Noting that he was a “Reform Jew from the East Coast,” Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank began his article on Friday saying, “I never dreamed I’d be writing these words: I’m finding solace in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.”
Alongside quotes from former Senators Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) and Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, he said the church “has been turning out one conservative elected official after another who has demanded we pull back from the political abyss.”
While reporting on the conversation Gov. Cox had with Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro in Washington this week, Milbank suggested that Gov. Cox “has been beating the drum for decency, civility and compromise more than any other prominent elected Republican in the country, and perhaps more than any official in either party.”
Noting the well-known consequences of directing critique at President Donald Trump, Milbank said “they spoke out anyway.” He added that “all three men have credited their faith.”
“It’s core to who I am,” Cox told the columnist earlier this week. “The leader of my church has been advocating for us to be peacemakers. I think it is the issue of our time and we desperately need it.”
Acknowledging that “secular Americans often are suspicious of those in politics who wear their religion on their sleeves,” Milbank emphasized how often Latter-day Saints “preach about compromise, civility, pluralism and reverence for constitutional boundaries.” He shared two excerpts from the late President Russell Nelson’s talk “Peacemakers Needed, another from President Dallin Oaks’ “Defending Our Divinely Inspired Constitution,” and a letter from the First Presidency encouraging openness to leaders who have “demonstrated integrity, compassion, and service to others, regardless of party affiliation.”
“Such words appear to soften the flock’s partisanship,” Milbank concluded — citing statistics from three different elections demonstrating significantly less support for President Donald Trump compared with other religious Republican voters.
“Could it be that this uniquely American religion has come up with a solution to America’s political crisis? The evidence suggests it has,” Milbank wrote. He went on to cite social science research demonstrating the effectiveness of elected leaders speaking out and modeling better disagreement, highlighting Gov. Cox’s peacemaking videos with Democratic opponent, Chris Peterson as an effective example.
Milbank reiterated, “The instincts Cox is demonstrating on the national stage have deep roots in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.” Noting organizational features that encourage leadership to reach consensus on major decisions, the columnist also stated that “Membership in local congregations, or wards, is assigned by geography, which means parishioners don’t get to choose a church with like-minded people.”
Milbank quoted Paul Edwards, director of the Wheatley Institute, as explaining, “The sociology of our lived experiences as Latter-day Saints is one of frequent accommodation, negotiation and engagement with people we didn’t pick as our best buddies.”
Milbank also remarked on how “Latter-day Saints churches are run by volunteer, lay clergy whose livelihoods don’t depend on placating the most extreme members of their church” and noted how missionary work puts many members “in contact with all walks of life.”
“To be sure, the political scene in Utah is no heaven on earth,” the columnist said — noting that “some of the bitterness and dehumanization of the Trump era has seeped into the state’s politics.”
Yet he said the Church of Jesus Christ has been successful in keeping “politics out to a far greater extent” than some other faiths.
“Ideologically, the Latter-day Saints, persecuted for much of their history as a minority religion,” he said, “embrace pluralism and regard as divinely inspired the Constitution.”