In 2008, the L.D.S. Church’s Deseret News announced, “Before each general session [of the Utah Legislature], GOP and Democratic leaders in the House and Senate sit down separately with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Special Affairs Committee, a group made up of Church general authorities, Church public relations officials, and their lobbyists, to discuss any item on the minds of both legislators and Church leaders.” Organized at L.D.S. headquarters in 1974, the Special Affairs Committee has directed the L.D.S. Church’s overt and covert political activism throughout the nation ever since.
While Mitt Romney’s interactions with the L.D.S. hierarchy regarding his political fortunes will probably forever remain a matter of speculation, in October 2006 the L.D.S. Church’s newspaper nervously reminded its readers that “proof of blatant support of any candidate puts the church at risk of losing its tax-exempt status with the Internal Revenue Service and could damage Romney’s prospects of getting the GOP nomination.” Why they were so nervous became clear in the next sentence: “The Boston Globe over the past week has reported that an e-mail by Don Stirling, a Utah-based political consultant for Romney, said that LDS leaders, including church president Gordon B. Hinckley, knew about the meetings between Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve and Romney supporters, including [Kem] Gardner.”
“We look to not only the spiritual but also the temporal, and we believe that a person who is impoverished temporally cannot blossom spiritually.” Keith McMullin - Counsellor in Presiding Bishopric
"One, two, three...let's go shopping!" Thomas S Monson - Prophet, Seer, Revelator
LDS doctrine certainly isn't politically neutral; there's no room for political liberalism in it.
But I think the IRS knows there is more going on in terms of political influence in, say, black churches than in the LDS Church and they still don't go after them. So you're not going to get your wish for more traction with the Church's tax-exempt status.
bcspace wrote:LDS doctrine certainly isn't politically neutral; there's no room for political liberalism in it.
But I think the IRS knows there is more going on in terms of political influence in, say, black churches than in the LDS Church and they still don't go after them. So you're not going to get your wish for more traction with the Church's tax-exempt status.
What's a 'black Church' and is it based on lineage?
“We look to not only the spiritual but also the temporal, and we believe that a person who is impoverished temporally cannot blossom spiritually.” Keith McMullin - Counsellor in Presiding Bishopric
"One, two, three...let's go shopping!" Thomas S Monson - Prophet, Seer, Revelator