The blogosphere and podcast fields have been saturated with content. Everyday we are bombarded with opinions and talking heads from every aspect of the political sphere. For LDS liberals there have been very few voices to listen to. About a year ago the LDS Dems caucus brought to us a father and son duo each week with the intent of showing the world that you can be Mormon,  be a liberal, be strong in your faith, and make a difference for the better in this world. 

I realized the predicament the Republican Party was in when I got into a heated conversation with a close relative.  I had just read James McPherson’s Pulitzer-winning book Battle Cry of Freedom and was curious to find out what side a close relative sided with.  

"How can you not side with Lincoln?" pointing out Lincoln's accomplishments.  “Would you rather have our great nation divided into fifty countries?”

To my astonishment my question was met with a resounding, “Yes!”

Recently, the Sutherland Institute posted an article regarding LDS Democrats “trying to reconcile opposing values” between our religious and political beliefs. One commenter boiled it down to what I believe many feel is the core reason members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints cannot also be members of the Democratic party:

I have debated since I started this blog whether to directly address the issue of religious beliefs, whether my own or those of other Utahns. For many of us in Utah, our religious beliefs are not easily left out of anything. It's simply too fundamental a part of who we are. 

12 Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity.

1 Timothy 4:12

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints can depend on left-leaning members to draw a growing demographic, which would otherwise be repulsed by organized religion, to learn about and even accept the Restored Gospel.

As part of Black History Month, we are posting the text of a great article from the Journal of Mormon History by James B. Allen[ref]James B. Allen, a past president of the Mormon History Association, has been on the faculty of Brigham Young University since 1963, and currently holds the Lemuel H. Redd Chair in Western American History. He is also a former Assistant Church Historian and is the author or co-author of numerous books and articles, among them The Story of the Latter-day Saints, with Glen M. Leonard. He is married to Renee Jones; they have five children and twelve grandchildren. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Mormon History Association annual meeting, 13 May 1989, at Omaha, Nebraska. Sources from the Historical Department Archives of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (hereafter cited as LDS Church Archives) are copyright by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; courtesy of the Church Historical Department; used by permission.[/ref], which can be found here as a pdf.