June 2006

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President Hinckley celebrates his 96th birthday by going to the groundbreaking of the new BYU alumni center named in his honor. Happy Birthday!

Brigham Young University will resume student programs on a limited basis at its Center for Near Eastern Studies in Jerusalem beginning Fall Semester, 2006. UPDATE: The Des News has more.

Non-mormon blogger calls upon the Church to excommunicate Senator Reid for opposing the FMA.

Elder Nelson continues his participation with the Alliance for Marriage at the U.S. Capitol calling for the passage of the FMA.

BYU Prof and church member criticizes the Brethren’s stance on the Federal Marriage Amendment. I think reasonable people can disagree but he is pretty harsh and seems to have deeper issues with the Church.

The SL Trib notes:

Romney has said he plans at some point in the campaign to give a religion speech À la John F. Kennedy’s famous Catholic address convincing voters that if elected president he would not be a conduit for the pope’s wishes. Romney’s speech likely would be aimed at dispelling fears that his faith is abnormal or outside the mainstream.

Governor Romney is not only paving the way for his own future but for that of many LDS politicians as well as the public perception of the Church and its members for many years to come.

The SL Tribune asks if conservative Mormons will bolt the Republican party if Mitt Romney gets the boot in the 2008 GOP primaries because of his religion. It’s an interesting but ultimately pointless article that may ultimately further his interests by airing this issue to death (has that happened already?) before the 2008 race really begins.

However, it will be interesting to see how Gov. Romney performs in the South, especially among evangelicals. I get frustrated that many evangelicals seem uninterested in acknowledging like-minded conservative Mormons and question politicians like Romney solely because of his religious convictions. That said, Romney has shown well in appearances in South Carolina and a recent straw poll in Tennessee. But such anecdotal evidence should just underscore how useless speculation over 2008 is, even if it fun.

Regardless what becomes Romney’s fate the LDS vote is solidly conservative as is Utah’s. Since Utah is the only area where the LDS vote is appreciable let me use it as a proxy when discussing the general LDS vote:

• As I see it, Utah became solidly Republican when the Democrats abandoned any hospitality to socially conservative viewpoints starting in the ’60s.
• The LDS vote is not exactly the most sought out of minority voting blocs. While it still probably comprises the majority vote of Utah that still is only five electoral votes. So even if there was a serious threat that the LDS vote could swing Democratic, third-party, or stay at home, it’s probably not going to keep Karl Rove or his counterparts up at night. There are bigger states to fry.
• Utah is arguably the reddest of red states, still giving President Bush over 50% support. Utah is so red that President Clinton came in third in Utah in 1992.
• As long as there is a strong two-party system, the general LDS vote has few choices outside of the GOP. If the Democratic party continues to appear hostile to religious and socially conservative views, my guess is that the LDS vote will continue to be reliably GOP.

Ultimately, I resent the appeal to identity politics. While Mormons may generally vote alike, it’s because they happen to share many of the same views just as they do with other socially and religious conservatives. While some LDS may flock to Romney just because he is LDS, I doubt that will be enough for him to win most Mormon votes. Alternatively, I hope that LDS voters don’t change their vote out of spite just because their religious sensibilities are offended and regardless of their political views.

New email subscription to receive notices of LDS.org site updates

One additional note on the new beta Church site is the explanation of what’s new (PDF) has this to say in explanation of the revised URL system:

“Rather than the long URLs you see now, they will be shorter and, in most cases, human readable. This change will make it easier to cite them in online forums, blogs, or e-mails.” (emphasis added) 

I seem to recall that someone else has caught another official recognition of blogs by the Church but I can’t remember where. However, perennial predictions of the Bloggernacle’s debut in General Conference are still unrealized.

Many in the Bloggernacle have noticed that the church’s new site design is on display at www.beta.lds.org. Today, the Church sent out an official proclamation announcing the beta via its GEMS email list. There is also a pdf file which explains some of the innovations of the new site and what to expect in the near future.

Highlights include:

• better support regardless of operating system (i.e. more Mac friendly) and W3C standards-compliant
• enhanced Gospel Library with standardized URL system for it and rest of the site (sorely needed)
• CES materials will be incoprated into the Gospel Library
• limited evaluation of podcasts for 2006
• more RSS feeds
• site-wide search capability and index
• improved integration of church-wide and local units’ calendars (2006 or 2007)

The official transition to the new site begins sometime this summer to the new site is expected sometime in the summer of 2006, including the revamped Gospel Library section. Hallelujah!