This article is not about bashing a religion, so those who read the headline and want to start attacking in the comment section with flying, angry fingers can relax. This article is questioning the secular business activities of the Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (JCLDS) or the usual shortened version, LDS Church and the doctrine held sacred to the church, specifically in terms of how it could affect an American President.

In this writer’s opinion, it does not matter what religion, if any, an American president follows, as long as the President upholds the US Constitution over the dogma of a religion. We know that Barack Obama states that he is Christian, and in spite of that he has not legislated personal religious beliefs (nor Muslim ones), as the GOP have managed to do.

Some who will vote for Romney this Fall will undoubtedly console themselves with the belief that if Obama as a Christian, hasn’t been influenced by his religious beliefs, Romney won’t be influenced by Mormonism either. Others will hold out hope that Romney’s Christian beliefs will influence him in their favor by legislating Christian morality.

There is, however, another element to the LDS church that hasn’t been adequately considered; its secular business activities. The church’s jutification for its business undertakings are found in following statement issued by Keith B McMullin, CEO of the Mormon church’s holding company:

“We look to not only the spiritual but also the temporal, and we believe that a person who is impoverished temporally cannot blossom spiritually.”

I looked up the word temporal and got the following:

“having to do with life on earth especially as opposed to that in heaven <do not worry about temporal concerns, but instead focus on spiritual matters>”
Synonyms carnal, earthborn, earthbound, fleshly, material,mundane, sublunary, temporal, terrene, terrestrial, worldly

Since this is very different from most Christian beliefs that follow the scripture that says:

[Matthew 6:19-21] “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

This difference in theology is significant for two reasons:

The LDS Church has stored up its treasures on earth by amassing enormous amounts of stock holdings, property, and other riches that have caused many to make the claim that “[Mormonism) is a business machine masquerading as a religion” This article is asserting that the LDS church is the religion of business; one which is not accountable to its own members.

The second reason this difference in theology is significant is because of this religion’s own doctrinal laws:

The Law of Consecration requires "that you do consecrate (To declare or set apart as sacred) yourselves, your time, talents and everything with which the Lord has blessed you, or with which he may bless you, to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, for the building up of the Kingdom of God on the earth and for the establishment of Zion."

The Law of Sacrifice is explained as based on the Old and New Testaments. In submitting to this Law, the patrons covenant to "sacrifice all that we possess, even our own lives if necessary, in sustaining and defending the Kingdom of God [i.e., the Mormon Church].”

Mitt Romney grew up in this culture, both the religious and business of the LDS Church. The LDS Church owns stock in Bain Capital. As America’s president, the Mormon Laws of Consecration and Sacrifice must either be discarded or upheld by former Bishop Romney. Which will it be?

As Andrew Sullivan, a political conservative and author stated:

All it [Mormonism] needs is a president of the United States to broaden its appeal in a fusion of faith and country. It’s been trying since Joseph Smith ran for the highest office in the land – not a typical path for a “spiritual” leader. Now, as the unofficial religion of American capitalism in its least regulated and most rapacious form, it has its chance.

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