[Sister Jones] thinks the world needs less government regulation

A Mormon friend of mine recently posted the following thought, representative, I believe, of a large part of the Utah/Mormon political psyche:

"[I] think our world needs a little more moral discipline and a little less government regulation."


Now, I don't know if Sean Hannity or Glenn Beck or some other Mormon or Mormon-sponsored conservative talking head prompted my friend's thoughts on government regulation (she rarely talks much politics on her own). I do know that whether she thinks her own independent thoughts about political and economic theory or whether she simply absorbs the ramblings and rantings of others, a lot of other Mormons share her feelings. Several of her Mormon friends had already voiced their approval of her sentiment by the time I chimed in to argue for government regulation in the absence of moral discipline, and after I spoke my peace, a few of her friends went on to smugly remind me that government regulation wouldn't be needed if everyone were just morally upstanding.

Here in Utah, the desire for moral discipline combined with a dislike of government regulation translates into policies and practices that assume moral discipline and abhor regulation and regulatory action. For example, consider one Rick Koerber, currently facing 22 counts of federal tax evasion, mail and wire fraud, securities fraud and money laundering, involving over 100 million dollars.

No state charges have ever been filed against our boy Rick. This despite boxes and boxes of evidence that the Utah Department of Commerce apparently had documenting Koerber's crimes, and which the feds presumably also used to support their 22 count indictment. Facing the possibility of prosecution, Rick simply made a few calls on state legislators, got in touch with Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff, and convinced them of his moral virtue. After all, Koerber unabashedly pronounced himself the "Latter-Day Capitalist," touted the attendance of LDS General Authorities at his seminars, and proclaimed that since God, fount of all virtue, was a capitalist, Brother Koerber, also a capitalist, was above government regulation.

Fortunately, the U.S. Attorney's office, on examining the evidence instead of relying on the word of fellow Mormons and flashes of temple recommends and garments, was less convinced of Rick's moral fortitude. I mean, while I'm sure Brett Tolman (also a Mormon) and the career attorneys who work under him wish very much that the world were free of crooks and criminals, that wish, for them, doesn't translate into a steadfast belief in its actual existence.

So, why do so many Mormons I know seem so willing to make that leap of faith, wishing and hoping and finally truly believing that the Rick Koerbers and the Val Southwicks are the morally disciplined men that fit so nicely into their dreamy political-economic narrative of a morally upright world which needs no government regulation?

Mormonism is, in my opinion, an extraordinarily optimistic religion, at least in the minds of the typical Mormon. We don't tend to talk, for example, about the inherent evil in the nature of man and original sin (even though the Book of Mormon explicitly condemns man as devilish and fallen by nature). We prefer to focus on free agency (and not the kind that allows the Angels to sign Hideki Matsui), the opportunity for man to choose to be better, to reject evil, and ultimately to have joy.

Not only do we prefer to believe in our own individual potential for good, we believe that we are so good that from our dear leader and Prophet, down through the Apostles and Seventies, to our local stake presidents and bishops and husbands and fathers, and as individuals, we have the right to not only pray to God for mercy and grace, but to actually, as a result of our worthiness, receive divine revelation.

So, if God speaks to Rick Koerber, seriously, why call up the feds?


Not only do Mormons place confidence in their own potential to choose to be good and lead virtuous lives, they more importantly, I think, believe passionately in their own ability to win over the souls of their fallen brothers and sisters, wandering in the darkness of despair and sin. For example, every Mormon man is expected to serve a proselytizing mission upon reaching the age of 19. I served one, the standard two year deal (18 months for young women, who have to wait until they're 21, but can serve at any age thereafter, while the men, while single, can only serve up to age 26). The mission is not only viewed as a rite of passage, but as a demonstration and a test of one's own ability, in concert with the power of God, to win converts over to living the disciplined, moral life.

When you talk about your mission, once you get past the introductory discussion of the exotic place where you served (or didn't serve), what people really want to hear, what they fill up the pews to hear on your valedictory "homecoming" address, are your conversion stories (how many people you baptized, how amazing it was to watch them change their lives, how they stopped smoking, drinking, beating their wives, etc., all because of the power of the priesthood and the Spirit you carried with you as a result of your worthiness).

If anything stirs the heart of Mormons, it is their faith in their own ability to persuade others to abandon the ways of sin and choose righteousness.

So, for many of them, like my friend, governments and regulatory agencies are essentially treading on their turf. It's the full-time and member missionaries who should be out there persuading people to be good and morally disciplined, not those secular, pluralist government bureaucrats.

A classic and very frequently invoked quote from rabid anti-government Prophet, Ezra Taft Benson, reinforces the anti-government feeling ("the world" is code for government):

"The Lord works from the inside out. The world works from the outside in. The world would take people out of the slums. Christ takes the slums out of people, and then they take themselves out of the slums. The world would mold men by changing their environment. Christ changes men, who then change their environment. The world would shape human behavior, but Christ can change human nature....

"Human nature must be changed on an enormous scale in the future, unless the world is to be drowned in its own blood. And only Christ can change it."

So, not only is government treading on the purview of the church and God, but government efforts to produce a better world are doomed to failure because only Christ can effect the changes necessary to save humanity. If government, in fact, would only just get out of the way, the elders of Israel, clearly, would have the room they need to go into the slums (and presumably the upper-class haunts of white collar criminals) and save souls.

Of course, the problem with this narrative, in addition, obviously, to its lazy dismissal of one of its own central tenets, that men can choose both to do good or to do evil, is that its anti-government anti-regulatory position is in direct contradiction with any number of Mormon scriptures.

Consider Alma (himself a former government leader in a pluralist society), speaking of the necessity of law to his skeptical son:

Now, if there was no law given—if a man murdered he should die—would he be afraid he would die if he should murder?

Yet, when it comes to government, the source of the law which would condemn a man to death (or to 22 sentences of 3-15 years in federal prison), Mormons somehow wish there were less of it (or at least less of the kind that would go after self-styled "Latter-day Capitalists").

This, despite the fact that Mormon scripture goes on to extol, in the highest terms, the virtues of government as divine in nature and origin:

"We believe that governments were instituted of God for the benefit of man...that all governments necessarily require civil officers and magistrates to enforce the laws of the same; and that such as will administer the law in equity and justice should be sought for and upheld by the voice of the people if a republic, or the will of the sovereign."

Now, sure there are plenty of Mormons who have more nuanced, informed and sophisticated views of government. Shoot, there are even a valiant few who believe the world needs more government regulation as a way to enable and produce more moral discipline.

It's going to take a while, though, for folks like my friend to let go of their long-held displeasure with government and regulation, and come to terms with government as a force for good in a pluralist society where men really, truly can, and so very often do, despite the best efforts of the 19 year old Mormon boys, choose to be evil.