According to transcripts of the sessions, the governor, his top staff and trusted advisers met at the governor’s mansion to discuss holy scripture and how its principles could be incorporated into government policy. The meetings were opened with prayer.
Sounds like the Religious Right’s dream, right? Surely, Pat Robertson, James Dobson and Tony Perkins will be shouting hallelujah from the housetops at this revelation.
Ummm. Maybe not.
The meetings in question were in Salt Lake City. They were led by then Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt – a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) – and the holy book was not the Bible, but the Book of Mormon.
According to a story in the Salt Lake Tribune last Sunday, Leavitt and top advisers met in 1996 to discuss how “just and holy” Mormon principles could be brought into governance. The article was based on transcripts of the meetings retrieved from the Utah state archives.
The newspaper said the sessions took place at 7 a.m. before work began. Participants talked about accounts from the Book of Mormon dealing with Korihor, the Gadianton Robbers, Alma and Mosiah and King Benjamin.
Those in the room sought insight, the Tribune reported, “into what LDS scripture defines as the proper role of government and discuss[ed] how they could be communicated in a ‘bilingual’ manner to a secular audience.”
According to the Salt Lake daily, the principles the group settled on – free agency, accountability, equality, stewardship, marriage, unity, goodness, heritage, worship, safety and a sense of order – were not “overtly religious,” but they apparently had an impact on policy in Leavitt’s second term.
The governor launched a campaign to strengthen marriage and supported a ban on adoption by unmarried couples. He made changes to state welfare and indigent health insurance programs and spoke of social forces beyond government that he called the “Economics of Goodness.”
Leavitt, who serves today in the Bush administration as head of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, wasn’t happy with the newspaper’s account. He tried to get the state archivist to remove the transcriptions from public access, arguing that the thoughts expressed by participants may be “personal, in some cases even sacred.”
But that’s just the point, isn’t it? Should government officials base public policy on their personal “sacred” beliefs rather than the interests of the people? The answer, in a diverse nation that separates religion and government, is “No!”
The Utah archives turned down the request to lock up the transcripts, and Leavitt says he has not held comparable meetings in his role as a federal official. (Before his current post at HHS, he was administrator at the Environmental Protection Agency.)
The events reported this week took place over 10 years ago, but they are an object lesson in why we need separation of church and state in America. Government should be based on the public interest, the safeguards and provisions of the U.S. Constitution and the will of the people, not the personal religious beliefs of Mike Leavitt, Pat Robertson, James Dobson or anyone else.
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