[NOTE: THIS IS INTENDED TO BE AN APOLITICAL POST]

I recently read an article that gave me pause.

In “A Small Church’s Big Bet on the U.S. Constitution“, the author makes this comment:

“The fate of American democracy rests squarely in the hands of members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.” (Read the full article here.)

A Burden

This is quite the assumption about my faith and quite the burden he places on its members. So, I decided to dig a little (please give me some grace as I share my train of thought…I am not trained in this; it’s just for curiosity’s sake).

There are 6,804,028 members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the United States.¹ In the last election, the top candidate won by 7,059,547 votes.² So, even if every participating member of the LDS Church were eligible to vote and voted for one or the other candidate, it would not be enough to change the outcome of the last election. Of course, a narrower margin may be a different story (as in the 2000, 2004, 2012, and 2016 presidential elections).

But our presidents are not elected by popular vote.

A Possibility

While the gap in the electoral college was significant in the 2020 election, if you take a state by state look, things get interesting. If you consider the vote gap between the winner and the loser of the 2020 election in the battleground states won by the winner, the voting age LDS population (assumed to be 40% of the total) can actually change the landscape by 33 electoral votes in Arizona, Georgia, and Nevada. Granted, it wouldn’t have changed the result of the 2020 election. But if you add in another 10 electoral votes for Utah and Idaho, there is a voting block significant enough to swing a presidential election either way.

Ok . . . enough nerding out. But I think the author is right; it is a real possibility.

And a responsibility.

A Responsibility

If he was aware of it, the author did not reference a prophecy given by the first prophet-president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. When speaking about Doctrine & Covenants 101, Joseph Smith said, “Even this nation will be on the verge of crumbling to pieces and tumbling to the ground and when the Constitution is on the brink of ruin this people will be the staff upon which the nation shall lean and they shall bear the Constitution away from the very verge of destruction.”³

I wrote previously that I’m not sure we know exactly which particular situation Joseph meant when he made that statement, if any. It could quite possibly mean a variety of situations in which we protect the Constitution throughout its existence.

But in reality, I don’t think it matters if any situation he refers to is occurring today or has already occurred in the past or will occur in the future. To me, what matters is that I am ALWAYS a ‘support’ and a ‘defense’ for the Constitution–someone who ‘props’ and ‘upholds’ the Constitution in any circumstance (see also “The Staff upon Which the Nation Shall Lean”).

Moreover, I should encourage others to do the same–I believe good people everywhere can and should be this ‘staff’.

In the Spring of 2021, Dallin H. Oaks said:

“There are many political issues, and no party, platform, or individual candidate can satisfy all personal preferences. Each citizen must therefore decide which issues are most important to him or her at any particular time. Then members should seek inspiration on how to exercise their influence according to their individual priorities. This process will not be easy. It may require changing party support or candidate choices, even from election to election.

“Such independent actions will sometimes require voters to support candidates or political parties or platforms whose other positions they cannot approve. That is one reason we encourage our members to refrain from judging one another in political matters. We should never assert that a faithful Latter-day Saint cannot belong to a particular party or vote for a particular candidate. We teach correct principles and leave our members to choose how to prioritize and apply those principles on the issues presented from time to time. We also insist, and we ask our local leaders to insist, that political choices and affiliations not be the subject of teachings or advocacy in any of our Church meetings.”⁴

Additionally, in June of 2023, the First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints issued this statement:

“We urge you to spend the time needed to become informed about the issues and candidates you will be considering. Some principles compatible with the gospel may be found in various political parties, and members should seek candidates who best embody those principles. Members should also study candidates carefully and vote for those who have demonstrated integrity, compassion, and service to others, regardless of party affiliation. Merely voting a straight ticket or voting based on “tradition” without careful study of candidates and their positions on important issues is a threat to democracy and inconsistent with revealed standards (see Doctrine and Covenants 98:10).”⁵

This revealed standard the First Presidency cites in Doctrine and Covenants 98:10 is to diligently seek for and uphold “good” and “wise” people.

If this author of “A Small Church’s Big Bet on the U.S. Constitution” is correct in the fact that Latter-day Saints hold the fate of American democracy in their hands, and, more importantly, if Joseph Smith’s prophecy is true, we cannot take for granted how we have voted in the past nor can we assume how we will vote in the future (see also “Don’t Be a Lemming“).

Rather, we have a duty to inform ourselves regarding the issues AND the candidates based on the principles and values we cherish. For me, that starts with the freedoms we enjoy which are guaranteed in the Constitution of the United States of America.

I should choose policies and politicians from either side that promote those freedoms for everyone, not just groups of my choosing even if they use that right to do something I don’t like (see “The Liberty that Binds Us“). Further, I will likely not find all I esteem in one individual or party.

Finally, “We believe that governments were instituted of God for the benefit of man; and that he holds men accountable for their acts in relation to them, both in making laws and administering them, for the good and safety of society (Doctrine and Covenants 134:1).

I believe that means He will hold me accountable for who I choose to put into those positions of trust, which means I, in turn, need to put more effort in deciding who to ‘put’.

MY Vote

I have to set aside the talking heads. I have to use my own intellect to evaluate the truth. I have to challenge my traditions. I have to be principle-based.

All of which brings me to my actual point.

My vote matters. Your vote matters. And Latter-day Saints and their friends who are guided by “principles compatible with the gospel” might just be a voting bloc that can protect democracy.

P.S. I drafted this post in March and was saving it for October. Today I ran across this article from a few weeks ago that actually makes some similar points:

Mormon voters set to play critical role in swing states

Maybe I’m on to something? 😉

Lead photo by Clay Banks on Unsplash

---

1. https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/facts-and-statistics/country/united-states
2. https://www.cookpolitical.com/2020-national-popular-vote-tracker
3. Joseph Smith Papers, LDS Church Historical Archives, Box 1, March 10, 1844 accessed in “What do we know about the purported statement of Joseph Smith that the Constitution would hang by a thread and that the elders would save it?”, Ensign, June 1976
4. “Defending Our Divinely Inspired Constitution“, General Conference, April 2021
5. First Presidency Letter, June 1, 2023