Our ValuesOur Valueshttp://www.readthespirit.com/ourvalues/2012-02-03T03:20:14ZSquarespaceShould personal religious beliefs shape policy choices?http://www.readthespirit.com/ourvalues/should-personal-religious-beliefs-shape-policy-choices.htmlDavid Crumm2012-02-03T05:02:00Z2012-02-03T05:02:00ZAmerica is a religiously diverse country, where a broad range of faiths are practiced and accepted. With the probable choice of Mitt Romney as the Republican candidate for the highest office, we’ll have a test of just how much religious diversity Americans accept.

Romney’s rise—and the rising prominence of Mormons in popular culture—has placed the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the spotlight. Using data from the Pew Research Center, this week we’ve examined Mormons’ political beliefs, their views of life in America, the LDS church as a Christian faith, and issues of gender equality in Christianity writ large.

The focus on Mormons is the most recent example of a perennial question in American history: How much religious diversity is a good thing? To what extent should our personal religious beliefs dictate our responses to problems, decisions, and challenges? How far does religious acceptance go?

On Thursday, President Obama addressed these issues in his remarks at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C., an annual event held on the first Thursday of February. Traditionally, the president is one of the featured speakers. Yesterday, he said, in part: “We know that part of living in a pluralistic society means that our personal religious beliefs alone can’t dictate our response to every challenge we face. But in my moments of prayer, I’m reminded that faith and values play an enormous role in motivating us to solve some of our most urgent problems, in keeping us going when we suffer setbacks, and opening our minds and our hearts to the needs of others.”

Obama added: “We can’t leave our values at the door. If we leave our values at the door, we abandon much of the moral glue that has held our nation together for centuries, and allowed us to become somewhat more perfect a union.”

What are those values? Obama cited several, including fairness (Wall Street must play by the same rules as Main Street), shared responsibility, the moral responsibility of those with more to give more, equal opportunities for all, caring for the poor and those on the margins of society, and treating others as you want to be treated.

He concluded: “These values are old. They can be found in many denominations and many faiths, among many believers and among many non-believers. And they are values that have always made this country great—when we live up to them; when we don’t just give lip service to them; when we don’t just talk about them one day a year.”

Are the values the president mentioned still important in America?

Do we just give them lip service?

Can common values unite us?

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Originally published at www.OurValues.org, an online experiment in civil dialogue.

]]>What do Mormons, as a group, look like politically?http://www.readthespirit.com/ourvalues/what-do-mormons-as-a-group-look-like-politically.htmlDavid Crumm2012-02-02T05:02:00Z2012-02-02T05:02:00ZA Snapshot of Mormon Political Pride: Most are conservative Americans who tend to support the GOP. Image in public domain courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.The political ascendancy of Mitt Romney—as well as the rising prominence of members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the media—has thrust the church into the spotlight. All week on OurValues.org, we have relied on factual data about the lives of Mormons in America—in contraposition to stereotypes and media hearsay.

Today, look at Mormons’ political beliefs.

Like any group in America, there are variations and tendencies in the political beliefs of Mormons. Two-thirds of Mormons say they are conservatives, based on the Pew Research Center survey of Mormons on America. Twenty-two percent are moderates, with only 8% saying they are politically liberal. Mormons are generally more conservative than the American public as a whole, where only 37% say they are conservative, the same percentage are moderate, and 22% identify as liberals.

Mormons and white evangelical Protestants share similar political ideologies. Both groups are more conservative than the general population. But there are obvious religious differences. Only a minority of white evangelical Protestants believe Mormons are Christians, as we discussed Tuesday. This stands in sharp contrast to the large majorities of mainline Protestants and white Catholics who say Mormons are Christians.

Given that Mormons tend to be politically conservative, it isn’t surprising to learn that three-quarters (74%) identify as Republican or lean that way. This tendency is stronger for men than women, Pew reports, with 81% of Mormon men identifying with or leaning Republican, compared to 67% of Mormon women.

Mormons are a small minority within the overall population, but they are the strongest supporters of the Republican Party, compared to Protestants, Catholics, and the unaffiliated. Their closest rivals in levels of support are white evangelicals.

