It’s a commonly stated idea that politics and religion don’t mix, but for many Latter-day Saints it seems there’s no separating the two. And this fuzzy boundary extends beyond the opinions and practices of individual members: While claiming neutrality regarding political parties and candidates, Church leadership sometimes officially “addresses issues it believes to have significant moral consequences.” In Episode 274, Cynthia and Susan dip a conversational toe in this charged topic—at last!—with political junkie (and ALSSI team member) Sarah Morse. Grab your popcorn and your ballot ... but also your curiosity, imagination, and personal authority. Let’s talk politics!
Notes & Quotes:
The Family-Centered Gospel of Jesus Christ, by Dallin H. Oaks, 10/2025
Ejaculate Responsibly: A Whole New Way to Think About Abortion, by Gabrielle Stanley Blair
Pantsuit Politics
Mormon Women for Ethical Government
Letters from an American, by Heather Cox Richardson
The Preamble, by Sharon McMahon
Thank you for including this timely episode. In Idaho there was pretty strong support for our prop 1, which legalized abortion up to fetal viability. Then the church spoke out in opposition to it in a letter to Idaho congregations. They claim it's a moral issue, not a political issue which is nonsense. Isn't the Gaza genocide being perpetrated by the state of Israel a moral issue? Isn't the societal norm that allows police to kill Black men regardless of the threat a moral issue? All legislation is political and we create laws because of our collective morality. So the church is, in all practical sense, making a political statement and advising members to take the same position. They also donated a million dollars to the campaign opposing the proposition. I don't know if the initiative will pass, but I doubt it. And now, what do I do? I wanted to explain to a church acquaintance why I've decided not to go to church so I sent her the following text:
------ Between 2020 and 2025 deaths from ectopic pregnancies have doubled in the U.S. In states with abortion bans, ectopic pregnancy death rates are almost twice what they are in states without. Abortion bans lead to delays of days and weeks in definitively diagnosing ectopic pregnancy. So we let women die instead of letting them have an abortion which, if performed early enough, is almost always successful in saving the woman's life. And, in case the potential for life is more important to people than the actual life of the woman, the fetus dies also. Yet the church made a public statement, not explicitly, but effectively telling members to support Idaho's abortion ban, and spent a million dollars supporting the political campaign to maintain the abortion ban. This is not the kind of person I want to be, the kind that chooses the idea of a baby that may or may not ever exist, over the actual life of a real person who exists now. They deny pregnant (or possibly pregnant) women the legal power to choose how to care for themselves and their families and they risk their health, fertility and lives for an ideology. If a person wants to martyr themselves I think it's their right to choose. But they shouldn't be granted the right to throw someone else in the lion’s den.