Vanity Fair today carries an article by
Michael Quinn, a controversial historian of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, titled
When Mormons Go To Washington. It argues that
Though Mitt Romney and his supporters invoke J.F.K.’s 1960 talk, most Mormons do not believe in the America of which Kennedy spoke. He described a nation “where no public official either requests or accepts instructions on public policy from” any “ecclesiastical source.” By contrast, L.D.S. politicians (both Democrats and Republicans) have sought instructions from their church’s leaders for more than a century. Republican officeholders have been most susceptible to such political “counsel,” while L.D.S. Democrats have often objected to it—sometimes stridently.
Quinn goes on to chronicle a notable exception who strongly resisted Church pressure-- Utah Republican Senator Reed Smoot, and quotes a Romney assertion that he would never expect a call from the L.D.S. Church president, because the obligation of national officials is to the nation. Quinn, who was excommunicated from the LDS Church in 1993, ends his article with these tendentious questions:
Is there any evidence that L.D.S. headquarters has abandoned its interest in influencing the decisions of L.D.S. officeholders in Washington, D.C.? Have Mormon Republicans departed from their historical patterns of embracing political direction from the L.D.S. Church hierarchy? Is Mitt Romney an unwavering statesman who is resistant to such pressures?