There are wider differences of opinion among Mormons when it comes to some controversial issues. For example, 45% of Mormons say “immigrants strengthen our country because of their hard work and talents” while 41% say “immigrants are a burden on our country because they take our jobs, housing, and healthcare.”

Do these facts about political attitudes surprise you?

Or confirm your political assumptions?

How about the split on immigration? What do you think?

Originally published at www.OurValues.org, an online experiment in civil dialogue.

]]>Mormon: Romney's on top again ... but his church?http://www.readthespirit.com/ourvalues/mormon-romneys-on-top-again-but-his-church.htmlDavid Crumm2012-02-01T05:02:00Z2012-02-01T05:02:00ZRomney roared in Florida on Tuesday.
He’s back on top, again. But his church?
Mormons are likely to face months of tough media scrutiny as his campaign surges. Our discussion this week about Mormons in America is an effort to look beyond this year’s often stormy political claims. We’ve been looking at recent Pew data—solid information about the lives of members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. (Look at our first post on Monday for an introduction to this series.)

Today, let’s consider a provocative critique of the church in a New York Times (NYT) online posting of viewpoints about Romney and his church. One of the five commentaries was written by Sally Denton, a noted investigative journalist, author, and critic of the LDS church. She has won awards for her investigations of troubling chapters in American Western history.

Denton’s NYT commentary called the LDS church, according to her headline, “A Male-Dominated World.” We all should question Romney as a candidate, Denton told readers, because “male authoritarianism” is the church’s “most distinctive characteristic.” You can read Denton’s entire commentary at the NYT site via the link above. But, her central charge is: “The controversial and secretive religion is a multibillion-dollar business empire ruled by a stern patriarchal gerontocracy.”

What’s fascinating about Denton’s claim is this: That same charge has frequently been made against Catholic leaders and the Vatican. The same criticism could be made of Eastern Orthodox Churches, as well. Right or wrong, such a claim is no small matter. The Catholic and Orthodox churches worldwide represent two thirds of all Christians. In fact, looking beyond Christianity, the same charge has been laid at the doorstep of all the major world religions.

On Tuesday, based on Pew data, we looked at changing attitudes about whether Mormons are Christians. As we noted in that story, attitudes toward the church appear to be changing among some segments of the population. American attitudes about various religious groups keep evolving. As recently as half a century ago in the U.S., criticisms were routinely made of Catholic candidates about the secretive and male-dominated nature of their church. There still are critiques of some individual Catholic politicians about their voting records on issues related to women’s rights.

Here’s a provocative question concerning Denton’s charge against Mormons:

Is Denton’s criticism really a critique of the majority of Christianity?

Is the criticism really a broad indictment of inequality in world religions?

How do you balance faith and gender equality?

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Originally published at www.OurValues.org, an online experiment in civil dialogue.

]]>Mormons: What’s the most important thing to know?http://www.readthespirit.com/ourvalues/mormons-whats-the-most-important-thing-to-know.htmlDavid Crumm2012-01-31T05:03:00Z2012-01-31T05:03:00ZA common Mormon image of Jesus. This painting appears on the main LDS web page about Jesus. (Click this image to visit that page on the LDS.org website.)Mormons are Christians. That’s the single most important thing for non-members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to know and accept, Mormons overwhelmingly believe. It’s also the most hotly contested point between Mormons and other Christians.

Here’s what Pew found in its landmark survey of Mormons nationwide, a report that we introduced on Monday this week: Virtually all Mormons (97%) surveyed by the Pew Research Center describe their church as Christian.

In Michigan where I work and teach, journalists from across the state gathered last week for a tour of a major Mormon center in metro Detroit. Several of the state’s top LDS church officials led the hour-long tour. More than once, these religious leaders stressed this message, almost word for word: “We are just as Christian as can be. There is no question. We are Christian.”

Here’s a fascinating finding in another Pew report: Large majorities of other Christians now agree with members of the LDS church on that point—except for white evangelical Protestants, according to a Pew survey of the general population. Pew found that about two-thirds of white mainline Protestants (67%) and white Catholics (63%) said the LDS church is Christian, compared to about one-third (35%) of white evangelical Protestants.

