“There are those who want to redo the society we've known and create it in a different image,” said Maurine Proctor, publisher of the Meridian online Mormon magazine, who organized the event with her husband, Scot.

The two-day event, billed as a “Call to Leadership in Defense of Family, Faith and Freedom,” was designed to chart “a clear direction that will better engage our people in a civic organization to meet the perils of our time,” according to the invitation.

The erosion of the family and protecting children were the overwhelming concerns Saturday, said Proctor, citing the disdain elites show for traditional marriage, the spread of pornography, vile content in the media and sexual promiscuity.

The elites threatening the traditional values all have an agenda, but that vision has been lacking among those who seek to defend the family, she said.

The organization is still taking shape, but it will begin with an online network where members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints can alert each other to events of common concern. As it develops, it may include calls to action, letter-writing campaigns and involvement in political campaigns.

Proctor stressed that the group is in no way backed by or affiliated with the church, only that it is based on the members' shared values, and it may expand to include non-Mormons.

Church leaders have taken pains over the years to maintain their political independence, urging members to study the issues and to be active in their government, but not backing either political party.

However, the church's pronouncements opposing gay marriage and abortion and supporting the war in Iraq are at odds with mainstream Democratic views. Exit polls show 80 percent of Mormons voted for President Bush in the recent election.

So-called Christian-values voters have been in the spotlight, widely credited with helping boost Bush to victory in the past election and increasingly flexing their political muscle.

They are not new, however, as groups like Focus on the Family, the Family Research Council and The Eagle Forum have been operating for more than 20 years, and Mormons have worked with those groups.

But it has not always been a comfortable fit because many evangelicals do not consider Mormons to be Christians and have sought to exclude them from their groups.

Robert Bork, a former appellate court judge, Supreme Court nominee and leading scholar of the religious conservative movement, delivered a keynote address Saturday, saying that there is a culture war in the country, as liberal elites try to use courts and universities to erode society's traditional values.

Hosts of the event included prominent political pollster Richard Wirthlin; Joe J. Christensen, an emeritus member of the LDS Church's Quorum of The Seventy; Jane Clayson, the former co-anchor of CBS' "Early Show"; and Mark Cannon, an aide to former Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren Burger.

The brainstorming and strategy sessions were held behind closed doors in a hotel in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. Organizers said they had hoped to keep the meeting under wraps until their idea was more fully formed.