{"id":486,"date":"2012-07-02T01:00:35","date_gmt":"2012-07-02T01:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/peculiarpeople\/?p=486"},"modified":"2012-07-18T00:48:46","modified_gmt":"2012-07-18T00:48:46","slug":"mormons-soldiers-socialists-and-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/peculiarpeople\/2012\/07\/mormons-soldiers-socialists-and-me\/","title":{"rendered":"Mormons, Soldiers, Socialists, and Me"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Growing up, I lived in society where housing was assigned to families based, first, on their size and, second, on their seniority within the government. \u00a0 My parents never paid rent or utilities and, when something in the home needed repairing, they would call a central maintenance department that serviced the entire city. \u00a0When we were sick, we simply went to the hospital where we were treated and handed our\u00a0prescriptions\u00a0after showing our identification cards. \u00a0Both of these services were always free of charge, of course.<\/p>\n

I had a rather idyllic childhood, looking back, perhaps partly because I was proud that my family served in one of the United States\u2019 most cherished (and, ironically, rather socialist) institutions\u2014The U.S. Armed Forces.<\/p>\n

I have other\u00a0vivid memories of my childhood outside of the everyday workings of my Air Force home.\u00a0 For example, once a month, on a Saturday, we would pile into our family car and drive out to a large orchard in the middle of the Mojave Desert.\u00a0 There we worked for hours with other volunteers picking, pruning, polishing, sorting, and boxing tons of fruit for a processing plant in town where other volunteers washed and bottled all our hard work into jarred applesauce and canned peaches. \u00a0After that, still more volunteers would then load those cans and jars into\u00a0semi trucks\u00a0to be distributed to special grocery stores around the country.<\/p>\n

And I knew, as I stood there in the heat of the California desert, that these special grocery stores were there as security for other volunteers, other Mormons<\/a>, like me.\u00a0 I polished apples knowing that, if my family was ever in trouble, we would be allowed to go to one of those special stores and we would be given food for free.<\/p>\n

I came to understand \u201centitlement programs\u201d and \u201csocial-welfare contracts\u201d while heaping compost around tree roots for the LDS Welfare System.<\/p>\n

Two times over, then, I\u2019ve experienced this unique contradiction of living in socialized systems that (in the majority) fiercely, ardently, even religiously<\/em> counter-identify themselves with the bootstrap-pulling morality of Ayn Rand-style American individualism.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t really have any answers as to why this contradiction exists.\u00a0 True, I can make some flailing speculative ventures into the reasoning behind my military upbringing\u2014historical theories which involve terms like \u201cCold War\u201d and \u201cMcCarthyism.\u201d\u00a0 However, the aversion Mormons have to claiming their own socialist tendencies is downright perplexing.<\/p>\n

Even as early as 1831, the LDS church<\/a> was actively working toward organizing welfare systems. \u00a0\u00a0In fact, I\u2019m not exactly sure how to interpret Doctrine and Covenants 42: 30-34 as anything other than the establishment of a divinely-mandated socialist program:<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd behold, thou wilt remember the\u00a0poor, and\u00a0consecrate of thy properties for their\u00a0support,\u00a0that which thou hast to impart unto them, with a covenant and a deed which cannot be broken.\u00a0 And inasmuch as ye\u00a0impart of your\u00a0substance unto the\u00a0poor, ye will do it unto me; and they shall be\u00a0laid before the\u00a0bishop of my church and his\u00a0counselors, two of the elders, or high priests, such as he shall appoint or has appointed and\u00a0set apart for that purpose\u2026<\/p>\n

Therefore, the residue shall be kept in my\u00a0storehouse, to administer to the poor and the needy, as shall be appointed by the high council of the church, and the bishop and his council.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Perhaps I\u2019m being a bit obtuse in offering such a simplistic analysis without really fleshing out the deep discomfort many Americans (and thus an American religion) have about even muttering the word \u201csocialism.\u201d\u00a0 Perhaps it is because of my unique upbringing mingled with the fact that I currently, and very happily, live in an openly loud and proud socialist democracy.\u00a0 Perhaps it is now painfully obvious that my graduate experience was much more immersed in cultural history than political theory.<\/p>\n

But, truly, why are Mormons so very averse to proudly and publicly claiming the rich, social justice-driven legacy of the LDS Welfare System?\u00a0 Why do so many Mormons (who dutifully pay monthly \u201cfast-offering\u201d contributions to help other members in financial need) angrily oppose social safety net legislation like the Affordable Care Act?<\/p>\n

I can\u2019t believe that the influence of Republican political platforms are the only driver here.\u00a0 Where does this contradiction between progressive practice and conservative self-identification stem from within the Mormon tradition itself?<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Growing up, I lived in society where housing was assigned to families based, first, on their size and, second, on their seniority within the government. \u00a0 My parents never paid rent or utilities and, when something in the home needed repairing, they would call a central maintenance department that serviced the entire city. \u00a0When we […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":320,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mormonism"],"yoast_head":"\nMormons, Soldiers, Socialists, and Me<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Growing up, I lived in society where housing was assigned to families based, first, on their size and, second, on their seniority within the government. \u00a0\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, 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