In anticipation for Election Day, the First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints issues a letter to be read by local leaders to members of the Church throughout the United States. This letter essentially declares that the Church goes to great lengths to maintain neutrality in politics, that it does not endorse a particular political party or candidate, that there are good principles to be found in both major parties, and that Church members are encouraged to participate in the political process. The neutral tone of these regularly issued letters might make it seem as if there is no “Mormon” political identity.
But what is a political identity? Kirk Hawkins of Brigham Young University, in his course on comparative politics defines political identity as “any identity that significantly shapes our political decisions, especially when it is the most important identity to do so” (Hawkins). In turn, he defines identity as “the ways that individuals categorize themselves with a resulting feeling of close emotional association.” David J. Samuels, in his text Comparative Politics, defines political identity as “the ways that individuals categorize themselves and others, and how they understand the power relationships of domination and oppression that exist between groups” (pp. 149). Considering that this more Marxian definition might limit political identity to the economic sphere, Hawkins’ definition may be of more use to the present inquiry.
That being said, active members of the Church generally view their religion as their most important identity. Brigham Young University’s Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy recently found that membership in the Church may make Utah Democrats view presidential candidate Mitt Romney more favorably (Do LDS Dems like Mitt Romney?). This suggests that Mormon Democrats in Utah may identify more with their religion than with their political party when it comes to political decisions.
Furthermore, membership in the Church does significantly shape political decisions, particularly on social issues. The Church is obviously a socially conservative institution and urges members in an official declaration from 1995 to “promote those measures designed to maintain and strengthen the [traditional] family as the fundamental unit of society” (The Family: A Proclamation to the World).
Thus, by Hawkins’ definition, membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints certainly is a political identity in the United States. What remains to be seen, however, is whether this identity is primordialist or constructivist.
Samuels explains that primordialism assumes that “identities are something people are born with or that emerge through deep psychological processes in early childhood, given one’s family and community context” (pp. 153). He explains constructivism as “an approach to understanding identity which assumes that political identities are malleable, even if they often appear to be primordial, and suggests that we think of identity as an evolving political process rather than as a fixed set of identity categories” (pp. 153). Here it may be useful to distinguish between Mormons who inherit their religion from family members and those who personally adopt the religion rather than inheriting it. For those who were raised Mormon, this political identity may be seen more correctly from the primordialist perspective: it has everything to do with kinship. Yet, the constructivist perspective may not be entirely applicable to converts to the religion, since they might be most appropriately considered as having gone through a spiritual rather than political conversion. Thus, the more appropriate perspective to apply to this political identity may be that of primordialism.
Sources:
Do LDS Dems like Mitt Romney?. Utah Data Points. Retrieved 12 Oct 2012: http://utahdatapoints.com/
Hawkins, Kirk. Lecture delivered to Brigham Young University undergraduate students on October 10, 2012.
Samuels, David J. Comparative Politics. Pearson: Boston, 2013.
The Family: A Proclamation to the World. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Retrieved 12 Oct 2012: https://www.lds.org/topics/family-proclamation
I love how you said that Mormon's political identity isn't their most important one and how you used statistics to back it up. I didn't think to put that in my blog, but its so true, Mormons think of themselves first as Mormons and politics are mostly secondary.
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