{"id":2351344,"date":"2024-10-06T13:20:02","date_gmt":"2024-10-06T17:20:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/mormon-church-leaders-encourage-civility-as-trump-and-harris-rally-religious-voters-washington-examiner\/"},"modified":"2024-10-06T13:24:22","modified_gmt":"2024-10-06T17:24:22","slug":"mormon-church-leaders-encourage-civility-as-trump-and-harris-rally-religious-voters-washington-examiner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/mormon-church-leaders-encourage-civility-as-trump-and-harris-rally-religious-voters-washington-examiner\/","title":{"rendered":"Mormon church leaders encourage civility as Trump and Harris rally religious voters &#8211; Washington Examiner"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">30<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fmormon-church-leaders-encourage-civility-as-trump-and-harris-rally-religious-voters-washington-examiner%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2351344&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>As the presidential campaigns intensify,\u200c leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are urging their members to maintain civility and\u200d avoid harsh rhetoric. \u200bDallin H. Oaks, a prominent church leader, emphasized the importance of being peacemakers and steering clear of contention during the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/jon-stewart-says-daily-show-return-provides-a-place-to-unload-thoughts-during-election-cycle\/\" title=\"Jon Stewart finds solace in &#039;Daily Show&#039; comeback for sharing thoughts during election season\">upcoming election \u200dseason<\/a>. He addressed a large audience during the church&#8217;s general conference in\u200b Salt Lake City, advising members to pursue \u200btheir political preferences in a manner consistent with peaceful dialogue.<\/p>\n<p>The church aims to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/vets-battle-critical-race-theory-invasion-of-military\/\" title=\"Vets Battle Critical Race Theory Invasion of Military\">remain politically neutral<\/a>, yet it occasionally provides general\u200b guidance on\u200c approaching elections, particularly \u200bgiven \u200dthe significant number\u200c of Latter-day\u2062 Saints in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/huge-sidney-powell-witness-whom-ny-times-described-as-always-the-smartest-person-in-the-room-concludes-hundreds-of-thousands-of-votes-transferred-from-trump-to-biden-in-all-battleground-states\/\" title=\"HUGE! Sidney Powell Witness Whom NY Times Described as &quot;Always the Smartest Person in the Room&quot; Concludes Hundreds of Thousands of Votes Transferred from Trump to Biden IN ALL BATTLEGROUND STATES\">key battleground states<\/a> like\u2062 Arizona and Nevada. Historically, the \u2063Latter-day Saints have leaned Republican, but many have expressed reservations about Donald Trump due to his controversial rhetoric and\u2063 legal issues.<\/p>\n<p>Vice President Kamala Harris\u200b is actively seeking the Latter-day Saints&#8217; vote, hoping to \u2064sway some to her\u2063 side by highlighting differences between her policies and Trump&#8217;s, particularly regarding social \u2063issues like abortion. However, \u2063gaining majority\u200b support from this demographic is a challenge, as many\u2064 church members prioritize policies\u200b aligned with their beliefs, such as opposition to \u200dabortion and \u2063support for\u2063 religious liberty.<\/p>\n<p>Harris&#8217;s campaign seeks to mitigate Trump&#8217;s potential \u200bstronghold among Latter-day Saints, which could ultimately influence the election&#8217;s outcome in critical states. both campaigns are vying for the support of this influential religious group\u2064 amid \u2064an increasingly divisive political landscape.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<p><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><\/p>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-header-search-button-mob dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search\" aria-labelledby=\"td-header-search-button\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search-inner\">\n<form method=\"get\" class=\"tdb-search-form\" action=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\"><\/form>\n<div class=\"tdb-aj-search\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/#\" role=\"button\" aria-label=\"Search\" class=\"tdb-head-search-btn dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<h1 class=\"tdb-title-text\">Mormon church leaders encourage civility as Trump and Harris rally religious voters<\/h1>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-title-line\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div id=\"Brid_1776978\" class=\"tpd-featured-video bridtv\"><\/div>\n<p><strong>SALT LAKE CITY (AP) &mdash;<\/strong> As both presidential campaigns have stepped up efforts to&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/mormons-trump-harris-arizona-outreach-fcfc9c2a7438b8e8af16f9422e376b96\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>win over voters<\/a>&nbsp;in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/swing-state-scorecard-ranking-bidens-toughest-2024-battlegrounds\/\" title=\"Assessing Biden&#039;s Key 2024 Swing States\">western swing states<\/a> who belong to&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/mormon-temples-building-boom-vegas-texas-utah-d5b77e0f64b46845afc6515563a3ccb2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints<\/a>, a top church official urged members on Saturday to &ldquo;avoid what is harsh and hateful&rdquo; in the heat of election season.<\/p>\n<div class=\"article-paywall\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/united-states-salt-lake-city-gender-identity-religion-marriage-0d1e1eac2062729a78e93668f9ef89f5\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>Dallin H. Oaks<\/a>, the top adviser and likely successor to 100-year-old church president&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/latterday-saints-mormons-centenarian-leader-ecc39facb1b4a9edfe8a7fc68f7ca93b\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>Russell M. Nelson<\/a>, encouraged congregants at the faith&rsquo;s twice-annual general conference to steer clear of contention and be peacemakers in their communities one month out from the Nov. 5 election.<\/p>\n<p>The devil is the father of contention, which can stir up anger and stall important policy changes, he told a room of 18,000 church members in Salt Lake City and thousands more watching on a livestream.