Mormons share many religious practices and beliefs with other branches of Christianity, Pew found. Almost all (98%) believe in the resurrection of Jesus. They pray often (83% pray every day) and go to church (77% at least once a week).

How will Mitt Romney’s faith affect his chances this year? Pew concludes that Romney’s Mormon faith might be a factor in the Republican primaries—but not in a general election.

What do you think about these findings?

Were there earlier eras in the U.S. when your faith was questioned?

Is the validity of your faith questioned now by others?

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Originally published at www.OurValues.org, an online experiment in civil dialogue.

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]]>Mormons: What do they think about their life in America?http://www.readthespirit.com/ourvalues/mormons-what-do-they-think-about-their-life-in-america.htmlDavid Crumm2012-01-30T05:00:00Z2012-01-30T05:00:00ZAmericans may think of the soaring towers of the Salt Lake Temple as the signature architecture of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but the 21,000-seat Conference Center in Salt Lake City is a head-turning landmark as well. Completed in 2000, the center is reportedly the largest theater-style auditorium ever built. It’s now a popular venue for hearing the famous Mormon Tabernacle Choir, backed up by the church’s massive pipe organ.Mitt Romney’s bid for a presidential nomination is a visible element of what has been called the “Mormon moment” in America: the rising prominence of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) in national politics, media, and the arts, as well as the portrayal of Mormons on Broadway and television. This prompted the Pew Research Center to sponsor a survey of American Mormons, focusing on what Mormons say about themselves and their perceptions of what other Americans think of them.

Here are some key findings from Pew’s survey: Almost two-thirds of Mormons (62%) say other Americans know nothing or only little about their church. About half Mormons (46%) say that there’s a lot of discrimination against them. And, more than two-thirds of Mormons (68%) say that other Americans don’t think of Mormonism as part of mainstream American society.

However, more than six of ten (63%) believe that the acceptance of their church is rising in America. And, a clear majority (56%) of Mormons feels that the U.S. is ready for a Mormon president.

Earlier on OurValues.org, I predicted that Mitt Romney will be Obama’s opponent in November. I called a Romney-Obama contest the matchup of the century and, no matter who wins, a political and moral watershed in American politics and society. This matchup is one of the top five values-related topics that I predicted will dominant the media, public discourse, and dinner-table conversations this year.

For now, what do you think of the findings I presented today?

If you are a member of the LDS church, tell us what you think.

Do the survey findings repesent YOUR views?

If you are not part of the LDS church, does the survey reflect your attitudes?

Each day this week on OurValues.org, I’ll introduce new findings from the Pew survey. Mormons in America was also the topic of yesterday’s in-person dialog in the small-group session I am leading on Civil Discourse. In a sense, we’re continuing our small-group dialog by expanding it to the online OurValues.org community. (Read about our kickoff of this in-person effort in last week’s column.)

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Originally published at www.OurValues.org, an online experiment in civil dialogue.

 

]]>Wise Voices: Is there too much American ... dreaming?http://www.readthespirit.com/ourvalues/wise-voices-is-there-too-much-american-dreaming.htmlDavid Crumm2012-01-27T05:03:00Z2012-01-27T05:03:00ZAnchee Min. Photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons.Prosperity and success are part of the American Dream. The dream is particularly poignant for immigrants, like Anchee Min. She is one of the wise voices we heard from this week as part of a small-group dialog on Civil Discourse. (See Monday’s column for more on this in-person group I’m leading.)

Here’s a key part of Min’s message: “People take the American Dream the wrong way.”

Min was born in Shanghai and grew up during the Maoist era. As a teenager, she was sent to a labor camp. Min came to the United States in 1984. She describes herself as a “new American.” She is a musician, painter, photographer and a very popular author. (Her latest is Red Azalea, a memoir about growing up during the horrors of the Chinese Cultural Revolution.)

Min’s immigrant experience gives her a unique perspective on the American Dream: “I don’t have an American sense of entitlement. This is what I see. That’s the root of the things. You just think, you know, in America, you think you’re beautiful. You can do anything as long as you dream hard. Dream hard and work hard to get it—it’s a very different concept. You tell your kids that you can be anything you want, but you don’t emphasize your responsibility to make it happen.”

