LDS Democracy Network - 10/28/2023

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We finally have a Speaker of the House and tomorrow’s a Fifth Sunday! Here’s your weekly update from LDS Democracy Network:

Of good report: standing for safer communities

Our hearts are breaking for everyone impacted by the shooting in Lewiston, Maine. Yesterday was also the fifth anniversary of the attack on the Tree of Life community. So today we’re sharing stories of people working together for safer communities.

In San Antonio, Texas, faith groups are partnering with local governments and nonprofits to run a voluntary gun exchange on November 19th. Another part of the program:

The Florida Department of Children and Families is training clergy on how to help members of their congregation survive domestic violence. Rev. Michael Neely, who experienced domestic violence in his first marriage, sums up the importance of the 16-hour training, which goes beyond spiritual guidance: “The advice for a man was the same advice that was given to a [woman]: ‘stay and pray.’ That’s bad theology, that’s bad advice. We want to remove ‘stay and pray’ from our vocabulary and replace it with ‘leave and pray.’”

The US Department of Homeland Security has resources to help protect faith communities. A recent webinar conducted by DHS Assistant Secretary Samantha Vinograd is available here.

Sometimes safety is built through interfaith ties. Muslim, Christian, and Jewish Pittsburghers have taken a variety of steps to forge community in the years since the Tree of Life attack. Muslims raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to cover funeral costs; Christians opened their buildings so their Jewish neighbors could have a play to pray. The collaboration has grown into a project to remodel the aging Hunt Armory into an ice skating rink where youth can learn how to skate and the different communities can share space with one another.

Context matters: state and local elections

(Content warning: pregnancy loss.)

November 7th is election day. Most of us aren’t voting for governor (unless you live in Kentucky or Mississippi) or state legislature (those states plus Virginia and New Jersey), but almost every state has some sort of election going on. Ballotpedia has a not-bad list here, though Rob notes that it’s missing the Fayetteville, NC municipal elections. Here’s a look at some of the biggest races around the country:

Virginia: Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin eked out a narrow victory over Terry McAuliffe two years ago and Republicans won a majority of the House of Delegates while Democrats held onto the State Senate. Governor Youngkin is hoping for a flip of the State Senate so he can pass a “15-week” abortion ban, something nearly three-quarters of Virginia voters oppose.

Kentucky: The question of what post-Dobbs abortion policy looks like has also been a key issue in Kentucky. Kentucky is under a so-called trigger law, which had no provisions for survivors of rape or incest or nonviable pregnancies with no chance of survival. Andy Beshear, the Democratic incumbent governor, would prefer to bring state law into line with Roe, while Daniel Cameron, the Republican Attorney General and gubernatorial challenger, recently modified his position from maintaining the “no exemptions” law to supporting very narrow exemptions.

Mississippi: This Southern state provides an interesting test case of how voters treat corruption in our polarized, fractured media era. Republican Tate Reeves, the incumbent, has been dogged by questions about a scandal: when he was lieutenant governor, the Department of Human Services took funds that were supposed to put food on the tables of the state’s poorest residents and spent them on a volleyball arena, luxury travel, and developing an anti-concussion drug. Mississippi Today, the nonprofit newsroom that first broke the news of the scandal, has a good recap on what’s known, and not, about Reeves’ involvement here.

New Jersey: One of the key issues in this year’s New Jersey legislative races is the state’s move toward offshore wind. It’s worth noting that the ads attacking offshore wind energy are being funded by fossil fuel interests.

Out of the best books: Religion of a Different Color

W. Paul Reeve is the Simmons Chair of Mormon History Studies at the University of Utah and author of Religion of a Different Color: Race and the Mormon Struggle for Whiteness [Bookshop.org link]. It “explores the ways in which nineteenth-century Protestant white America made outsiders out of an inside religious group.” The book provides detailed examples and context on how Mormons were dehumanized like other marginalized peoples in order to justify violent expulsion and persecution.

Religion of a Different Color reveals the struggle experienced by Mormons as they tried to convince Americans they were just like other Protestants. At one point Joseph Smith allowed phrenologists to examine his head “in order to satisfy” “a large number of persons in different places” who had “manifested a desire to know the Phrenological development of Joseph Smith’s head.” [Ed.: That explains that scene in Seventh Son!]

If this book has been in your want-to-read pile for a while, bump it toward the top. If you have never heard of the book, add it to your list. While Reeve spends most of the book exploring historical attitudes toward Mormonism and Latter-day Saints, it feels relevant in the context of today’s resurgence of white Christian Nationalism. Understanding the techniques used against us in the past helps us recognize them when they are deployed against us or others.

Religion of a Different Color is worth a read. It has won the following awards from people who read a lot of history books:

• Mormon History Association’s Best Book Award

• John Whitmer Historical Association’s Smith-Pettit Best Book Award

• Utah State Historical Society’s Francis Armstrong Madsen Best History Book Award

Nathan and Rob both loved the book too. But, to quote Levar Burton, don’t take our word for it!

