6
votes
Did you know the LDS (aka Mormons) used to have Socialists among their leaders?
Link information
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- Title
- The Contributor : Junius Free Wells 1854-1930 ; Young Men's Mutual Improvement Association (1875-1972) ; Young Ladies' Mutual Improvement Association (1877-1934) : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive
- Word count
- 178 words
I grew up Mormon and spent a fair bit of time in Utah so have some first hand knowledge. Mormons believe in the "Law of Consecration" which is basically a socialist theocracy that was actually practiced by early Mormons to a certain extent. The US federal government wasn't really into the idea and basically strong armed the Mormon church into replacing the law of consecration with the law of tithing (see also Mormons giving up polygamy after pressure from the federal government)
This doctrine (along with Mormonism in general) could also explain that there are a lot of pro-social elements to the way Utah is run. It has surprisingly high quality public transit for a deep red state. It had universal mail in voting even before the pandemic popularized the idea among quite a few other policies you wouldn't expect from a deep red state. (The video "Why Utah Is So Weird" might also be an informative watch to anyone who finds this stuff interesting)
This above link is but one of a few where the editor of this magazine, "The Contributor" espoused the virtues of socialism without directly naming them.
Here is an excerpt from the above link:
Here is another article about wealth and morals: https://archive.org/details/contributor1111eng/page/422/mode/2up?q=wealth
In yet another article, which I read in an actual bound copy and cannot find at the moment, the Editor, one Junius Wells, talks about how much more spiritual and life affirming agriculture is to laboring men than mining and finance because of how humble and stable the former, and how speculative the latter. He then goes on to lament, much like Gandhi in reference to the British, that financiers removed Utah's material wealth and sold it back in manufactured goods at an unfair profit. He also implied that the laborers should be the ones owning the factories, not the capitalists.
When I think of the ideal LDS of today I think of Mitt Romney, not a bad guy, not a bad leader, but definitely a neoliberal capitalist. But the truth is more complex.
Charles Dickens once said of Mormons something like, "What they do is admirable, what they say is nonsense."
If you're wondering why the sudden post on the LDS, I visited the conference center in SLC this weekend. AMA.
No but I hear that Spock had a little too much LDS back in the '60s.
Oh, wait...