What do you think about this? Is dreaming hard—or is working hard—the key to success and prosperity? The value of hard work is actually on the decline in America, as we’ve discussed before on OurValues.org. Today, only 58% of Americans say that hard work is one of the top five values children should learn.

Do Min’s remarks ring true for you?

Do we think about the American Dream the wrong way?

Does hard work still pay off?

Care to read more of Anchee Min’s remarks? A more complete text of her remarks on NPR appears toward the end of this Wise Voices transcript page.

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Originally published at www.OurValues.org, an online experiment in civil dialogue.

]]>Wise Voices: Are we 'members of one another'?http://www.readthespirit.com/ourvalues/wise-voices-are-we-members-of-one-another.htmlDavid Crumm2012-01-26T05:02:00Z2012-01-26T05:02:00ZMARTIN MARTY. (Click the photo and you can visit Marty’s faculty page.)This week on OurValues.org, we’re discussing wise voices—the people and institutions we trust in difficult times. The daily posts this week are coordinated with a weekly small-group dialog on Civil Discourse.
On Monday, I explained the idea. On Tuesday, we looked at news media. Yesterday, at the President.

Today, let’s consider the words of Martin Marty, a public theologian, religious historian, and author of more than 50 books. Marty is Professor Emeritus of the History of Modern Christianity in the Divinity School at the University of Chicago. In the small-group I’m leading for a few weeks, we listened to an excerpt of an interview Marty did with NPR’s Krista Tippett.

Marty’s position is that our free market ideology went too far, and in the end suppressed our concern for one another. He suggested that a certain line from Christian theology could be used as a secular analogy: “We are members one of another.”

Marty explains what he means: “This is written to people who have a religious commitment that makes them members one of another, but I think that you can, without limiting its appeal to agnostics and Jews and Muslims and Buddhists and anybody else in America, you can carry it over and say in the political order: We are also ‘members one of another’ and we pretended we weren’t. And that’s where I think the great immorality lay—that we were on our own. All political groups, all economic groups were acting that way.

“When we carry this analogy over to the political order, it’s clear from the divisive and derisive political rhetoric of the moment that our politicians do not consider themselves ‘members one of another.’ It’s not clear that they consider themselves members one of another with us. Perhaps that’s one reason why so many Americans don’t trust the information they get from candidates for public office or from Congress.”

Care to read more from Martin Marty? A more complete text of his remarks on NPR appears in the middle of this Wise Voices transcript page.

Do you agree with Marty’s contention?

Have lost sight of being “members one of another”?

In your life, where do you see people being members one of another?

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Originally published at www.OurValues.org, an online experiment in civil dialogue.

]]>Wise Voices: Did you buy State of the Union address?http://www.readthespirit.com/ourvalues/wise-voices-did-you-buy-state-of-the-union-address.htmlDavid Crumm2012-01-25T05:23:22Z2012-01-25T05:23:22ZPresident’s State of the Union address. White House photo in public domain.Did you watch or listen to the State of the Union address? Would you include the president as a wise voice? All week on OurValues.org, we’re discussing the voices we trust in difficult times.

A president is not obliged to deliver a State of the Union address. Early presidents delivered a written report to Congress in fulfillment of the Constitutional mandate: “He shall from time to time give to Congress information of the State of the Union and recommend to their consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient.” In the 20th Century, however, it became a tradition to deliver a speech rather than a report, and to do so annually.

Following tradition, our 44th president delivered the address to Congress last night. In it, he called for new measures to stimulate the economy, including tax reforms that would increase taxes on the rich. Even before the Address was made, Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney accused the president of fomenting class warfare. In a “prebuttal” he delivered in Tampa, Florida and reproduced on his campaign site, he said, “Tonight, we’ll also be treated to more divisive rhetoric from a desperate campaigner-in-chief. It’s shameful for a president to use the State of the Union to divide our nation.”

