Recent events have looked rather apocalyptic to me, both Israel’s wars and the US’s treatment of Latinos. Huge events seem to happen so quickly that I worry any attempt to blog about them will be old news by the time this post goes up.
Trump has quite staunch support among conservative evangelicals, and I’ve seen lots of quotes, pictures, and art portraying Trump as some kind of divine tool to work for evangelicals’ agendas. Mike Huckbee’s recent text strikes me as particularly extreme.
Religious support for Trump is no doubt a very big topic with all different kinds of views, and I’m happy that the polls generally show Mormon support for Trump being lower than evangelicals. Prominent Mormon politicians like Mitt Romney and Jeff Flake were some of the leading Republicans against Trump, and Mike Lee even did some of that in 2016.
Yet Mormon support for Trump still strikes me as problematically too high, and evoking Mormon tropes for Trump like Lee calling him like Captain Moroni really hits me as a kind of fundamental misunderstanding of the Book of Mormon. The Book of Mormon clearly warns against people like Trump with figures like Amalikiah, and I see pretty much no significant similarities between Trump and Moroni.
Indeed, I worry that as Mormons merge politically with the American religious right, they take on the religious politics of that movement in ways that overlook important warnings in Mormon scripture. Warnings of Amalickiah’s behavior is one of them, but as I noted in my last post that the Book of Mormon has some pretty dire warning about how white people treat Americans with Native ancestry.
Considering that Trump’s campaign and policies were highly anti-immigrant with a focus on Latinos suggests to me that Mormon support for Trump is really overlooking quite a bit of the Book of Mormon.
1 Nephi 13:26 declares, “Because of these things [the plain and precious truth removed from the Bible] which are taken away out of the gospel of the Lamb, an exceedingly great many do stumble, yea, insomuch that Satan hath great power over them.”
No doubt that scripture can refer to a lot of things, but I can’t help but view Trump’s very strong support among evangelicals as “stumbl[ing].” The same chapter says that the Book of Mormon (and other forthcoming scriptures) will restore that lost truth, but I worry that as Mormons unite with the American religious right, they take on “that awful state of blindness, which [Nephi saw the Gentiles were] in, because of the plain and most precious parts of the gospel of the Lamb which have been kept back” (32).
I really see the Book of Mormon warning against Trump, both his demagoguery and his attacks on those with Native ancestry. This John Stewart clip on Lee (minute 25) has Lee complaining about the Latino “invasion,” and Lee’s unhinged tweets about the Minnesota killings have looked particularly extreme. Considering that Lee made a bit of a principled stand against Trump in 2016, I can’t help but view Lee’s decent into this “awful state of blindness” as what can happen when one makes political compromises against the fundamentals of the Book of Mormon’s teachings.
Comments
14 responses to ““Many Do Stumble”: Not Embracing Our Fuller Truth”
It seems pretty scriptural to see worshipers of Gods biggest stumbling block and issue to be their own poor compliance with the ethics of their own teachings. This past week Mike Lee was the most prominent anti-Mormon by his behavior. With Israel as a concept for believers we do respect a Latter day gathering but it’s supposed to be under Gods terms which is righteousness. I understand reasons for war aren’t black or white but the “collateral damage” in Gaza is extreme and feels like a Mountain Meadows every day. When cruelty becomes a sub goal of a country, that people is on a path to degradation if it can’t break the cycle. Moroni saw this as the reason for a peoples downfall: “And if they perish it will be… because of the wilfulness of their hearts, seeking for blood and revenge.”
Iran I’m not sure my take on this conflict from a religious perspective. It is partial self defense but it’s their doing for escalation. War can improve enemies in the long run but can also end up harming both countries in the short and long term.
The Book of Mormon warns repeatedly against leaders who stir up their people to anger and describes it as a way to gain power. Amalickiah is the archetype, but this description is about Zerahemnah:
“For behold, his designs were to stir up the Lamanites to anger against the Nephites; this he did that he might usurp great power over them [the Lamanites], and also that he might gain power over the Nephites by bringing them into bondage.” (Alma 43:7)
Trump has no monopoly on anger-based politics, but he’s taken it further than anyone else.
While the Book of Mormon certainly condemns sexual impurity and doctrinal heresy, the sign that a people has ripened in iniquity is always that they intentionally and proactively harm others. Often they form an in-group based on religion or ethnicity and then harm those outside it. The MAGA movement’s embrace of cruelty should be disturbing to anyone who takes the Book of Mormon seriously.
Regarding Mormons merging politically with the American religious right, I worry about that too, especially in this second term, but so far it seems to me that there continue to be signs of divergence and convergence in roughly equal number. I don’t like the signs of convergence at all, but there continues to be a Utah-shaped hole in maps of the rightward shift over the last decade.
I know what you mean about blog posts getting overtaken by events, though. I’ve got a couple drafts like that. Fortunately (?) these things tend to be cyclical, so what seemed like overblown concern last week might be extremely relevant next week.
I’m sorry, but it seems to me that you are also guilty of what you accuse Sen. Lee of, using scripture to support your preferred political narrative. If it was inappropriate for him to compare Trump to Captain Moroni, it’s equally inappropriate for you to compare him to Ammonihah.
