With shift to global focus, the LDS Church may be leaving the American political arena

It is no surprise that Latter-day Saints have an outsized love for July Fourth, the day to celebrate the birth of America.

After all, the United States is where Mormons believe founder Joseph Smith saw God and Jesus in a New York grove of trees, where the nascent church was founded.

And for most of its nearly 200-year history, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been dominated by Americans, has sometimes endorsed major U.S. policies (including the invasion of Iraq) and has celebrated the nation as a divinely endorsed “land of promise.”

These days, though, the 17.2 million-member church sees itself — and its political principles — less parochially and more globally.

It has not, for example, weighed in on the Russia-Ukraine war, and plans to remove all national anthems from its hymnals.

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