For example, I don’t think it’s right that women have abortions when they think it’s just a little inconvenient to have a child right now. However, I don’t feel like I can vote for a candidate that wants to criminalize them so that it would be practically impossible to get a legal abortion. That would only make worse the abuse of women we still see around us. (Would anybody say that forced prostitution has ended?) That would mean women — those who don’t have the money to go somewhere where somewhat safe abortions are available without too many questions — would have only desperate options.

I think there are better ways, and forced polarization of the issue serves neither side, actually. The argumentation of the Choice people also sometimes feed the Rush Limbaugh (squirm) types who get grist for their mill.

But that aside, why does the Church’s official statement say, that the LDS can legitimately find any political party attractive? The Church does NOT endorse political parties. All political opinions belong to private citizens, even if they hold prominent positions in the Church. (The same goes for a lot of stuff, that any number of Stake Presidents and Bishops (not even mentioning High Councilmen) have strong opinions on, but the “Brethren” have not said anything that could be an official statement or doctrine of the Church. People have different opinions, because they have different experiences.)

…

It’s not fair, I think, to discount atheism as a religion. When it is taken into account, Democrats are VERY religious–even to the point of ensuring that their religion has an advantage over all others. In 1992, James E Faust said that

There seems to be developing a new civil religion. The civil religion I refer to is a secular religion. It has no moral absolutes. It is nondenominational. It is nontheistic. It is politically focused. It is antagonistic to religion. It rejects the historic religious traditions of America. It feels strange. If this trend continues, nonbelief will be more honored than belief. While all beliefs must be protected, are atheism, agnosticism, cynicism, and moral relativism to be more safeguarded and valued than Christianity, Judaism, and the tenets of Islam, which hold that there is a Supreme Being and that mortals are accountable to him? If so, this would, in my opinion, place America in great moral jeopardy.

It has only gotten worse in the intervening 17 years.

My understanding is that the two best predictors of party ID is church attendance and marriage. By those two factors, most Mormons have no choice but vote Republican!

These tend to be the people, who “cling to guns and religion” — I would bet that gun ownership also is higher among them; this again may have more to do with geography, since the more religious and conservative people tend to live in rural areas. The huge conurbations are less religious and more liberal AFAIK.

I would speculate that living in rural areas may make you more likely to have a legitimate use for a firearm, too.