Michelle Goldberg, in a piece posted today at Religion Dispatches:
At a time when much of the rest of the Christian right is in disarray—Focus on the Family just laid off over 200 people, a fifth of its workforce—it seems possible that the LDS church could play an increasing role in public affairs. Just as evangelicals cast off their previous aversion to politics in the 1970s and 1980s, Mormons are doing so today. “We′re seeing what I think is a tectonic shift in Mormon attitudes about getting involved in politics,” said Wardle. Serious theological differences may continue to hinder close collaboration between Mormons and the other sectors of the religious right. But as Catholics and Protestants showed in the 1980s and 1990s, and as Mormons, Muslims and others are demonstrating globally, nothing helps heal sectarian tensions like a common enemy.
Read the full piece here.