Introduction (30-45 seconds; about 60 words)

 91. That’s the number of current Utah legislators that follow the faith of the LDS Church. In fact,
they hold an edge in the house of 91 to 13. Only 13 members of the house are non-members of
the church. Separation of Church from State is now skewed due to these numbers.

State purpose/thesis/proposition.

 The LDS church has too much say and control over areas of Utah’s legislature. They should not
have as much power as our government allows them to have.

Body (approximately 6 minutes; about 800 words)

Reason #1. Too much of the house is represented by members of the LDS Church, causing a conflict of
interest within the house.

 Support: 91 of the 104 members in the house are also members of the LDS Church. This takes
away from the first amendment of Utah’s constitution: separation of church and state. “The 1st
Amendment was an establishment of religion by law to erect "a wall of separation between
church and state". This of course is Utah and the only state that "separation of church and state"
doesn't apply. The highest court of the land the "Constitution" in Jefferson's time established
this. Now the LDS Church, that came along in the mid-1800s, is telling our legislators what to do
to make sure the bill gets watered down enough to make it good for us.” (Ventura, 2018)
 Impact: Due to 91 members of the church also being 91 members of the house, Utah has a
conflict of interest in its own government. We are not separating church from state at this point.
The LDS members have too much pull over the non-members, they can say that they aren’t
considering religion when making decisions all they want, it’s a lie. Utah now has one of the
strictest drinking laws because it was created by people who haven’t had a sip of alcohol in their
entire life. Utah has a strict marijuana law because it was created by people who don’t
understand the plant. The members of the LDS church control our government. We can not
continue to let that happen.

Reason #2. Whether you believe it or not the LDS Church has changed Prop 2 and many bills before it.

 Support: I must admit I am using something good the church has done to show you how much
influence they have over government. But nevertheless, they have that influence. “in 2015,
church leaders were key in passing a statewide law protecting LGBTQ Utahns from housing and
employment discrimination.” (Gehrke, 2019) Great move on the Church’s part, but it also means
that it has been publicly stated that the Church has influenced a bill becoming law. With over
“90 percent of the current Legislature following the faith” (Gehrke, 2019) There has to be a ton
of influence on their behalf.
 Impact: The impact of this is huge, it means that bills have been changed in the past by the
church and wasn’t that the whole point of the 1st amendment? We wanted to keep the ideals of
the church out of government to give everyone a fair government, believe it or not, not
everyone in Utah is a Mormon and we don’t all abide by the rules of the faith. Meaning our
government should not either. We are at the exact opposite point of where we wanted to be on
this issue.
Reason #3. A call for more accurate ledgers and insight to the operations of the LDS church must be
made.

 Support: The LDS Church shows people on their website their plans for the religion moving
forward. Including where the money is spent each year. But they kept out some of those plans
for the money and religion on their site. They kept the people of their religion in the dark when
signing a deal to build City Creek Mall in downtown Salt Lake City. “Some Mormons — and
plenty of others — were appalled to witness their church build a $1.5 billion mall in downtown
Salt Lake City and hear their prophet proclaim, “Let’s go shopping.”” (Fletcher, 2018) Keeping
this in the dark of their people does not build trust for the church. The people did not know of
the mall until the deals were done. That is money donated to the church through tithing.
Donated money is meant to be used on things aside from malls, like charities, since when did
buying a dress from Nordstrom equate to religion? The Church makes a ton of money. In fact,
“The Bloomberg Businessweek piece from five years ago cited an investigation pegging the LDS
Church’s worth at $40 billion.” (Fletcher, 2018) Where is all of this money going?
 Impact: People are upset over what the church has been doing with their donated tithing. It was
said to go towards the financial future of the faith and to build more churches/temples. Yet they
built a mall? The people have every right to be upset after being flat out lied to about where
their money was going. After all they should know where the money they donate goes. If the
LDS church lied to their people about the mall then how am I supposed to believe, how are we
supposed to believe that they have not done it when it comes to government? If they lied to
their own people, why wouldn’t they lie to people who choose not to follow them?

Conclusion (about 30 seconds; about 60 words)

 In all, the church has too much say over our government and the final decisions they make. With
91 of their members as a part of government, can we truly believe that there isn’t any religious
influence when it comes to law? We need a call to action to find out the truth of everything that
happens behind the closed doors of our capitol. If we continue down this path, the church will
have sole control over our government, which could lead to a revolution. This is something we
most certainly do not want happening.