Utah Common Values
Hi, I’m Craig
We’re very excited to be rolling out our new blog, and as part of that roll out, we will be introducing ourselves to you!
I’m Craig Janis, and I’m the Executive Director of Utah Common Values. I love working for UCV because it gives me the opportunity to get to know so many of the wonderful politically moderate and progressive members of the LDS Church throughout the state. Take a look at some of the profiles that we’ve posted so far — these people are incredible, and getting to know them is absolutely the best part of my job.
Here are a few things to know about me:
- I was born in Utah, but spent most of my youth in California and Texas. I’ve been a Utah resident again since I started my undergraduate studies at BYU in 2002. I finished my degree in Political Science in 2008, and then graduated with my law degree from BYU in April of 2011.
- I was a missionary in João Pessoa, Brazil, from 2003-2005. Like any good missionary should be, I’m convinced that my mission was full of the most kind-hearted, spiritually-blessed, and generally amazing people in the world.
- I’m married to Kaity, who will be profiled here soon since she does all of UCV’s photography, and we have two wonderful sons, Mason and Charlie.
- When I’m not doing work for UCV, I’m the owner of Fubeca Studio and Creatv.ly, the CTO/CPO of Kanon Foundation, the Chair of the Outreach Committee for the LDS Democrats Caucus, and the co-author of a book about Brazil (what else?).
- Back when I used to have free time, I enjoyed reading, running, traveling, cooking, and crafting with Kaity.
Thanks for taking the time to meet me! Watch the blog for upcoming profiles of the rest of the UCV crew.
Mormons and Minority Protections
Recently, Robert Jeffress, an evangelical minister from Texas, made news by calling Mormonism “a cult”, denying that it is a “real” religion, and asserting a preference for “Christian” candidates over Mormon candidates. Jeffress defended his statements by claiming that Mormons have “never been considered a part of mainstream Christianity,” and that, “The Southern Baptist Convention is the largest Protestant denomination in the world, and it defines Mormonism as a cult. So that is a mainstream view of Mormonism.”
It is heartening to see that the media has widely denounced Jeffress and has pointed to the LDS Church’s own statements as proof that we are, in fact, Christians. Still, it’s important to note that as absurd as Jeffress’ comments seem to LDS people, he’s right — a great many Americans do not see Mormons as mainstream or Christian.
It’s interesting to me that LDS people would be surprised to find out that we are viewed this way in some parts of the country. I suppose it may be easy, from the comfort of Utah, where LDS people are a majority, to forget that as soon as you step across the Utah state line we are a tiny, misunderstood, and often unpopular minority. It can be uncomfortable to realize that many people view us with the same kind of suspicion that they usually reserve for Muslims, gays, climate scientists, French philosophers, and abortion doctors. To these people we are the “other”, and from their perspective, we don’t share their values, we don’t worship their God, and we probably can’t be trusted.
The LDS Church is actively working to change this view of Mormonism through efforts like the “I’m a Mormon” campaign, and with any luck, we may someday be embraced as part of the American mainstream. In the meantime, we are fortunate to live in a country where minority rights and civil liberties are strongly enshrined in our Constitution. As former University of Utah President Michael Young said, Mormons ought to be “among the most passionate civil libertarians in the world.” Indeed, the more that we seek to protect the rights of other unpopular minorities, including ethnic, sexual, and religious minorities, the better protected our own liberties will be.
I hope that this very public incident of anti-Mormon sentiment will inspire Utahns to be extra sensitive to the public and private treatment of minority groups, like immigrants and LGBT people, who are often seen as the “other” here in our own state. Let’s make sure that everyone feels welcome in Utah’s communities, and let’s be diligent in protecting civil liberties. It’s the right thing to do, and we’ll be strengthening our own liberties in the process.
Note: This op-ed by our Executive Director, Craig Janis, was published in The Daily Herald (October 19, 2011) and The Daily Utah Chronicle (October 20, 2011).
Christ-like Priorities
Our country is facing some serious budgetary problems, and the way that we choose to solve these problems will reveal a lot about who we are as Americans, and what our values are. Many conservatives, for example, assert that we are “a Christian nation”. To the extent that this means that our national priorities should reflect the values that Christ exemplified — especially compassion, charity, and forgiveness — being a Christian nation would be a very good thing indeed.
Sadly, in our national debate about the budget crisis, we’ve fallen far short of this ideal. Here’s a particularly egregious example: In just the first half of this year the five largest oil companies (ExxonMobil, Chevron, ConocoPhilips, Shell, and BP) made $64.7 billion in net profits, and they’re likely to show similar results for the second half of the year. Despite this wild success, the oil industry stands to receive $15.6 billion in tax breaks from the Federal Government for 2011.
To put that $15.6 billion in perspective, it could fund the entire 2012 budget for NASA, the Department of the Interior, or the Department of Transportation. To reduce government spending by $15.6 billion, we would have to lay off a full 10% of the federal workforce (including military personnel), or reduce our future naval forces by 85 ships, or increase both the medicare and social security eligibility ages to 68.
If we are truly a nation with Christ-like priorities we will not pad oil companies’ profits at the expense of the jobs and safety of the American people. Solving our budgetary problems will likely require some difficult sacrifices, but there are still easy and obvious reforms, like the elimination of special tax breaks to wealthy oil companies, that we can make before we ask the most vulnerable Americans to shoulder the burden.
Note: This op-ed was written by our Executive Director, Craig Janis, with help from Annelise White, a UCV intern from BYU.
Our New Blog
Today Utah Common Values launched a major update to our website. We gave our design a facelift, optimized our backend, and most importantly, launched our new blog! You can find it at http://utahcommonvalues.org/news. We’ll be using this space to keep you informed about what we’re up to and who we’ve recently profiled, and to let you know about items of interest in the news. We’ll also be posting issue analysis from a politically moderate and progressive LDS viewpoint, so be sure to follow us on Twitter, Facebook, or via RSS so that you won’t miss any posts!