SALT LAKE CITY—When President Trump issued an executive order last January halting travel from seven predominantly Muslim countries, it prompted howls of indignation from progressive and liberal civil rights groups. But some of the loudest voices of protest came from members of one of America’s most conservative organizations, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
Mitt Romney, Republican Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake, Republican Utah Gov. Gary Herbert, and other prominent Mormons condemned the order. The LDS church issued a statement implicitly denouncing the administration’s move.
Many rank-and-file Mormons also opposed the ban, including Sharlee Mullins Glenn, a children’s book author living outside Salt Lake City. After discovering that other Mormon women were similarly appalled by the ban, which they claimed heartlessly singled out Muslims for disfavored treatment, Mullins Glenn launched a Facebook group called Mormon Women for Ethical Government. The page began as a place for Mormon women “to vent frustrations and talk about ideas for saving the country,” Mullins Glenn said. Within two weeks, the group had more than 4,000 members.
Over the last year, MWEG has become part of what might be called the Mormon resistance movement. But unlike the progressive resistance movement, the women of MWEG aren’t marching in pussy hats or calling for Trump’s impeachment. In fact, the group’s leaders insist they don’t oppose President Trump. Rather, they are fighting the dishonesty and callousness they believe define his presidency and the descent into political tribalism they fear will become its legacy.
Mormons have a history of government-sanctioned discrimination, Mullins Glenn said. As a consequence, Mormons tend to support accommodating immigration policies. In 2011, Utah, the only majority-Mormon state, became the first state to establish its own guest worker program. Utah is one of just three states to allow illegal immigrants to drive.
“The travel ban, the refugee and the immigration issues hit close to home,” Mullins Glenn said. “We were once refugees and so we feel very strongly about caring for people who are without a home and making sure families stay together.”
Dalene Rowley, a lifelong Republican-turned-independent who works on immigration policy for MWEG, said, “I feel strongly, and our church teaches, that we look after people. And I just feel like wherever people come from, they are part of the human family and we should accept them, and I didn’t find that in the Republican Party.”
About 70 percent of Mormons identify as or lean Republican, the highest share of any religious group in America, according to a 2014 Pew survey. But most Mormons are centrists on immigration. According to a 2016 survey by the Public Religion Research Institute, 45 percent of Mormons believe immigrants strengthen American society, compared to 32 percent of Republicans. About 61 percent of Mormons support granting unauthorized immigrants a pathway to citizenship if they meet certain criteria, compared to 52 percent of Republicans.
MWEG advocates for “ethical immigration reform” and has published a 15-point document outlining its reform priorities, which stress the need for compassion and accommodation in reforming America’s immigration system.
In an op-ed, Diana Bate Hardy, who leads MWEG’s immigration committee, criticized the White House’s reform framework. Trump has called for a pathway to citizenship for 1.8 million undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children, in exchange for tougher border security measures including $25 billion for a border wall. His plan would also end the visa lottery and place restrictions on family-based migration. Bate Hardy argued that Trump’s plan would “pit one group of immigrants against another…undermine this country’s commitment to basic civil rights and stir up anti-immigrant sentiments.”
Several MWEG members describe themselves as accidental activists. But all seem to have embraced their activism with the zeal of the newly converted. “I was not politically active at all and then found myself in the position where I couldn’t do nothing,” said Linda Kimball, a Mormon convert who recently moved to Utah. “Our motto is we will not be complicit by being complacent,” Mullins Glenn added. “We feel we’ve been awakened.”
For several members, the awakening began not with Trump’s election but with the ousting of former Utah Senator Bob Bennett. After serving in the U.S. Senate for 18 years, Bennett, a centrist Republican and Mormon, became a victim of the 2010 Tea Party revolt. He finished second among delegates at that year’s Republican state convention. Bennett blamed his loss on a “toxic…political environment.”
“I looked around …and said ‘I do not recognize this party,” Mullins Glenn said about how she felt after Bennett lost. “This in no way represents me or who I am.’”
But Trump’s election victory was the last straw for Mullins Glenn. “To see someone elected to the highest office in the land who is the antithesis of [Mormon] values, it was the breaking point,” she said.
Donald Trump finished third in Utah’s Republican caucuses, earning only 14 percent of the vote. Trump went on to win just 44 percent of the general election vote in Utah, a 28-point decline from the 72 percent that 2012 GOP nominee Mitt Romney received.
Mormon antipathy to Trump wasn’t just the result of his hardline stances on immigration but also what many LDS members perceived as Trump’s lack of character.
Mormons commit to living lives of virtue, a concept most Mormons did not associate with Trump. In a poll of Utah voters during the 2016 presidential campaign, just 14 percent felt Donald Trump was a good role model for young people, less than half the 31 percent who considered Clinton a good role model. About 16 percent of Utahans felt Trump was a moral person, compared to 25 percent for Clinton.
When I asked the MWEG women to name a politician they admire, John Kasich, the Republican governor of Ohio, was brought up more than any other Republican. Kasich ran for president in 2016 as a moderate alternative to Trump and is currently teasing a 2020 primary run.
MWEG believes that there is power in a group of Mormon women coming together to enact political change (“the power of the sisterhood,” as Mullins Glenn put it). “In our church, there is a long tradition of female activism. Utah was the second territory in the union to give women the vote. We draw on that tradition.”
More than a year after its creation, MWEG boasts 6,000 members and chapters in most states. MWEG members spend their time publishing policy positions, open letters, and op-eds, participating in pro-immigrant rallies and lobbying in Washington, D.C. “One thing Mormon women know how to do is organize,” said Mullins Glenn.
While there is some evidence that Mormon opposition to Trump has softened over the last year, MWEG’s resistance to many of the Trump administration’s policies has only stiffened. When asked to describe Trump’s first year in office in one word, members used “horrified,” “destructive,” “disappointment,” and “dystopian.”
“He’s redefining normal,” Mullins Glenn’s daughter Erica said. “And that’s terrifying to me.”
Daniel Allott (@DanielAllott) is the author of “Trump’s America” and formerly the Washington Examiner’s deputy commentary editor.
