What is Religion? Is it a study of the belief in unknown powers, an explanation of things not understood by attributing these things to a power or force not understood? To some, maybe. To those who understand "religion," it is a body of core beliefs surrounding our god. These beliefs generally include our deep and abiding convictions of how people should act, how people should treat each other, and how we should govern our lives. Naturally, our religion, which may or may not differ in one way or another from our proclaimed religion, will mandate that people act, be acted upon, and be governed as our god dictates. Note that I have not chosen to use the capitalized version of god. This is intentional. As is widely accepted in scripture ("Thou shalt have no other gods before me..." Deut. 5:7; "...every man walketh in his own way, and after the image of his own god..." D&C 1:16), our god is not neccessarily God, or even a supreme being. 

What is Politics? Manipulating government to our greatest personal or ideological gain? Again, sad to say, to some (most, it seems), it is. To any sane individual, our personal politics grow from our deep convictions of how we should govern ourselves and what is fair (how we should be treated, how we should treat others). Sound familiar? It ought to. Our personal political views, of neccessity, are born of how we believe the world should work. These beliefs ought to come from our deepest convictions, or the way our religious center dictates. If this is not the case, as is too often evident in politicians of our day, we become duplicitous, attempting to "serve God and mammon." This results in a man, a society, without foundation, moral or otherwise. 

Given these poignant points, I find it imperative that religion and politics be congruent, as they are, or need to be, the same.