DANGER, WILL ROBINSON, DANGER

I am climbing onto my soap box. Now I am standing on the top of my soap box. And I am getting to ready to speak from my soap box.

DISCLAIMER: Anyone reading from this point on has been warned.

As Latter-Day Saints in the United States of American, we are extremely patriotic. We serve in the military, we vote, we get involved in politics, we express our opinions - rather loudly at times, I must admit.

However, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints "has emphasized its political neutrality." Elder Ballard (stated) "We have members in the Church of all political persuasions... We encourage our people to get involved, to participate in party politics, to vote. But which party and which candidates are matters for them to decide."

The Church also states its members are expected to "respect the fact that members of the Church come from a variety of backgrounds and experiences and may have differences of opinion in partisan political matters."  Even "elected officials who are Latter-day Saints make their own decisions and may not necessarily be in agreement with one another or even with a publicly stated Church position.... these officials still must make their own choices based on their best judgment and with consideration of the constituencies whom they were elected to represent. "

So WHY OH WHY then do loving, extremely well-intentioned and educated members continue to insist in church meetings/lessons/announcements that:

1. All good, faithful Mormons of course are aghast (isn't that a cool word? It sounds aghast. It's from the 3th century, obsolete use of agast as "frighten" and the Old English gāst "spirit, ghost) (okay, back to the ranting now) that the "liberals" are running and ruining the country.

2. We must "get back to our roots, to the basic ideas of the founding fathers."

Listen, I hate to remind you of this, but our founding fathers threw a REVOLUTION (defined as "a sudden, radical, or complete change in political organization - the overthrow or renunciation of one government and the substitution of another"), which is about the furthest from the average day-to-day Mormon you can find in the U.S.

I won't get into the average age of the 'framers of the Constitution', what happened to 79% of them after they signed it, and how all of this means that God has his hand in U.S. politics and is guiding this land...

Except, of course, when He isn't, such as when there is a (GASP!) Democratic majority in D.C.

Begging your pardon, although I am proud to be an American, and think this is a lovely country, I do not believe that, however inspired and good the originators of our means of government, they created the one, infallible and everlasting regime that will usher in the Kingdom come.

The design of our republic (and yes, it is a republic, not a democracy) is intended to encompass the inevitable and necessary change of a new and growing country -- and it's continued growth and development.

We aren't to return to our nation's embryonic state - it wasn't meant or designed for that.

Okay.

I am now stepping down from my soap box.

Thank you for your attention.