New World Man

In the last election Mormons voted for Bush on a 9 to 1 margin. TNR points out that the story is a bit more complex. No thundering insights, but a seemingly comprehensive look at the state of affairs.

To make matters worse, fissures are developing on several policy fronts, as well. The first dispute arose early in Bush’s tenure, when the president made clear that the foundation of his domestic agenda would be a faith-based initiative that made it possible for more religious organizations to receive government funding to provide social services. LDS Church president Gordon Hinckley, concerned that accepting federal money would mean submitting to regulatory interference from the state, declared that Mormon organizations would not participate. The church’s strict stance on church-state separation, born of the early community’s experience with officially sanctioned discrimination, runs counter to the general philosophy behind Bush’s faith-based initiative.

The differences between Mormons and evangelicals are even starker on the issue of stem-cell research. While Bush was preparing to announce his opposition to stem-cell research in the summer of 2001, two of the most vocal supporters of the research in the Senate were Orrin Hatch of Utah and Gordon Smith of Oregon, both Mormons. As Drew Clark reported in Slate at the time, all five Mormon senators supported funding for stem-cell research, and they saw no conflict between that position and their pro-life theology. The church is officially neutral on the stem-cell research, but has issued statements noting its beneficial potential for providing medical cures. In defending the research, Smith has cited Genesis 2:7, in which God forms man out of the earth and then breathes life into him; “man became a living soul” at that point, the Scripture proclaims. Smith and other Mormons have argued that life begins only when an embryo is implanted in a womb, not while an embryo is unattached–the stage at which it is harvested for use in stem-cell research.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 10th, 2005 at 11:37 and is filed under general, society, politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.