Inside the movement to make Idaho a ‘Christian State’ — and how that affects Latter-day Saints

One of the most influential conservative policy groups in Idaho Capitol wants to make the state clearly Christian.

But except for definitions quarter The last day, the saints of the Church of the Church of Jesus Christ, the population, the state belongs to other religions or belong to those who do not mention.

In the last five years, the Idaho Family Policy Center has become a legislative power center that has prepared, sponsorship and educating deputies to discuss a series of invoices introducing a series of invoices introducing Christian values in public spaces.

This year, the organization forced to work on a daily basis Bible reading Public schools. Although the policy has never received a floor vote, the organization promised to restore it next year and represents the beginning of the proposal group for the state.

Religious Turnusol tests in Idaho?

Idaho Family Policy Center President Blaine Conztiti told Deseret News to declare Idaho as a “Christian state ve and that he would not oppose religious tests for public duty, but explained that they did not have short -term goals.

According to Conzatti, the Supreme Court dropped them in 1961, while the provisions of the prevention of non -Christians are not new or radical. Many early American states required a special relationship for religious tests that believed in Christian God or Protestant sects.

Conzatti does not defend the stamps of approval of the states on a certain sect, but he draws a line between the Apostles and the “historical Christianity” based on Nicene Creeds and the belief of the saints of the last day.

While sharing many beliefs that are common with Conzatti, the last day, one -third of Idaho deputies belonging to the Church of the Saints Jesus Christ says that this approach can almost alienate the state. half a million Members and religious pluralism threaten.

“Mr. Conzatti, unfortunately, would not think of the majority belief in my legislature as a Christian,” he said. “It shows the danger of being very narrow in what you need in the policy that brings you faith in the public square there.”

Wheeler entered the Statehouse in 2023 record Wheeler is with the “majority” of the number of invoices caused by groups such as Idaho Family Policy Center.

The organization experienced some great victories such as the passage of 2023 invoices, and allowed parents to sue the libraries carrying sexually aggressive books and sue the students for their encounter with members of the opposite sex in public bathrooms.

The Idaho Family Policy Center is characterized by the ruthless approach that provides various versions of an invoice to promote every session to make deputies pass at the end of the efforts such as reading daily Bible, according to Wheeler.

“I’m surprised, the way this effect shaped the entire legislative process in Idaho,” Wheeler said.

But these legislative victories ultimately may be at the expense of wider goals to spread Christian values to society, Wheeler said, because they do not take into account the needs of all state residents.

What did the founders intend?

In a series of E -Posta response, Conzatti said that his political mission is based on the belief that the foundation of the foundation of the foundation of the foundation of the governments that Conzatti would actively encourage what Conzatti calls “Bible Christianity”.

“We are a Christian nation, as our founders at the federal and state level confirmed,” Conzti said in a statement to Deseret News. ” “Simply put, we want our public schools and local governments to accept God consistent with the history and tradition of our state and nation.”

Conzti, who studied government and law at the University of Liberty to support the consequences, states at the end of the 19th century, when the founders and Supreme Court justice in the late 19th century confirmed the Christian foundations of the country.

Federalist leader Fisher Ames, Comments about the Constitution (1833) Justice by Joseph Story and Holy Triple Church / United States (1892), Conzatti argues that the first change never means putting a wall between traditional Christianity and politics.

His view is to forget that the maintenance of constitutional governance depends on the “Bible Christianity’s encouragement of the government ve and that it threatens American freedom, increasing the crime and weakening the family.

“Both policy makers and voters should take this opportunity to return to the Bible principles that make America a great place to work, worship and train families, Con Conzatti said.

Conzatti said he did not believe that Christianity approved by the state should come at the expense of religious freedom. Conzatti said that the founding fathers believe in the right to freedom of natural conscience.

Although Conzatti stated that the voters of each state should have the power to “what state governments will reflect the religious values and morality system ,, he said that“ Bible Christianity ”is the only world view that can maintain the country.

“The Bible can explicitly encourage Christian values and accept God in our affairs,” Conzatti said. “Idaho Family Policy Center confirms the freedom of all religious minorities to live and defend the religious freedom of everyone who is Christian and non -Christian.”

Idaho’s History of Religious Discrimination

Representing the region to the west of the Idaho Waterfalls Republican Stephanie Mickelsen, the state’s proposals for the transparent interpretation of Christianity with a certain interpretation of Christianity have been “turbocharged in the last few years”, he said.

Mickelsen said that groups such as Idaho Family Policy Center have a “great impact” in Idaho politics.

According to Mickelsen, some attempts are compatible with the principles of conservative small government, such as allowing tax dollars to follow the students outside the public school, others allow others to follow outside the public school.

Mickelsen said that an approach to social problems that distract control from local governments could create a precedent that violates pluralism that protects religious diversity, not only heavy, but also religious diversity.

“I think we’re going back to a very slippery slope of being like a Church of England or the Roman Catholic influence in Italy, Mic said Micelsen. “When will this stop? What is good enough for them?”

The 14th amendment was an attempt to exclude the last day saints from political life in the early history of the state immediately after the Constitution expanded the ban on religious tests to the United States in 1868.

Although the Saint missionaries were among the first Europeans to settle in Idaho, the laws and the first state constitution of the region in the 1880s required a “Idaho test oath ılan that prohibited the supporters of the groups of multi -equivalent groups that prohibited the supporters of the groups serving on the jury or office.

The Supreme Court unanimously approved the law in 1890 – in the same year, the church ended the plural marriage practice. When the execution ended in the 1890s, the Language, which had previously deprived the saint voters of the last day of their rights, was not removed from the Idaho State Constitution. 1982.

Personal belief in the public sphere

Like Wheeler, Mickelsen, a member of the Church of the Church of Jesus Christ of the last day, pointed to the seminar program of the church as an example of how to bring religion to public square without imposing others.

In Southeast Idaho, as in Utah, high school students are given time to leave the campus for a while to participate in the church seminar buildings built next to the school.

After opposing the proposal for an Idaho Family Policy Center, former Republican Cumhur Chenle Dixon, which was defeated in a primary school in 2024, said that the belief of a individual should affect the policy decisions and that it is healthy for society.

During the single period in the office, Dixon supported some bills written by the Idaho Family Policy Center and coincide with conservative views for life for a lifetime.

However, other invoices, Idaho Family Policy Center, said that he thought it seems to be solutions to investigate the problems he came together to celebrate the views or religions.

“I have worried when we said we should be a Christian state, because I have always found it, I have a Turnusol test for Christianity with people who say it, Dix Dixon said.

“And in fact, the people who say this, there is no room for LDS people, and I think many LDS people do not understand it.”

Correction: The Idaho Family Policy Center was not directly involved in the lobbying of the invoices to enable Chaplains to exhibit ten orders in classes and serve as school consultants.