The Unseparated Church-State

I love Utah.  It is one of the most beautiful, geographically diverse places on the planet, and it is home.  I have spent all but 7 of my nearly 33 years in Utah and it is truly where my heart lies.  However, there are some things about it that rub me the wrong way.

Before I get into those things, let me just gloat on the good things about Utah first.  Other than along the Wasatch Front, it’s not crowded.  South of Spanish Fork, the most populated area is St. George and at its best, it boasts a population of maybe 115,000.  Now, to me that is still a big city because I grew up in a small farming town where in the whole western part of the county there was only about 4 or 5 thousand people total!  Anyway, we have it all in this state:  mountains, lakes and rivers, open meadows, pine and juniper forests, scenic drives, diverse wildlife, red rocks, granite caves, 5 national parks, numerous state parks, several national monuments and recreation areas, and even a glacier (unless it has totally melted by now).  With all of that comes an abundance of activities including skiing and snowboarding (greatest snow on earth-just check out our license plates), water sports, hiking, mountain biking, marathon running...the list goes on and on.  Literally the only thing we don’t have is an ocean with nice sandy beaches...unless you count the Great Salt Lake...

Anyway, all of that makes this place sound like heaven on earth, and among all of the things just listed, it is the home of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS), more commonly known as Mormons.  Now, before I continue I will say that I am indeed Mormon, however, I am not a “practicing” Mormon because organized religion just is not my thing.  I can have my own spiritual relationship with God without sitting in church every Sunday and participating in all the activities that go along with that.  I figure if I live my life in a good, meaningful way all the time, I’m doing alright.  And if that isn’t correct, then I guess I’ll be judged for that at my own day of reckoning.  It’s no one else’s place to judge me because I don’t actively participate in church functions.

Ok, back to the story.  As the dominant religion in the state, the better part of the population runs its life on the teachings, rules, and guidelines of the LDS church.  This is fine and dandy.  It is also fine and dandy that people in positions of authority, namely the state government, mostly are LDS.  After all, freedom of religion is a real thing in this country.  What is NOT fine and dandy though is when the church gets involved in the making or passing of laws and uses its influence to sway the lawmakers in this state to approve or oppose various laws.

Remember how I said that freedom of religion is a real thing?  Well, separation of church and state is also a real thing, at least in the other 49 states.  Utah was founded by Mormon pioneers fleeing religious persecution in the eastern half of the country so I get it that the whole basis of its existence started with the church.  However, once Utah became a state in 1896, the church *should* have left the government.  It didn’t.  Utah has and likely always will be, to some degree, a theocracy.

In case you’re wondering why this is a big deal, let me turn your attention to the most recent issue with the church overstepping its bounds.  There are two issues actually...last week a bill was presented in the state senate to increase the punishment against those who commit hate crimes.  Most notably against perpetrators of hate crimes against LGBT people.  Cool!  Yes, let’s please harshen the punishment for people that commit hate crimes, duh!  That just makes good sense.  No one should ever be a victim a crime just because they live a different lifestyle than someone else.  So what’s the problem?  The church issued a statement that it opposes the bill because

“The Utah Legislature achieved something extraordinary last year in arriving at legislation that protected both religious liberty rights and LGBT rights,” the church said in a statement. “Interests from both ends of the political spectrum are attempting to alter that balance. We believe that the careful balance achieved through being fair to all should be maintained.” (Credit to KUTV2 news for the quote, found here)

That statement is so vague it doesn’t even make sense.  No attempt to specify how or why the so-called “balance” would be altered by a bill that simply increases the punishment to those who commit hate crimes.  I’m still scratching my head on that.

What’s worse is that this statement actually persuaded some senators to vote against the bill!  Holy crap Batman...are you serious???  And what is even worse than that is the senator who presented the bill, who has spoken out against the Church’s involvement in lawmaking, will probably receive some sort of backlash from church leaders because of it!

Moving on...another recent and ongoing issue that the church has stuck its nose into is the potential of legalizing medical cannabis in Utah.  So many Utahns are stricken with chronic pain, autoimmune diseases, and other diseases that could benefit directly from the legalization of medical marijuana.  But it seems instead that the Church would rather have them rely on mass produced pharmaceutical drugs (which likely carry a higher rate of abuse and addiction and many times don’t work) than use a natural remedy to ease their suffering.

Anyhow, there are currently 2 bills being presented in the House of Representatives concerning legalization of medical marijuana.  The Church publicly opposed the first bill because it focuses on legalizing whole-plant cannabis for medical use.  It has no objection to the second bill because it focuses only on extracts of cannabis with “trace amounts of THC.”  There are benefits to both and in my humble opinion, both should be allowed.  Of course there are limitations and regulations that would need to be followed, as with any other prescription drug, but this needs to happen for the sake of our friends and families who suffer without relief on a daily basis.

Yesterday a headline was released that lawmakers are amending the bills to “make it more palatable to the Church.”  Now why in the hell are we even giving heed to the Church’s opinion on this???  If the church wants to be involved in lawmaking, it better give up its tax-free status and pay taxes like the rest of us.  But really...if the folks who make our laws can’t put religion aside and do their job, we need to vote them out and get some people in there that can.

When reporting on this issue, FOX13 news in Salt Lake City said this:

“...LDS Church could influence the bill’s chance at success in the coming weeks...The LDS Church, a powerful institution in the state of Utah, carries some sway in the legislature, where a majority of lawmakers are members of the Mormon faith. The Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake City has told FOX 13 it is not taking any position on the medical marijuana legislation presently.”

          (click here for the whole story from FOX13)

In this case, I think our church leaders need to take a page out of the Catholic play book and stay out of the lawmaking process.  They are hindering far more than they are helping anyone right now.  Not to mention the bad publicity they are attracting...

To my friends who are suffering in pain and need this bill passed, keep fighting for it.  To those who oppose it simply because the Church officials oppose it, do your research, talk to those who support it and would benefit from it and then make your OWN educated decision.  If you then decide to oppose it, great, just don’t be a sheep and blindly follow.  Separation of church and state in the government needs to happen and some separation within ourselves is also necessary.  We all have to make decisions that we feel are correct but do so after educating yourself on the matter.

That is all...for now