The differences between the two men didn’t strike me as much as their similarities. Each person, in a different way, made an emotional appeal to the core American values, especially egalitarianism and achievement. Obama sees the wealth gap as un-American and wants to restore more equality. Romney implies that focusing on the wealth gap is un-American because it accentuates differences and ignores that which unites us. It undermines the achievement ethic: We live in a meritocracy and hard work pays off.

As the 2012 election season progresses, which voices do you trust?

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Originally published at www.OurValues.org, an online experiment in civil dialogue.

]]>Wise Voices: How much do you trust news organizations?http://www.readthespirit.com/ourvalues/wise-voices-how-much-do-you-trust-news-organizations.htmlDavid Crumm2012-01-24T05:03:00Z2012-01-24T05:03:00Z

Do you trust what politicians say? How about the news organizations that report on what they say? Or, for that matter, how much do you trust the information you get from Congress, your state government, federal agencies, or the White House? Which voices do you trust—or distrust?

The voices we trust was the starting point of a small-group dialog on Civil Discourse that I described in Monday’s column. We actually know a lot about the voices Americans trust, courtesy of the Pew Research Center. Since 1985, they’ve tracked opinions about trust in the information we get from various sources. Trust is down in almost all sources of information, but there are big differences by source.

Who don’t we trust? Candidates running for office. Over two-thirds (68%) of Americans say they don’t trust this source. Our elected officials don’t fare much better. Almost six of ten (59%) say they don’t trust the information they get from Congress. The majority of Americans don’t trust the information they get from business corporations or federal agencies. The White House fares a bit better, but 48% of Americans don’t trust the Obama administration either.

Who do we trust? Only two of the eight institutions on Pew’s list got positive responses from a majority of Americans. A slight majority (51%) trusts information from state government, 59% trust information from national news organizations—and the biggest majority (69%) goes to local news organizations.

What do we think of news media? National and local news organizations may be more trusted than other sources, but negative evaluations of the press have grown sharply since 1985. Back then, only 34% said news stories were often inaccurate; today, two-thirds (66%) feel that way. In 1985, a small majority (53%) said that the press tends to favor one side; now, three-quarters (77%) feel that way. And, today a very large majority of Americans (80%) feel the press is often influenced by powerful people and organizations, up from 53% in 1985.

Pew finds, however, that Americans have much more favorable opinions of the news organizations that they usually rely on. Only 25% say that news organizations in general get the facts straight, but 62% say the news organizations they use the most get the facts straight.

Which institutions do you trust?

Which don’t you trust?

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Originally published at www.OurValues.org, an online experiment in civil dialogue.

]]>Wise Voices: Which voices do you trust?http://www.readthespirit.com/ourvalues/wise-voices-which-voices-do-you-trust.htmlDavid Crumm2012-01-23T05:02:00Z2012-01-23T05:02:00ZDid you predict that Newt Gingrich would win the South Carolina Republican primary, unseating the frontrunner Mitt Romney? Perhaps you relied on various voices to help make your prognostication: the web, newspapers, radio, television, political pollsters, bloggers—the list of voices goes on and on.

Our central question today is: Which voices do you trust?

“Voices We Trust” was the starting point of a small-group dialog on Civil Discourse I began leading yesterday at First United Methodist Church in Ann Arbor, near where I teach at the University of Michigan. OurValues.org is an online experiment in civil dialog; yesterday, I began working with this small group to explore how people can create face-to-face civil dialogues about values issues.

One of the “voices” we heard in this pilot group was Dr. Rachel Naomi Remen. A physician, professor, writer, and teacher, she is an early pioneer in the mind/body holistic health movement. She has authored several books, including the bestseller Kitchen Table Wisdom: Stories That Heal. We listened to an excerpt of an interview she did with NPR’s Krista Tippett. (The PBS website has posted a transcript of Remen’s interview with Tippett.)

Our economic crisis, she argues, points to a “spiritual emptiness” that has existed for a long time. The good news is that the crisis can be an opportunity to initiate a personal search. This search, she says, begins with three questions:

1.) What can be trusted?
2.) What will sustain me?
3.) What do I really need in order to live?

How would you answer these three questions?

Has the economic crisis been an opportunity for you?

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Originally published at www.OurValues.org, an online experiment in civil dialogue.

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