I love reading the editorials in the newspaper and my co-worker pointed this one out to me today in the Salt Lake Tribune. It was written by Salt Lake City Mayor Ralph Becker who previously served as minority leader in the house before being elected as Salt Lake City Mayor. In the opinion piece he talks about his interaction with the LDS church. Go ahead and read it...
Mayor and LDS meets Public Forum Letter
Posted: 02/10/2009 06:00:00 PM MST
in the Salt Lake Tribune...
In my 11 years as a member of the Utah Legislature I had several meetings with the Public Affairs Committee of the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. As a member of leadership, I participated in annual pre-session meetings. In my entire experience, I found my interactions helpful and appropriate. Church officials understood and were careful to explain their positions on a very limited number of topics, and they consistently were careful to be sensitive to the separation of church and state while expressing their opinions. Most the meetings were spent by church representatives listening to priorities we brought to the discussion. The discourse was frank and respectful. Never did LDS Church representatives step over appropriate boundaries. It is understandable that people would be suspicious of an institution as powerful in our state as the LDS Church. While I have not always been in agreement with LDS Church positions, in my experience, in secular matters the LDS Church has carefully considered the opinions and effects of their opinions on others having different perspectives. I hope that other interests in our state can exercise comparable civility in their interactions with government officials.
Ralph Becker Mayor, Salt Lake City
Salt Lake City
Wow, my respect for him just went up a lot. That is really cool of him to write in like that.
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