Ward newsletter: Latter-day Saints taking civic action

We mentioned last week the involvement of Mormon Women for Ethical Government in an interesting effort to move Idaho to open, all-party primaries and a top-four, ranked-choice general election. From their endorsement of the effort:

This week we’re also profiling candidates who are 1) running in the 2023 elections, 2) are Latter-day Saints, 3) have a pro-democracy platform, and 4) are running outside of the core of Jello Belt. (Know someone else who fits this criteria? Reply to this email! We also want to hear about 2024 candidates!)

D. Ryan Grover is the Democratic Party nominee for Lieutenant Governor of Mississippi, running on a platform of expanding voting rights and improving the state’s economy (campaign website). When asked to reflect on his decision to run for office, he replied:

Jordan Morales is running for Boise City Council on a platform of affordable and attainable housing and childcare, improving walking and biking infrastructure, and protecting the environment (campaign website). His reflections on why he ran:

Of our own free will: religious freedom and the new Speaker of the House

Since Representative Mike Johnson’s election as Speaker of the House, reporters have highlighted his extreme views, including on immigration, and his instrumental role in ex-President Trump’s effort to overturn the 2020 election.

Rob is reflecting on Speaker Johnson’s views regarding Christianity, the Constitution, and our shared democracy. As historian Kristin Kobes Du Mez observed in Politico:

The whole interview is worth reading, including Du Mez’s comments on the history of “republic, not a democracy” language on the Christian Right, who receives the basic respect of human dignity from the far-right, and how politically conservative Christianity can work hand-in-hand with trickle-down economics.

As Latter-day Saint Christians, many of us are familiar with the wide range of attitudes Southern Baptists can take toward our own faith, from thoughtful dialogue to politically-motivated jabs. (Governor Huckabee apologized the next day, claiming ignorance.)

One place the Church and evangelical Christian organizations have cooperated has been religious freedom protections. A common introduction to the topic is the 2002 case where a New York hamlet tried to ban Jehovah’s Witnesses from going door-to-door. Our Church filed a brief on the side of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, and the Supreme Court ultimately found for them in an 8-1 decision. The new Speaker spent much of his career working for a religious freedom organization. So we should be excited about him, right?

Well…

As Latter-day Saints, we recognize that freedom of religion is neither a trump card for state enforcement of particular theological interpretations nor immune to abuse. President Oaks commented during a 2021 address at the University of Virginia:

We also shouldn’t assume that one party, or one outside organization, has a monopoly on truth regarding freedom of religion—see the spread of definitions and priorities that emerged at a recent US House committee hearing. Just this week, ex-President Trump promised to block immigrants who “don’t like our religion.” Back in 2020, the center-left Center for American Progress released a lengthy report on the ways the Trump administration undermined freedom of religion and harmed communities of faith.

We have been instructed by the First Presidency to go beyond “straight-ticket” voting. Political parties and politicians are fallible. So are newsletter editors! But Rob is especially concerned about how Speaker Johnson’s former employer Alliance Defending Freedom is pushing to allow more book bans and shutter government agencies they don’t like, funding court cases based on imaginary situations (like the recent wedding website case), and treating freedom of religion as a license to discriminate.

Fortunately, Speaker of the House is more about managing coalitions than developing specific policies, but Speaker Johnson’s election is an apt time to remember three things about our own civic engagement:

1. “Freedom of religion” can mean a lot of different things to different people.

2. Democracy, pluralism, and freedom of religion go hand-in-hand.

3. Just because a politician is using familiar phrases doesn’t make them automatically our friend—we should judge our leaders and potential leaders “by their fruits.”

One more praiseworthy thing

The newsletter this week feels heavy. Weighed down by news reports of horrific violence and the ominous election of a new Speaker for the US House of Representatives. So here is something lighter and different—a video game recommendation.

Chants of Sennaar is a puzzle adventure game where you play as a character called “The Traveler” through a rich world inspired by the Tower of Babel. The civilization is fractured and unable to communicate. Each faction occupies a different level of the tower and your job is to learn each language well enough to enable each group to talk to each other. A classic, can’t-we-all-just-get-along tale set in a stunning visual world where figuring out what to do next takes deliberate thought.

The game is single player but Nathan had a lot of fun playing with a group. It introduces multiple written languages that must be deciphered in order to progress up the ominous tower. Controlling the character is secondary to solving the puzzles and decoding the various languages. Nathan found the discussion around whether a symbol means “follow me” or “run away” to be an exercise in collaboration. For maximum enjoyment play with a friend, partner, or older children.

Chants of Sennaar is available now on multiple platforms including Nintendo Switch, PC, XBOX, and PlayStation.

Until next week!