If you’re familiar with Betteridge’s Law, you already know what the answer here is going to be.
The initial skeleton for this post came several weeks ago, when attendees at the Republican National Convention began, en masse, holding signs that said, “Mass Deportations Now!” I’ve previously written about our scriptural obligation to love and support immigrants, and I don’t need to repeat that argument here.
That skeletal blog post, a post that existed in my head (because of work and family and other time commitments never made it to my keyboard) was substantially different from what I am writing here. I was going to write about how members of the Church who are Republicans had an obligation to push back against deeply unChristian GOP platforms and policies. A faithful Latter-day Saint, I would have (and still would) say, cannot support mass deportations. But I get that all political parties have their issues, and LDS Democrats also have policy positions that they should vote against.
I’m also hesitant to make too-strong political assertions grounded in religious belief. I take C.S. Lewis seriously in the The Screwtape Letters, when he warns about substituting political beliefs for religious ones. Here, a high-level demon advises a freshly-minted demon about how to tempt a person:
“Whichever [political stance] he adopts, your main taks will be the same. Let him begin by treating the Patriotism or the Pacifism as a part of his religion. Then let him, under the influence of partisan spirit, come to regard it as the most important part. Then quietly and gradually nurse him on to the stage at which the religion becomes merely part of the ‘Cause,’ in which Christianity is valued chiefly because of the excellent arguments it can produce in favour of the British war effort or of pacifism. . . . Once you have made the World an end, and faith a menas, you have almost won your man, and it makes very little difference what kind of worldly end he is pursuing.”
So what changed my mind? Why am I making the blunter assertion (that a faithful Latter-day Saint cannot vote for Donald Trump) instead of the more nuanced one (that we have an obligation to push back against bad policies)?
A couple reasons. But the proximate cause is an op-ed David French wrote in the New York Times yesterday. For those unfamiliar with French, some background: he is an Evangelical Christian and a deeply politically conservative political commentator. He’s worked for, among other employers, conservative Christian groups like the Alliance Defending Freedom and the American Center for Law & Justice. He was a writer at the National Review and left to help found The Dispatch, a conservative media company.
And yesterday, he explained that he was going to vote for Kamala Harris in the presidential election.
And he doesn’t come at this decision lightly: a significant percentage of his column explains his views on abortion: he’s staunchly opposed. He agrees with the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision. If he lived in Florida, he would vote against the referendum to liberalize the state’s draconian abortion laws. Which is to say, the Democratic platform on abortion—one embraced by Harris and Walz—is antithetical to one of his deepest-held political and religious beliefs.
And he’s going to vote for Harris in November. Why? He explains that
“But I’m going to vote for Kamala Harris in 2024 and — ironically enough — I’m doing it in part to try to save conservatism.
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The only real hope for restoring a conservatism that values integrity, demonstrates real compassion and defends our foundational constitutional principles isn’t to try to make the best of Trump, a man who values only himself. If he wins again, it will validate his cruelty and his ideological transformation of the Republican Party. If Harris wins, the West will still stand against Vladimir Putin, and conservative Americans will have a chance to build something decent from the ruins of a party that was once a force for genuine good in American life.”
French’s reasons for voting for Harris differ from mine, but not entirely. I tend to disagree with GOP policies more than I disagree with Democratic policies, but that’s not to say I’m in lockstep with the Democrats. I actually prefer to have a viable opposition party that can push back against Democrats’ worst impulses
But I also prefer to have a functioning democracy that respects the Rule of Law and the Constitution. And Donald Trump has definitely explained and demonstrated that he has interest in neither. Don’t believe me, a liberal messenger? Well then, how about John Giles, the conservative LDS mayor of Mesa, AZ (which, he proudly declares, is one of the most conservative cities in the US)?
Giles also endorsed Harris. Why? Not because he agrees with her politics. Rather, he, too, is interested in the continuing viability of democratic institutions and, frankly, the GOP:
“I believe my party has a moral and ethical responsibility to restore faith in our democratic institutions. In the spirit of the late Sen. John McCain’s motto, “Country First,” I call on other Arizona Republicans to join me in choosing country over party this election and to vote against Donald Trump.
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“That’s why I’m standing with her. Kamala Harris is the competent, just and fair leader our country deserves. This year too much is at stake to vote Republican at the top of the ticket.
“It will take Arizona Republicans, independents and Democrats standing together against a far-right agenda. Let us put country over party by voting to stop Trump and protect our democracy.”
We don’t just have the voices of prominent conservatives (and liberals!) explaining why we cannot vote for Donald Trump, though: in Latter-day Saint scripture, we have some very specific injunctions we need to take into account when we choose whom to vote for.
Some conservative Christians have argued that in the Bible, God sometimes used bad people to accomplish good ends. And, while that may be true, it is inapposite here: the bad people God used were kings, not democratically-elected leaders. And LDS scripture doesn’t allow us to affirmatively elect bad people in hopes that God will use them to do good. D&C 98:9-10 reads, “Nevertheless, when the wicked rule the people mourn. Wherefore, honest men and wise men should be sought for diligently, and good men and wise men ye should observe to uphold; otherwise whatsoever is less than these cometh of evil.”
And the Book of Mormon is even more blunt: in Mosiah 29:26-27, King Mosiah proposes and elected government. He explains that, generally speaking, while a minority of the population may want evil, the majority will not. However, “if the time comes that the voice of the people doth choose iniquity, then is the time that the judgments of God will come upon you; yea, then is the time he will visit you with great destruction even as he has hitherto visited this land.”
So can a faithful member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints vote for Donald Trump? Unequivocally no.
And can a politically-conservative member of the Church who wants to see the GOP flourish in the future vote for Trump? According to French and Giles, also no.