This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
It seems that some genuflections can be easier to execute than others when it comes to the reverence and obedience shown to Mormon leaders from the Utah Legislature.
Expectations are high that lawmakers will reverse course from previous positions and pass a bill that will protect gays and lesbians from housing and employment discrimination.
And why would that be?
Well, of course, it's because high-level LDS leaders held a news conference in which they voiced support for such legislation as long as religious liberties are also protected.
So if an anti-discrimination bill is approved, it reasonably can be assumed The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints helped make it happen.
A similar shift occurred with immigration. After the state's predominant religion backed the Utah Compact — a statement of principles put forth by a range of civic, faith and business leaders that counsels compassion for undocumented immigrants — the conservative and heavily Mormon Legislature adopted a bill that allows immigrants to earn a work permit and stay.
Given the anti-illegal-immigrant sentiments from the political right, the Legislature's bending on that issue stood out. LDS Church support had a lot to do with it.
So what's the holdup with Gov. Gary Herbert's Healthy Utah plan?
Herbert unveiled the plan in December after painstaking work with health-care stakeholders and the Obama administration to come up with a Medicaid expansion that would help 146,000 low-income Utahns buy private health insurance. The federal government would pick up the full tab at first before gradually scaling down to 90 percent.
Herbert's plan, which requires physically able unemployed recipients to seek jobs, arguably is more palatable to Utah's conservative sensibilities than the feds' original proposal.
But legislative leaders are pushing a plan that would cover only the "medically frail," about 16,000 people
When Herbert announced his plan, standing next to him was LDS Presiding Bishop Gary E. Stevenson and another bishop, John C. Wester, leader of Utah's 300,000 Roman Catholics.
The LDS Church also issued a statement at the time, calling for a "principled approach" — not a partisan one — to providing medical coverage to needy Utahns and making clear its ecclesiastical convictions that society must care for those less fortunate.
"While the economic and political realities are being debated, we hope the discussion and decisions taken in this matter will be consistent with the God-given principles regarding care for the poor and the needy that in the end benefit all of his children," the statement said. "We reaffirm the importance for individuals and families to be as self-sufficient as their particular circumstances allow and recognize that the lack of access to health care can impair a person's ability to provide for self and family."
So why is the Legislature, on health care for the poor, not following its previous path of obedience to LDS leaders?