As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (“Mormon”), I read with interest former congressman Tom Tancredo’s recent piece, “Will the Mormon Church’s support for Muslim immigration block Trump’s victory?”, which appeared August 20 at Breitbart.com.
In his commentary, Tancredo dismisses Donald Trump’s widely reported “Mormon problem” (a problem that can be summed up in Trump’s 14 percent showing in Utah’s March caucuses) as being little more than Mormon leaders’ “episode of moral incoherence” — when they publicly equated Trump’s plan of “extreme vetting” of potentially dangerous Muslim immigrants with unjust and unconstitutional “religious intolerance.”
{mosads}Such categorical rejection by the LDS Church of Trump’s immigration plan, Tancredo believes, stems from the church’s perceived support for “open borders and lax enforcement of immigration laws.”
Even so, Tancredo predicts “probably 99% of Mormon citizens and voters” will reject such “moral incoherence” and line up behind Trump, “unless sheer demagoguery triumphs over common sense.”
What the former Colorado congressman is missing, however, is that, while the LDS Church did in fact issue a statement months ago expressing concern over Trump’s proposed ban on Muslim immigration, the real “Mormon problem” — which he all but ignores — has more to do with Trump’s character than policies.
When Mormons look at Trump, they see someone who lacks any discernable principles, including commitment to the Constitution (which the LDS church reveres); who has a history of unapologetic womanizing, adultery, erratic temperament, divisiveness, bullying, and who chooses his positions — such as calling for opening women’s restrooms to men — for their appeal to certain constituencies, in this case the homosexual lobby.
In short, Trump doesn’t fundamentally represent dominant values of the LDS faith, and many LDS members have concluded they can’t support him for president.
Does this mean LDS members will support Hillary Clinton instead? Of course not. She’s viewed even less favorably than Trump, at 12% among LDS recently polled. But such ambivalence among LDS people doesn’t guarantee a Trump victory in Mormon Utah, nor bode well for him in other states heavily influenced by Mormons — although several LDS will undoubtedly cast their votes for Trump over Clinton, for pragmatic reasons.
This election poses a unique dilemma not just for LDS faithful, but informed voters of all faiths. Never before have the nominees from the two major political parties been shown to have such low favorability. Voters overwhelmingly do not want them! So it should be no surprise that many voters, of whatever denomination, cannot in good conscience cast a vote for either Trump or Clinton.
That includes myself. Neither candidate will have my support on Election Day.
Stefani Williams resides in Southern Utah. She was a delegate to the Republican National Convention in July, and has been politically active locally and nationally since the age of sixteen.
The views of Contributors are their own and are not the views of The Hill.