloped countries who find it difficult to attend sacrament meetings.

“So you might have in the neighborhood of . . . 4 [million] and 5 million members attending church at any given time, but those who are active would be more than that.”

Elder Bateman also makes note of the “scriptural mandate” to keep membership records and to keep someone’s name on the rolls once they are baptized. He also adds that as an area becomes more established over time, the activity level improves.

Check out the article for some nifty mp3 clips.

Sign up for daily or weekly emails of events in the life of Joseph Smith (via T&S)
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The Church alters plans for lobbying state legislators about a proposed flat tax and charitable deductions after Deseret News inquiries. Not only are they serious about separation of Church and State but a separation between the Church and its own newspaper.
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A Motley Vision goes Bloggernacle Choir!
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Two events of a note coming up: on September 9 a Federal Marriage Amendment Conference at the Law School and Historian David McCullough will be speaking at a devotional on September 27.
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