At Westminster College in Salt Lake City last night, Elder Marlin Jensen of the Seventy spoke on illegal immigration. He noted that the First Presidency had directed him to comment on the issue, and, more particularly, to ask the Utah Legislature (considering right now a variety of punitive measures), to “slow down, step back and carefully study and assess the implications and human costs involved.” This because “a more thoughtful . . . not to mention humane, approach is warranted.”

While this is momentous in and of itself, it signals that Mormonism is partaking in a larger transformation of the relationship between religion and politics - for so long dominated by issues of personal morality such as abortion. For the Christian Coalition or the Moral Majority, the primary use of politics has been the attempt to prevent individual vice.

Jensen, however, argued that illegal immigration is not merely an economic or political issue. Rather, it is a moral and ethical problem. But it is not merely about individual behavior. Rather, Jensen here signals a different way of thinking - one that acknowledges that society as a whole is a moral entity; and not merely made up of a collective of individual decisions, but capable of acting morally as a composite entity. An economic system, then, can be more or less moral; legislation on the environment or state policy on the homeless can be more or less moral.

Increasingly, evangelical activists - Sojourners, the Evangelical Environmental Network, even Rick Warren, pastor of the largest Christian church in California- are returning to their nineteenth century Social Gospel heritage. They argue that the way our society behaves on issues like “global stewardship” and poverty, reflects upon our communal righteousness, and therefore these issues cry out for a religious voice in the public sphere. Is this a signal of more things to come from the First Presidency?