More on the Mormons-in-politics question, which suddenly seems hot. Amy Sullivan, writing in The New Republic, suggests the best move for Mormons is a shift toward the Democrats:
The rise of evangelicals within the Republican Party, however, hasn't been entirely welcomed by Mormons. Both groups may be socially and politically conservative. But their theological differences have caused conflicts. Many evangelical denominations insist that Mormons are not true Christians--in 2004, Mormons were specifically excluded from participation in the National Day of Prayer organized by Shirley Dobson (wife of James, the head of Focus on the Family) for this reason. Some groups, like the Southern Baptist Convention, even take the extra step of labeling the religious community a cult. While a few progressive evangelicals--most notably Fuller Theological Seminary president Richard J. Mouw, who in November became the first non-Mormon in more than 100 years to speak from the pulpit of the Mormon Tabernacle in Salt Lake City--have launched a campaign to repair Mormon-evangelical relations, no one knows if the current detente will hold.
To make matters worse, fissures are developing on several policy fronts, as well...
The fissures, she writes, include federal funding for faith-based initiatives (Mormons observe strict church-state separation, and are opposed); stem cell research (Orrin Hatch and Gordon Smith are in favor; Smith cites Genesis 2:7 to support his view that life begins at implantation, not conception), and the war on terror (Mormons are intensely private and find measures like the Patriot Act unsettling).
To date, she says, abortion has been the key issue binding Mormons to the Republican party, but a more accommodative Democratic stance might change that.
A two-part question, then -- what would be the effect on Mormons of a Mormon-Democratic alliance, and what would be the effect on Democrats?
UPDATE: No, Mormons won't flock to the Democratic Party, says David H. Sundwall, Mormon blogger at A Soft Answer. And Matthew Yglesias. And Ross Douthat at The American Scene. So I'm inclined to say... oh, well. Or, in Kor's more eloquent formulation, "A shame, Captain -- it would have been glorious." Except I'm not -- not quite yet. Maybe soon. But if we're going to build a center in this country, it's going to look pretty strange, especially at the start. Let's keep this particular strange possibility in play a little longer.
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