Erin Hiatt, writing for DoubleBlind:
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, formerly known as the LDS or Mormon Church, makes its home and headquarters in Salt Lake City, Utah, at the heart of the Wasatch Mountains. With its complex of Church headquarters, conference centers, and flagship Salt Lake Temple and surrounding Temple Square, the Church literally and figuratively imposes over the topography of downtown Salt Lake City. However, many would argue that the Church dominates more than just the downtown area—exerting an oversized pull over politics at the state capitol, a mere fifteen minute walk from church headquarters.
Steve Urquhart is deeply familiar with both the state capitol and the internal life of a faithful member of the Church. As a Republican, he formerly served as a Utah State Representative in the deeply conservative southwest corner of the state. Today, he is neither a lawmaker nor Latter-day Saint. Instead, he is the founder and “protector” of The Divine Assembly, a Salt Lake City-based psilocybin church.
A practicing lawyer, Urquhart is a straight-and-narrow-path kind of guy: He served a mission for the Church to Brazil, married his wife Sara in a Church, and raised his four children in the faith. He never wandered far from that path until he and his wife had a life-altering experience with ayahuasca in Amsterdam.
What a ballsy move. Psilocybin mushrooms are not legal in Utah and although there is some legal precedent for the religious use of psychedelics for some groups, The Divine Assembly is a brand-new religion and there’s no guarantee the U.S. government will deem either it or its practices to be legitimate.
If Urquhart’s church is allowed to continue using psilocybin mushrooms as a sacrament, other religious and spiritual groups may follow suit. However, there is a real possibility that they may soon find themselves arguing their case in court.
Personally, I find the idea of communing with the divine via entheogens to be completely reasonable and wish Urquhart luck in his quest to further establish a religious right to use psychedelics.
