I AM WRITING THIS on the afternoon of Tuesday, May 26th, 2026, which means I’m writing while the Texas Republican Senate runoff election is underway. I am a Texan. Sen. John Cornyn, who has represented Texas for over 23 years, is facing Ken Paxton, the current Tx attorney general and the candidate who is endorsed by Trump. By the time I finish writing this, I will know which of them will face James Talarico in November,but I won’t publish tomorrow, Wednesday, May 27. Coincidentally, over the Memorial Day weekend, in my county of Rockwall Texas, a monument of the ten commandments was erected at the old County Courthouse. I did not attend the unveiling, but have read press and social media reports and seen many photos. There were plenty of small town politicians, leaders of churches, and local, patriotically clad citizens in attendance, including at least one Trump hat. It’s troubling enough to see a government building adorned with a monument to a particular religion, but what was most troubling to me is that, etched at the bottom of the monument is:  “Proverbs 29:2 When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice.” The plaza of the old County Courthouse was filled with people who appeared to be rejoicing. Where, though, are the righteous authorities in either my state or my nation? 

Looking at emoji reactions to S.M. posts, it’s clear that many of my fellow LDS were rejoicing (along with other local religionists) over the monument. I get it. They appreciate an acknowledgment of their beliefs. The dedication probably made them feel that Christianity is winning, which would make them the winners. To me, that is an utterly foreign concept because I am a spiritually-inclined American who very much wants to maintain freedom of religion.

I have to be honest: I don’t understand why so many LDS are coupling with MAGA Christians. It’s like watching a grotesque, ritualistic orgy of dualistic hypocrisy on public display. [So long, MAGA readers. Glad you made it this far.] And in the background of this writing session, the run-off clock is ticking. Will Texas “conservatives” choose the most corrupt politician in Texas history? I’ll know soon enough. I won’t know–and don’t want to know–how many LDS “conservatives” vote for him. I already know they support Trump. Same thing. I’ve said for over 10 years that an amoral man will never be a moral leader. What I failed to realize is that immoral people volunteer to be led by an amoral man and that people don’t realize they aren’t the moral champions they perceive themselves to be. Corruption attracts corruption, and that says something about Trump voters. And now Paxton voters.

Some might say I shouldn’t be so harsh or, to use Mormonspeak, so “contentious.” Trust me, they won’t care what I think because what I think is rational and unflattering to them, which makes me evil in their view. So be it. If they were consistent, they’d admire me for being “tough.” There’s no assholery about “toughness” in “conservative” religious circles these days. But consistency isn’t really their thing. Their accusation of “contentiousness” is my version of transparency. Transparency isn’t their thing either, Epstein co-conspirators that they’ve become. 

Here’s a Sunday School lesson: Religious freedom is not and has never been a tenet of Christianity. The Bible is a record of God destroying (or ordering the destruction of) people who didn’t believe in him and of driving them out for believing differently. The stories of Noah and of Sodom and Gomorrah show us this. And then there were the Canaanite nations–not only the Canaanites themselves but the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites whom God demanded Joshua drive out of the promised land. Each of these nations were wiped out or driven out because of idolatry (see Commandment #1 but ignore Commandment #6), child sacrifice (think Epstein while you’re at it), and other behaviors judged to be immoral according to the religion of biblical Israel. I repeat: religious freedom is not a biblical idea. The idea the Bible supports is “believe and follow the right God or face the consequences.”

“You don’t baptize properly; you don’t practice marriage the right way; you don’t eat and drink the right things; you don’t properly tithe; you don’t believe in the right nature of God,” and on and on and on. “You don’t vote for the right man.” If a biblical example is to be followed, at any point, any one faction of Christianity may be called “by God” to destroy the other faction/s and the justification and sanctification for such an atrocity would be found within the pages of the Bible.

The American ideals of personal liberty and individual rights were harvested by the founding fathers from the field known as the Enlightenment, not from the Bible.

Why do I feel so unsettled as closing time at the polls grows nearer? 

So don’t talk to me about extremist Muslims and Sharia law if you’re marching this country toward extremist Christianity. Inserting a religious monument on a literal public square is part of that march. It is unAmerican, no matter how many flags you wave at the dedication.

Republican voters will choose Paxton. I know it. They still choose Trump. They no longer believe a moral compass matters.

I understand how your generic evangelical Christian can be suckered into supporting Trump but less so how LDS can be. Many/all evangelical protestants believe that all sins are equally bad and that all humans are sinners equally condemned without redemption. LDS don’t abide by this theology of sameness, and yet here they are, linking arms with MAGA Christians for political power. LDS don’t accept that an adult male who rapes a 15-year-old girl has committed a sin that is equal to that of a 15-year-old girl who fibs to her parents about being with her girlfriends when she was at an ice cream shop with a boy from her school. So why, Republican LDS, do you support Trump in front of your children? Who are you raising them to be? And why, evangelical “conservatives” have you justified voting for a man as obviously corrupt as Trump by saying he is “the lesser of two evils.” It is against your religious beliefs to measure evil in degrees. If sin is sin, evil is evil. You cannot be justified by your theology. The rest of us recognize “the lesser of two evils” excuses (which LDS used as well) as an admission of an inner, moral failing. You see, you didn’t just vote for the most vile candidate, you flew into his arms. And I fear Texans are doing the same thing all over again as I type.

Who am I to judge? I’m just a person who is so over the hypocrisy of proclaiming religious freedom is at peril while actively, or perhaps naively, embracing and supporting the zealots who will use you as they destroy it. Be forewarned, Latter-day Saints, once Christian nationalists control the government, they will come for you. You aren’t the right kind.

LDS, did you see yourselves represented at the US government-sponsored religious event they titled “Rededicate 250”?  No. You did not. I understand speaker slots may be limited, but did you see any authority from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in attendance at this event to “rededicate” the United States to the Christian God? You did not. Columnist Jana Reiss thinks LDS authorities opted not to attend, something I hope is correct but wonder about. Perhaps they were not invited at all. Instead, this weekend (May 31, 2026), American LDS will have a Sunday School lesson dedicated to the study of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States, using the lens of religious freedom. Unfortunately, I’ll miss it because of family commitment, but I hope every Sunday School classroom has at least one attendee who acknowledges and praises the enlightenment thinkers who inspired the founding fathers. (Read this for a brief primer on the Enlightment thinkers and follow embedded links as you prefer.)

The polls will close very soon. I’m going to make dinner for my family and play with our new puppies, so I’m stepping away…

…And I’m back. Texas Republicans did it. They nominated Ken Paxton, an unabashed snake, a man who betrayed his wife and was impeached by his own party for corruption, bribery, and abuse of public trust, to run against James Talarico. When I finally mustered the wherewithal to google the results, this is what I found:

It wasn’t even close. I’m so ashamed of who “conservatives” have become. The RINOs just voted for Paxton because they support Trump. If you know me in real life and you voted for Paxton, don’t tell me.

Oh, who am I kidding? Those people stopped reading soon after they began if they began at all. I’d say I lost them by paragraph 3, but the truth is, they lost themselves long before encountering this essay.

~~To donate to James Talarico’s grassroots effort to defeat Ken Paxton, please donate here. ~~

[Jesus] replied, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written: “ ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. (Mark 7:6: 6)

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