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;As we pursue our preferred policies in public actions, let us qualify for his blessings by using the language and methods of peacemakers,&rdquo; said Oaks, the second-highest-ranking leader of the faith known widely as the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/mormonism\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>Mormon<\/a>&nbsp;church.<\/p>\n<p>The faith&rsquo;s leaders strive to remain politically neutral. But they sometimes give general advice about how members should <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wake-up-with-the-washington-examiner-populist-demands-could-rattle-tax-plans-and-harris-shakes-up-wisconsin-washington-examiner\/\" title=\"Wake up with the Washington Examiner: Populist demands could rattle tax plans, and Harris shakes up Wisconsin - Washington Examiner\">approach key elections<\/a>. About 7 million of the faith&rsquo;s 17 million worldwide members live in the United States, many in the battleground states of Arizona and Nevada, and in solidly red Utah and Idaho.<\/p>\n<p>Latter-day Saints have been a reliably Republican voting bloc for decades, but many have&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/ap-exclusive-most-mormons-back-gop-but-fewer-support-trump-dfa9f5a8c265432c998ebaddf2603102\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>half-heartedly embraced Donald Trump<\/a>&nbsp;since his first run for the White House.<\/p>\n<p>Some church members say the former president&rsquo;s demeaning rhetoric toward women, immigrants and refugees conflicts with their core values of humility, honesty and compassion. Others have raised concern about his felony convictions and his attempts to undermine the 2020 presidential election.<\/p>\n<p>Vice President&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/kamala-harris\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>Kamala Harris<\/a>&nbsp;is hoping to capitalize on her opponent&rsquo;s inability to lock down the Latter-day Saints vote. Her campaign formalized outreach efforts last month and enlisted prominent members of the faith to convince those in battleground Arizona, a state with nearly 450,000 church members, that Trump is not in alignment with the church&rsquo;s teachings.<\/p>\n<p>Trump has also rallied influential church members at his Mar-a-Lago compound in Florida to help him convince swing voters that he will better protect their religious liberties.<\/p>\n<p>Harris is unlikely to come close to winning a majority of Latter-day Saints. But by preventing Trump from running up big margins with a key demographic, she could tip the scales in Arizona and Nevada, which is home to upward of 180,000 Latter-day Saints.<\/p>\n<p>One of Harris&rsquo; greatest challenges is making her abortion policy palatable to members of a faith that has long opposed the procedure, with some exceptions.<\/p>\n<p>It is a sticking point for Marilou Idos, a conference attendee from Herriman, Utah, who said she is not a fan of Trump&rsquo;s brash style but plans to vote for him because he opposes expanding abortion access. She also values Trump&rsquo;s support for Israel.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;He&rsquo;s the lesser of two evils,&rdquo; said Idos, 70. &ldquo;The basic things we believe in, Trump endorses. Abortion, that&rsquo;s kind of the main one, and the freedom to worship.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>The religion is also known for its belief in eternal families, tight-knit congregations and bans on alcohol, coffee, gambling and same-sex relationships.<\/p>\n<p>Sammy Price, 38, of Las Vegas, said he is leaning toward voting for Harris because he thinks the nation needs her unifying rhetoric.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Trump, he insults people, he makes people feel bad about who they are, and that&rsquo;s not something I think I can stand by,&rdquo; he said.<\/p>\n<p>Undecided voters Jenna Winkel, 22, and her husband, Ben Winkel, 24, said just before the conference that they hoped church leaders would avoid addressing politics.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title> <\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The couple from Draper, Utah, said there is room for a variety of political views under the Latter-day Saints umbrella. While Jenna said her religion doesn&rsquo;t really inform her politics, Ben said his does, but he wants to do more of his own research.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;The important thing about any general conference message is that it&rsquo;s general and then we&rsquo;re asked to take them and study them and apply them to our own lives, and maybe our politics,&rdquo; Jenna said. &ldquo;People will take what they need to hear from them and apply them in their lives.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p> <script data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/cdn-cgi\/scripts\/5c5dd728\/cloudflare-static\/email-decode.min.js\"><\/script><script>!function(){var g=window;g.googletag=g.googletag||{},g.googletag.cmd=g.googletag.cmd||[],g.googletag.cmd.push(function(){g.googletag.pubads().setTargeting(\"has-featured-video\",\"true\")})}();<\/script><script>var _bp=_bp||[];_bp.push({\"div\":\"Brid_1776978\",\"obj\":{\"id\":\"27789\",\"width\":\"1280\",\"height\":\"720\",\"stickyDirection\":\"below\",\"video\":\"1776978\"}});<\/script><script defer src=\"https:\/\/services.brid.tv\/player\/build\/brid.min.js\"><\/script><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mormon leaders promote civility amid Trump and Harris campaigns<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2634,"featured_media":2351345,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/mormon-church.webp","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[20091,32438,42439,42440,3634],"class_list":["post-2351344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-civility","tag-kamala-harris","tag-mormon-church","tag-religious-voters","tag-trump"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/mormon-church.webp","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2351344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2634"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2351344"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2351344\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2351345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2351344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2351344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2351344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}