The institution

The Church in Politics

Officially neutral in party politics. Also the letter read from every California pulpit in June 2008.

The point in one sentence

The Church’s stated policy is political neutrality, and twice in living memory it has directed its members’ money and time into one side of a public vote, which is worth knowing when you weigh what “neutral” means.

The policy, in the Church’s words

Official statement on political neutrality, Church Newsroom

The Church does not endorse, promote or oppose political parties and their platforms or candidates for political office.

The same statement reserves the right to address “issues it believes have significant moral consequences or that directly affect the mission, teachings or operations of the Church.” That reservation is where the rest of this page lives.

The full statement

What that has looked like in practice

Dec 1976

The First Presidency urges local leaders to join efforts to defeat the Equal Rights Amendment.

Oct 1978

The First Presidency publicly reaffirms its opposition to the ERA.

Mar 1980

The Ensign ships with a special insert: “The Church and the Proposed Equal Rights Amendment: A Moral Issue.”

Jun 29, 2008

A First Presidency letter is read in every California congregation: “We ask that you do all you can to support the proposed constitutional amendment by donating of your means and time.”

Nov 4, 2008

Proposition 8 passes, and the Church responds to the vote.

Jun 2010

California’s Fair Political Practices Commission fines the Church $5,539 for late reporting of $36,928 in non-monetary campaign contributions.

Claims that do not hold up

Two numbers people get wrong

“The Church was fined for donating to Prop 8.” No. Donating was legal. The fine was $5,539, for reporting in-kind contributions late, and the Church said the missed daily filings were a mistake it corrected.

“The Church spent twenty million dollars.” The tens-of-millions figures refer to donations by individual members, which opponents tracked and aggregated. The Church’s own reported in-kind contributions were on the order of $190,000. FAIR, the Church’s own apologetic organization, documents both distinctions.

What is true on the other side

Churches in America are allowed to speak on ballot measures, and many did on both sides of Proposition 8. Nothing above was illegal, apart from the late paperwork. If your objection is that a church acted like a church about an issue it considers moral, the Church’s reservation clause says exactly that in advance.

The problem

The issue is not legality. It is that the same institution that will not tell you who to vote for asked its members from the pulpit, in the Lord’s house, over the First Presidency’s signature, to give their means and time to strip a civil right from their neighbors, and members heard it as the request of God. When the campaign was over, the members bore the public anger, and the institution cited its neutrality policy.

Neutral in party. Not neutral in your ward on a Sunday in June 2008.

Whether that was moral leadership or the use of a congregation as a campaign apparatus is exactly the question this page leaves with you.

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