This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2017, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
I love Utah, but its politics and governance are absolutely awful. Separation of church and state isn't something that exists here. We are governed by a church.
Three times, on two separate issues since I got sick, I have gone to Capitol Hill to testify. I've told my humiliating story to rooms full of people to fight for some personal liberty in this red state. Twice for medicinal cannabis and now for having some end-of-life options other than letting my prostate cancer torture me until it decides to let me die. All three times my efforts, which have widespread support by the citizens of Utah by the way, have been thwarted by the LDS Church.
Now, I'm not talking about the church releasing a public statement. I'm talking about lobbyists. Church lobbyists. All three times these lobbyists have come in and said "no." Three times now I've watched bills fail because the church lobbyists came in and shut it down. I can't tell you how angry this makes me.
I'm an American. I'm not a Mormon.
I don't want to be governed by a damned church.
I want religious lobbyists banned from politics and, especially, governance. Not just the Mormons, all of them. I want them out. They have no business in our governance at all. Their presence is everything that the separation of church and state isn't.
No one should stand for it. It shouldn't matter your faith, lack of faith or political leanings. This is America. Our country was founded on the radical new idea that our lives shouldn't be governed by churches. Yet here we are, being governed by a church.
Forrest Shaw
Millcreek