Of course politics can’t be divorced from moral implications, but there are ways to discuss these things without casting those you disagree with in the role of scriptural villains, or implying those who take other positions are straying from the gospel.
RL, yes, hearing Huckabee and Ted Cruz give their full-throated support for the US attacking Iran for religious reasons sounds quite concerning to me. I do not want to make political or religious alliances with those guys.
In this clip at Breaking Points where they discuss Cruz’s recent interview with Tucker, Crystal says toward the end that if you’re on board with Israel’s recent actions for religious reasons, it’s time to think a little harder about your religion. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZQwQ6V72U8
Not to get into that whole topic, but I’ll just say again me belief that one can be a devoted follower of Jesus without Huckabee’s and Cruz’s take on Israel.
RLD, yeah, I really think that Trump has done enough recently to make it very clear that he’s in total violation of the Book of Mormon’s warnings. I think there ought to be caution about overlooking such clear violations in the name of abortion restrictions and pushing back on gay marriage since the Book of Mormon says nothing about those topics. It does warn us against Amalickiahs and how we treat those with Native ancestry, however.
Jonathan, I do hope to see more divergence than convergence among the members. Mike Lee, WTF.
Disagree, Curtis. I think the Book of Mormon makes pretty clear warnings about Trump’s behavior.
Curtis,
Sen. Lee certainly was wrong to compare a man like Trump to Captain Moroni — doing so unfairly debases Captain Moroni and unfairly exalts Trump.
However, comparing Trump to Amalikiah seems to be a much more reasonable comparison.
But I suppose that what one sees depends on where he or she stands.
Certainly what one sees depends on where he stands.
I will say one other thing: in 2016 I was in the “Never Trump” camp. One of the things that changed my mind, perhaps the most significant thing, was the tone and quality of the criticisms leveled at him once he took office. They have often seemed aimed more at an imaginary “Trump boogey man” than at the actual person. Make of that what you will.
Trump and Clinton never passed the personal morality test for me. I passed on Clinton in 96 as a Dem and thankfully will never have to explain to my children why I voted for a Trump.
Agree Trump helped polarize the country even more. Trump isn’t Hitler but he’s also the least moral president since JFK or Harding.
In personal study, I think we each should be pouring over the scriptures to understand more about our day.
But in terms of Christian nationalism, I think it would be wise to engage more in more logical arguments around why it is so dangerous.
This was the topic of the final panel last year at the BYU Law and Religious Studies’ annual review around religious freedom. The theme was about peacemaking in a pluralistic society. Highly recommend looking up that panel. I wish more people were actively seeking understanding about these things.
Pres. Oaks and Elder Cook have been particularly clear about how critical it is for us not to elevate our politics to religious levels, and about what it means to hold space for pluralism — which will also help protect religious liberty — and NOT to expect that our particular religious views will always have sway.
I think one of the reasons we are oft-divided in the Church is that people from both ‘sides’ of the aisle merge their religion with their politics. We need only go to the First Presidency message that is circulated every time we have an election to understand that truth can be found in all major political parties.
If that is true, then NONE of them can have all the truth.
Render to Caesar what is his, and don’t make politics a religion. That’s key to more reasonable politics and protection of freedom for all to practice faith and vote according to their own conscience.
Curtis, I know political posts can be incendiary and I know thoughtful and good people who support Trump. That said, I think both the manner of the immigration enforcement and Israel’s attack on Iran are very concerning from many angles.
m&m, yes, I’m aware of many “secular” critiques of both Christian nationalism and these particular Trump policies I’m highlighting here. But as this is a Mormon blog, I do think that the Book of Mormon statements about apocalyptic warnings along these lines are valuable too.
Stephen, I understand the reasoning for engaging in the Book of Mormon (I mean, it’s a book of books, to say the least). I just think it’s always important to realize that different people will interpret scriptures differently, so while I don’t disagree with your lens on all of this, I think it is hard to really move out of our confirmation bias bubbles even if we use scripture to try.
And there are plenty of examples of the left-leaning lens and language that could be dismissed by looking at scripture as well. If we merge with either side of the aisle, we will be submitting to philosophies of men, not the gospel of Jesus Christ.
I do agree that simply insisting that Jesus and scripture simply conform to one’s political views is problematic. In a lot of ways, this post was an attempt to critique that tendency.
I assume that everyone who has stated their moral or other opposition to Trump here voted for his opponents. That means you voted for continued interns criminal enterprises’ control of our borders and the attendant consequences- perhaps most notable of these being free wheeling sex trafficking of women and girls, and of fentanyl as part of the deal (explicit or implicit- you decide) the Democrats struck with them. This upped the profits of these organizations through increased volumes and lower unit costs, while facilitating increasing Democrat party registration registrations in the short and medium term. Don’t hide your TDS behind some feigned concern for latinos… we can take care of ourselves… we voting in larger #’s than ever for GOP to support Trump and his policies, esp regarding the border, trafficking and illegal immigration and deportations.