It’s easier, and more comforting, to talk about @mckaycoppins excellent essay, but this is absolutely part of the Mormon story too. 1/15 https://twitter.com/michellelegro/status/1339999368015966209

In fact, this contrasts nicely with Coppins because even as Mormons spent a century trying to be ultra-American and normal as they strived for acceptance, there’s always been a reactionary undercurrent. 2/15

Mormons grew adept at putting on a public face but still having insider baseball. “Of course we don’t practice polygamy, how ignorant to think we do!” even as LDS women are terrified of dying before their husbands who could then remarry and be polygamists in the afterlife. 3/15

There are unwritten rules of boundary maintenance in the LDS Church. Bearing testimony on Sunday of having visions or kooky conspiracy theories might make people squirm, but it rarely invites direct rebuttal. But suggest ideas a little too progressive and rebuttal will come. 4/15

And so conspiratorial thinking, whether from mommy bloggers or Ammon Bundy, flourishes and has more influence than outsiders realize. And statements ostensibly meant to rebuke from the top are inevitably bland and open to interpretation by members. 5/15

(And Mormons are also very adept at interpreting scripture, statements from leaders, and official church missives in ways that readily confirm their predetermined beliefs, while insisting it’s only less-faithful Mormons who do that.) 6/15

All of this is tricky to talk about because perceived criticism of even the most outlandish practices or beliefs seems to make even the most grounded, progressive of Mormons a little defensive. And in fairness, often the criticism does come from over-the-top ex-Mormons. 7/15

But the end result is a faith where extremism can take root because no one wants to call it out too directly because they’re labeled apostates, and outside criticism is knee-jerk rejected by nearly everyone. It’s a problem Mormonism has to grapple with. 8/15

(It’s also easy to dismiss because the extremism tends to be regional; Utah Mormons are often more prone to it than, say, congregants in Seattle, while anti-vaxxers might be bigger in SoCal. But the extremists still wield influence in the church.) 9/15

And so while it’s valid and interesting to compare LDS support of Trump to Evangelicals and note that it’s lower, it’s still *huge* numbers of LDS people. Millions of American Latter-day Saints love Trump in spite of him being everything the church preaches against: 10/15

Vulgar, adulterous, treasonous, incompetent, and anti-science. Part of that is of course blindness to these realities thanks to Fox News brainwashing. But part of it is a willingness to overlook appalling behavior in Trump that Mormons openly vilify in anyone else. 11/15

Mormonism is obsessed with right and wrong behavior. Calling women horse-faced, bragging about grabbing their genitals, adultery, etc? Trump is the embodiment of everything I was taught to loathe as a kid in LDS Sunday school. 12/15

This, IMO, is the bigger story than “Lots of Mormons Reject Trump!” headlines. Okay, cool. But tons don’t, and given who and what he is, that’s huge. The stories I could tell you about how Mormons talked about Bill Clinton. They *despised* him. 13/15

If you had told Mormons in 2000 that huge numbers of their fellow congregants would love someone fitting Trump’s description, it would have been the equivalent of announcing that by 2016, the church would allow gay marriages in temples. No one would’ve believed it. 14/15

Given what’s allowed to happen in the LDS Church thanks to silence from church leaders, it’s not surprising to see Mormon mommy bloggers and other faithful rally behind unhinged conspiracy theories. If leaders hoped to ride this out, they have grossly miscalculated. 15/15