The Mormon Worker - Does this mean a leftist movement within the LDS Church?

[Taverner]

Anyone familiar?

[imdjh]

1. It's an odd website. I can't figure out what it's about.

[Jim__]

2. They say it's modeled on the Catholic Worker - so it sounds like it.

About
A note to our readers
The Mormon Worker is an independent newspaper/journal devoted to Mormonism and radical politics. It is published by members of the LDS Church. The paper is modeled after the legendary Catholic Worker which has been in publication for over seventy years.

The primary objective of The Mormon Worker is to meaningfully connect core ideas of Mormon theology with a host of political, economic, ecological, philosophical, and social topics.

Although most contributors of The Mormon Worker are members of the LDS church, some are not, and we accept submissions from people of varying secular and religious backgrounds. The opinions expressed in The Mormon Worker are not the official views of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

In solidarity,
The Mormon Worker

Their web page

[rug]

8. That's interesting. The only witness to Trotsky's murder was a former Mormon.

http://themormonworker.org/articles/issue6/saints-of-the-fourth-international.php

[SidneyCarton]

3. What? You've never heard of Mormon Liberals?

Sure, there are only about 25 of us (in the United States) and of them, only 3-5 are likely to be radicals but they do exist.

[JerseygirlCT]

4. LOL

Glad to hear any of you exist, actually!

[SidneyCarton]

5. Much more common overseas actually.

Most of the Mormons I knew when I served a Mission in Brazil voted for Lula. Hyperconservativsm in the church is more an US/Canadian phenomenon.

[JerseygirlCT]

6. That's interesting...

Certainly here in the US, running into a more liberal-minded LDS is news.

I have met one (other than you) on a message board. She gets ripped up one side and down the other quite frequently from the other LDS folks, who make George Bush look like a raving liberal.

I wonder - how do these more liberal LDS deal with the whole patriarchal nature of the religion in the context of a liberal world-view?

[SidneyCarton]

7. One shrugs one's shoulders a lot

And wonders where exactly these folks get a lot of their material. It sure isn't from the Book of Mormon itself, one of the major discourses in there deals with our common responsibilities to care for the poor, and our common dependence on God. Another deals with the immorality of preemptive war, etc, etc...

As for the patriarchal nature of the religion in general, as one of the lay leadership in the local congregation, I can firmly attest to the fact that unless we get the sisters involved, and rely heavily on their input, nothing gets done. A Bishop is only as effective as his Relief Society (The Women's Auxillary) President, and most Bishops know this, if they don't, they learn it fast.

[Taverner]

9. Yes - in fact I seem to remember part of the original GOP platform was "get rid of the Mormons"

Yet, now they're buddy buddy?

There is only one example of Christian Persecution in the US, and was the persecution of the Mormons in the time of Joseph Smith. An angry mob killed him, in fact.

So with this persecution in their history, they join their oppressors?

[SidneyCarton]

10. When you can find me the answer to that question, please let me know.

I've been asking it for years.

That said, considering how popular we are here, and on the left in general, one wonders where we would go.

[Taverner]

11. I've always thought Harry Reid should campaign through UT, ID and NV as a "Reid Democrat"

and really work to get Mormons to jump ship