YOU can’t always draw a straight line between people’s declared spiritual beliefs and their electoral behaviour. In the current American election campaign, this disconnect seems to have widened. According to a poll published this week, some 61% of Americans now believe that elected officials can perform their public duties well even if their personal behaviour is immoral; that figure is up from 44% in 2011. Among white evangelicals, the conversion to this hard-boiled attitude has been dramatic; some 72% now take this view of things, compared with 30% who felt that way five years ago. Behind this figure, of course, lies the fact that many (by no means all) religious and clean-living Americans have resolved to vote for a man who has neither of those qualities.
But among devout, conservative and tradition-minded voters, there is one big exception, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS). Compared with other pious citizens, the...Continue reading
