This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2004, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

In Utah, the Republican Party sits in the driver seat. Many say that this is due to the dominant Mormon culture. If this is true, then it is a paradox. Mormon doctrine fits better with policies advocated by Democrats than it does with those advocated by Republicans.

Let's take the hardest case first: abortion. The official position of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on abortion states that abortion can be permitted in cases of rape, incest or where the pregnancy endangers the health of the mother.

Because you cannot determine in a timely or certain fashion whether a woman has been raped, and because "the health of the mother" is a vague notion, the church's official position entails that abortion should be legal. Contrary to what many Mormons seem to think, this is a "pro-choice" position.

What about gay marriage? There is no question that the LDS church is conservative on this issue. The church opposes giving any kind of moral sanction to homosexual relationships by allowing them to be solemnized in marriage.

However, this does not mean that the church opposes giving inheritance, taxation and visitation rights to those living in gay relationships. In principle, a Mormon could be in favor of same-sex unions that give legal but not moral status to gay couples. And, indeed, it may surprise most Mormons to learn that most Democrats oppose gay marriage while supporting same-sex legal unions.

"OK," one might say, "but there is no question that Mormons should oppose big government. Democrats are all about social programs such as welfare, universal health care, Social Security, etc."

Ah, but there's the rub. Mormons should be adamantly opposed to unfettered economic individualism. After Christ's visit to the Americas, the community in 4 Nephi lives with "all things in common." The plight of the poor plays a more central role in the Book of Mormon than any other moral issue.

One righteous leader in the Book of Mormon, King Benjamin, tells us that we cannot pass judgment on beggars, as we are all beggars. Early Mormons embraced a form of economic communitarianism. Since then, they have made an "about-face" by embracing capitalism and even joining the ranks of its main advocates.

Calling himself an "economic communitarian," Mormon wri- ter Orson Scott Card says, "I'm ashamed of our society for how it treats the poor. One of the deep problems in Mormon society is that really for the last 75 years, Mormons have embraced capitalism to a shocking degree."

In a last-ditch effort to embrace Republicanism, Mormons might appeal to Bush's current war. Yet, the Book of Mormon military leader Captain Moroni categorically rejected pre-emptive war. He was patient and long-suffering with his enemies. That cannot be said for neo-conservatives such as the Defense Department's Paul Wolfowitz and Donald Rumsfeld who use pre-emptive war as the basis for a new foreign policy.

It might be that Mormons are correct to think that John Kerry's policies don't line up with their views. But if so, this is only because he reluctantly voted in favor of a pre-emptive war and embraces capitalism to a much greater degree than Mormon doctrine allows.

Noam Chomsky is right: Kerry is Bush-lite. But from a Mormon perspective, it seems he's better than Bush.

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Dennis Potter is an assistant professor of philosophy at Utah Valley State College and the Mormon Studies coordinator in the Center for the Study of Ethics at UVSC.