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Tuesday, January 28, 2025

Do Latter-Day Saints Have the Solution to Civic Discord?

Jonathan Rauch is a non-believer, but he recently spoke at Brigham Young University (BYU) at Provo. In doing so, he lauded the approach of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to civic theology, suggesting that it is an example for American Christianity. Tad Walch covers religion with a focus on The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and reported on Rauch’s speech at BYU. 

In a remarkable address at Brigham Young University, a nationally respected public policy expert and journalist said that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has developed a modern civic theology desperately needed in American Christianity in an age of secularization, polarization and dechurching.


Jonathan Rauch, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, believes strongly enough in what Latter-day Saint leaders are teaching that he, an atheist in a same-sex marriage, spent the past week in Utah asking church leaders and BYU students to amplify the message that he gleaned from the church itself.


“One of the reasons that I’m here,” Rauch said, “is that in all of Christian America, I can only think of one church that has worked out an articulated civic theology of how Christians should address politics and the public world, and you heard it here (Tuesday) from Elder (Gary E.) Stevenson” during a BYU devotional.


Elder Stevenson called on BYU students to take up the flags of peacemaking and understanding others. It was built on landmark talks by church President Russell M. Nelson (“Peacemakers Needed”) and his first counselor, President Dallin H. Oaks (“Going Forward with Religious Freedom and Nondiscrimination”).


“I believe that the discipleship that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has embarked on has national civic implications,” said Rauch, from Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., and author of eight books. “I believe that it deserves an audience outside of the church, not just inside the church. I believe the work that it is doing is to articulate not just the conclusion, which is ‘be peacemakers,’ but how you reach the conclusion, why that’s what God wants.

Walch’s article has too many good quotes from Rauch to include in my essay. Rauch makes many good points about how members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints can be good examples of how people with differing political views can have peaceful relationships. Peacemakers are needed in a nation that is so torn politically that family members refuse to share Thanksgiving or Christmas traditions with other family members with differing political views.

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