'Are you listening, Donald Trump?': Mormon church tells members to vote for 'integrity' regardless of party
Story by Sarah K. Burris • 1h ago

“Citizens of the United States have the privilege and duty of electing officeholders and influencing public policy," the letter from the church leadership began. "Participation in the political process affects their communities and nation today and in the future. We urge Latter-day Saints to be active citizens by registering, exercising their right to vote, and engaging in civic affairs, always demonstrating Christlike love and civility in public discourse."

The letter urges members to be "informed about the issues and candidates" and examine them within the context of the gospels.

"Some principles compatible with the gospel may be found in various political parties, and members should seek candidates who best embody those principles," the letter continues. "Members should also study candidates carefully and vote for those who have demonstrated integrity, compassion, and service to others, regardless of party affiliation.

"Merely voting a straight ticket or voting based on ‘tradition’ without careful study of candidates and their positions on important issues is a threat to democracy and inconsistent with revealed standards (See Doctrine and Covenants 98:10)."

Salt Lake Tribune columnist Gordon Monson said it was a message directed straight at Trump, among others.

"Are you listening, Donald Trump? Ron DeSantis?" he wrote.

He went on: "Think about who Trump is in so much of his public and private life — a liar, or, for those who shrink away at that term, a massive distorter of the truth, a man who comports himself in a manner far outside what is taught to Latter-day Saints, a man being investigated for a fistful of crimes, an individual who paid off an adult film star with whom he had an affair to keep her silent, a man who was recorded saying women allow powerful men to molest them, a president who claimed after his election defeat, against all evidence and court decisions to the contrary, that the 2020 vote was a fraud, that the election was stolen from him, and on and on and on. And I haven’t even used the word “insurrection.”