The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has told its top leaders, including their wives, to stay away from political campaigns by avoiding making donations or endorsing candidates.
According to the Salt Lake Tribune, the clarified new policy was sent in a letter on June 16, from the Church’s First Presidency to Church leaders.
The First Presidency letter stated, “General Authorities and general officers of the Church and their spouses and other ecclesiastical leaders serving full-time should not personally participate in political campaigns, including promoting candidates, fundraising, speaking in behalf of or otherwise endorsing candidates and making financial contributions.”
In recent history, authorities of the LDS Church have stayed out of direct participation in partisan politics, but that has not always been the case. Church founder Joseph Smith ran for U.S. president in 1844, the year he was killed by a mob. Former U.S. Sen. Reed Smoot, R-Utah, served in the Senate from 1903-33, and was an LDS apostle during that entire period as was Ezra Taft Benson who served from 1953-61 as Dwight D. Eisenhower’s secretary of agriculture, while also serving as an apostle.
“It is a restatement and further clarification of the Church’s position on political neutrality at the start of another political season,” said the Church’s spokesman Scott Trotter in the Salt Lake Tribune. “It applies to full-time general authorities, general auxiliary leaders such as presidents of the Church Relief Society, Primary or Young Women organizations, mission presidents and temple presidents. The policy is not directed to full-time church employees.”
According to the Salt Lake Tribune, the First Presidency letter does allow leaders who are not full-time officers — such as area seventies, stake presidents and bishops — to be involved in campaigns, with some caveats that they should not “engage in fundraising or other types of campaigning focused on fellow Church members under their ecclesiastical supervision.”
For some Church members, the policy creates the opportunity to separate their political views from their religious views.
“I’m sure in private they all vote and have candidates they support, but I think it is good that Church leaders do not make public endorsements of candidates or become actively involved in campaigning,” said Carole Seegmiller, a church member living in St. George. “To do so would lead to accusations about unduly influencing the Church members who look to their leaders for spiritual direction. We are encouraged to study the issues and then vote according to the ‘dictates of our own conscience.'”
For some Church members, time to engage in politics and still be a Church leader was a matter of concern.
“It is interesting to note that some positions which demand high levels of time commitment discourage other positions being held,” said Michael McCormick, a senior studying history at BYU-I. “This is true in government, business and church. If you have one office, job or calling that demands a lot of time and focus you may have a conflict of time or conflict of interest.”
