Tommy Johnson: Radical Trumpists a lot like radical Latter-day Saints
Since 2015, there’s been a sect of conservatives who have broken off from the Republican Party and created a group of their own, replacing foundational Republican ideologies with the teachings of a new leader, Donald Trump.
These followers reverence the words of the president’s tweets and adopt his theology — that Americans are better than anyone else, simply because they’re Americans, that name-calling is an acceptable practice and that being a jerk is OK if you believe you’re the best.
A similar stench of superiority stems from a small, yet loud part of the Latter-day Saint community. These select members of the church twist traditional LDS beliefs to support their insane claims — that the Latter-day Saints religion is better than any other religion in the world, simply because they’re Latter-day Saints, that name-calling is an acceptable practice and that being a jerk is OK if you believe heaven’s on your side.
I am a Latter-day Saint and, for a long time, I was stunned to see people of my faith fall at the feet of Donald Trump as though he were divine. I could not understand how people could equate the teachings of Jesus Christ I cherish — to love others, to forgive often, and to live like Him — to the words of Trump, who frequently demeans and demotes, when someone simply disagrees with him.
But as I thought longer and researched further, I came to an unfortunate realization: that a short, but aggressive stream of radical conservatism — one that believes one group is better than another, one that naturally divides rather than unites — marries well with another disturbed doctrine that I knew of that exists among a few members of the church.
I finally realized that the radical Latter-day Saints had found a brother in Donald Trump.
Trumpists and radical Saints both:
• Believe that everyone is constantly against them.
• Speak as though they are the most important people in the world.
• Bully those who disagree.
• Crave power and influence.
• Call facts “fake."
• Believe themselves and their leaders to be infallible.
• Claim they are better than others, because of their beliefs.
• Promote name-calling and slander.
• Permit being mean and hostile, behind the belief that they’re a chosen people
Let me make this clear: Not everyone who voted for Trump, or who plans to vote for Trump this November, is a Trumpist and not every devout member of the church is a radical Latter-say Saint. They are the exception and they are few, but they’re also vigorously rowdy and very dangerous. The two ideologies complete each other.
Trumpists are dangerous. Radical members of the church are dangerous. Disavow yourself from both groups and their outrageous creeds.
Tommy Johnson is a recent Utah Valley University journalism graduate.
from The Salt Lake Tribune https://ift.tt/2wYr9NQ
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