David Pace's blog

At the last promotions meeting, someone came up with "CTP: Choose the Progressive." The reference is to the ubiquitous LDS CTR (Choose the Right) rings on the background of a protective shield. I like this one because it's playful and speaks to the local culture. LDS will recognize the symbol and will either be A) amused and come out of the closet to join us in our cause, or B) offended by a perceived sacrilege (it's not: it's pure Mormon kitsch) and not join us (we probably aren't designed for too-sensitive types like that anyway.)

An excerpt from Steve Olsen's most excellent pamphlet "Why Most Utahns Are Democrats (But Just Don't Know it Yet)"

ON LABOR UNIONS AND CORPORATIONS

Democrats...believe, like Henry Ford did a century ago, that the most important things for a healthy economy is a thriving middle class. We believe that true economic success hasn't been achieved until opportunity spills over to the most disadvantaged among us. We also believe that the wealthy can take care of themselves just fine, thank you. (The expanding poverty gap in America shows just how appropirate the word "trickle" [in reference to Ronald Reagan's "trickle down economics" theory] was.) Democrats are not socialists; we respect the right to property and believe in capitalism. But we believe the protection of property and earning power should extend to average Americans, not just the rich.

Steve Olsen is the Democratic candidate for Utah's U.S. congressional seat currently occupied by Rob Bishop. His pamphlet titled "Why Most Utahns Are Democrats (but just don't know it yet)" is the most compelling and provocative argument I've read that Utah can become--if it isn't already--a bluer state.

Sensitive, conciliatory without being wishy-washy about what Democrats stand for (and can stand for), this pamphlet is possibly the one best hope we Democrats have of winning converts in the Beehive State.

I actually believe that religion plays an important role in democracies. Paired with the other loci in a traditional medieval town square--the marketplace, the government, the university--the cathedral has its place as the voice of conscience, of moral, ethical and spiritual pursuits. (I use the term cathedral to mean all houses of worship) Ideally, the "cathedral" is the place of collective as well as individual reflection.

My attendance at Mayor Rocky Anderson’s Bridging the Religious Divide meetings over the summer and fall made it clear to me that there is a Mormon/other religious divide here in Utah. But more important than the divide between Mormons and non-Mormons, I learned that the divide within myself is the one I should be most concerned about.

When I first signed up for these meetings I listed myself as a former Latter-day Saint who was now Episcopalian. But after the first meeting with my group I realized I was identifying more with my Mormon heritage and identity than with any other faith or non-faith. This was odd, but it should not have surprised me. After all, Mormonism is a totalizing faith, meaning that it is as much—I would argue more—about the culture than it is about any religion. I’m not the only one who has explored the notion of Mormon identity. Historian Jan Shipps has discussed in some detail the ethnic component in Mormonism, and literary scholar Harold Bloom has even argued that Mormons function as a race of people not unlike the Jews.

[The promotions committee, of which I am co-chair, is attempting to get D4U members to write letters and op-ed pieces about our issues. This is a draft of mine. –David]

My attendance at Mayor Rocky Anderson's Bridging the Religious Divide meetings over the summer and fall made it clear to me that there is a Mormon/other religious divide here in Utah. But more important than the divide between Mormons and non-Mormons, I learned that the divide within myself is the one I should be most concerned about.

[promoted from the personal blogs — Carrie]

I found myself having an identity crisis in these meetings. I listed myself as an Episcopalian who was raised Mormon. After the first meeting (I went to four) I realized that I was identifying still largely as a Mormon even though I had resigned my LDS Church membership in 1996. The question then became, what kind of Mormon am I? The first thing I wanted to reassure everyone of in my group was that I wasn't a "typical Mormon." No one, I realize, in these groups and elsewhere, wants to be considered a "typical Mormon." Those from other faiths (or no faith) prefer to identify their Mormon friends with the qualifier, "But they're not typical Mormons."