A “Mormon Moment” in U.S. Politics

Church, business and a sense of mission: In America no religion is growing faster than Mormonism — and now the church is becoming a focus of interest since two of its adherents are running for the White House.

When Blake Strong talks about the calendar above his desk, you can tell he has a sense of humor. His company’s founder, Leroy Hobson Strong, sits astride a perfectly groomed horse and rides through the Great Salt Lake’s thorn scrub. Tall in the saddle and wearing his ten-gallon hat, he gazes into the imaginary distance, reminiscent of the swashbuckling western heroes of yesteryear.

“Yep, that’s grandpa up there. He was always more interested in horses than he was in automobiles,” his grandson says and breaks into peals of laughter. Under Roy’s son, Dave, their car dealership really began to grow. And Blake, third generation in the business, is now beset by luxury worries. “The Chinese buy too many Audis,” he says, and fears that there soon won’t be any reason to stay in Utah.

A Boisterous Bishop

One imagines bishops to be different — more serious and not so boisterous. Strong has been a lay bishop because he has done what his church expected him to do. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (LDS) almost exclusively recognizes only honorary positions. It’s eventually every man’s turn to be bishop provided he has stuck to the rules, abstains from coffee and cigarettes and religiously adheres to the commandment to tithe, or give 10 percent of his earnings, to the church. Strong is responsible for 150 families and spends all day Sunday in service to the Mormon church, plus two to three evenings each week.

There are services to lead and baptisms to organize. As bishop, he decides whether a teenager gets permission to purchase the sacred Mormon underwear and wear them for the rest of his life. Without it, no one may set foot in the mysterious temple in downtown Salt Lake City. He teaches adolescents how they should lead their lives. “No trouble with the police! Attend church! Obey your parents!” The way Strong describes his world, it’s a very sheltered and conservative place. And the smile never leaves his face as he talks.

The proverbial, sometimes naïve optimism of the Mormons, coupled with a very American sense of mission — Broadway has dedicated a pointedly ironic musical to the phenomenon. In “The Book of Mormon,” two 19-year-old youths are sent abroad as missionaries to Uganda. Once there, the carefree two find solutions to everything from AIDS to poverty. It’s a satirical piece, but it’s surprisingly very popular. It fits in to what Newsweek has called “the Mormon moment.”

Two Mormons are challenging Barack Obama for the White House, and at least one of them, Mitt Romney, is considered the leader of the field of Republican candidates. Democrat Harry Reid, the Senate Majority Leader, is committed to the LDS church, as is Glenn Beck, the shrill television talk show host who espouses the arch-conservative tea party movement line. It’s no wonder America’s fastest growing religion is attracting attention. Why all this secrecy in the temple business? And what’s that about multiple wives? Brigham Young, one of the church’s founders, is reputed to have had 55 wives. In 1890, his successors put a stop to polygamy, but rumors still persist about it even today. In August, a self-proclaimed prophet of a fundamentalist Mormon church in Texas was sentenced to life in prison, and that was all it took to reignite old suspicions.

Quin Monson, a professor of political science, says that one-third of all Americans consider Mormonism to be a narrow sect, and according to a Pew survey, one American in four would refuse to vote for a candidate professing Mormonism. The 2012 elections will be a litmus test for Monson, who thinks everything will be determined by the economy and that religion will play only a marginal role in the election outcome; he adds, however, that he expects some southern Baptist preacher to resort to mudslinging against Mormons.

The Holy of Holies

The holy of holies, the Mormon Tabernacle, thrusts its numerous towers heavenward on Temple Square in Salt Lake City. And adjacent to this Mormon Vatican will rise the City Creek Center, a temple to consumerism. Faith and business acumen: The combination is typical.

The net worth of the Latter Day Saints was recently estimated to be around $30 billion. The church operates an insurance company, a media conglomerate and the largest cattle ranch in the United States. Its omnipresent symbol is the beehive, a metaphor for unbounded enthusiasm for ones work. Romney was also a conscientious missionary in his youth. He was assigned to Paris and Bordeaux, prompting him to once remark that people should just imagine coming into Bordeaux and telling the people to quit drinking wine because you had this cool new religion for them instead. Nevertheless, even rejection was an instructive lesson for him. Huntsman was sent to Taiwan, where he learned to speak Chinese, a major factor in Obama’s decision to appoint him ambassador to China. Blake Strong was a missionary to Germany. He says he was generally fobbed off right after he rang someone’s doorbell. Huntsman cheerfully says they usually used the same excuse: “I’m watching my favorite soccer team on TV right now.”