Misplaced LDS values | The Salt Lake Tribune

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Mormons vote overwhelmingly Republican, insisting that GOP values adhere closer to LDS values, which raises these questions:

1. Is carrying a concealed weapon with a willingness to shoot to kill a Mormon value?

2. Or stiffing the poor or fighting immigration reform?

3. Or having apoplexy over universal health care? Romney-care?

4. Or hyping disdain for government per se?

5. Or dismissing science and global warming and promoting fossil fuels and the poisoning of the planet for profit?

6. Or dismissing teacher unions and insisting the nation's poorest schools and most crowded classrooms are adequate?

7. Or Utah hustling gun addiction by providing a quick and cheap concealed weapon permit for 30 other states?

8. Or automatically trashing every proposal by the nation's first black president?

Certainly there is a monumental disconnect. Utah and national Republican values are the complete opposite of Mormon values. And no respectable member committed to their Mormon values could honestly be a Republican. The cold-hearted, greed-driven individualism of current Republican factions poisons the values of community, cooperation and care for the poor for which the Mormon church is renowned.

Ron Molen

Salt Lake City