Curious - if you go to church today, how is the election being handled? Did your pastor discuss it? What did you think? Email me Elizabeth dot Dias at nytimes dot com

Elizabeth Dias, of the New York Times

In reply to her tweet of six hours ago, I emailed her thus:

I belong to the Provo Utah North Park Stake, the North Park Second Ward, of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (which is no longer the ‘Mormon Church’ or the ‘LDS Church’ if you please.)

I attended Sacrament Meeting this morning at 8:30 a.m.  As is customary in the Church on the first Sunday of the month, the Meeting was mostly taken up with members from the congregation going up to the pulpit and sharing their testimony about the Church. On an impromptu and voluntary basis. Most of those who got up (including me) felt moved to talk about the Book of Mormon. No one said anything at all about the upcoming Elections. There were no endorsements, harangues, complaints, or even suggestions to get out and vote. If you had landed from Mars and gone into our Meeting you would never know there was any kind of election going on at all.

And I like that. I get enough guff from the media during the week on who to vote for and what will happen if I don’t vote a certain way. On Sunday I like to forget all that and try to contemplate on the peace and beauty of the Gospel of Jesus Christ -- not the machinations of Trump or the deteriorating global environment. This is not a head-in-the-sand attitude -- it is a prudent and temporary hiatus from the gloom and contention of the modern world. I think it lowers my blood pressure and I know it gives me more patience, charity, and perspective when I dive back into the real world of politics and elections tomorrow.

And really, if you have ever studied the Book of Mormon, it has a lot to say about modern politics and the destiny of our country and the whole of North and South America. Here is just one quote:

Wherefore, this land is consecrated unto him whom he shall bring. And if it so be that they shall serve him according to the commandments which he hath given, it shall be a land of liberty unto them; wherefore, they shall never be brought down into captivity; if so, it shall be because of iniquity; for if iniquity shall abound cursed shall be the land for their sakes, but unto the righteous it shall be blessed forever.    2 Nephi Chapter 1 Verse 7.

There’s plenty more language like that in the Book of Mormon that we all would do well to heed during the upcoming election.

BTW -- I am in no way a spokesperson for my Church, and the opinions expressed herein are strictly my own.

Whenever my church I attend

I find it a peaceful godsend.

No politics mar

This pleasant sidebar;

My bowels and my stiff neck unbend.