Political Identity of the LDS Church

Blog 5: Political Identity

            The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints claims to be politically neutral and, technically, it is.  “What political party do you affiliate with?” is not a question that is included in a baptismal interview and missionaries are told to refrain from sharing their political opinions or being involved in politics during their time of service.  However, as much as the Church does not officially support it, there is definitely an LDS political identity in the United States.

            In a recent Pew survey, 74% of Mormons declare that they lean toward the Republican party.  In addition, 66% of Mormons claim to have conservative views (as opposed to 37% of all Americans) (Khan).  So it is clear that the majority of the Church’s members are conservative, but does that political identity come naturally or is it a conscious decision?

            There are two arguments for the way these identities form: primordialism and constructivism. The argument for primordialism states that our political identities stay the same from the time we were born (or at least our early childhood).  The theory claims that those identities are natural and we don’t consciously decide which identities we adopt. The other theory, constructivism, claims that people do have a choice over which identities they conform to and that the identity can be changed at will (Samuels 153).  Right now, there appears to be causes that support the argument for primordialism.

            If one considers the very doctrine of the LDS Church, it is easy to argue that primordialism is the key factor in the political identity of its members.  The Church is a definite advocate of being self-sufficient.  The stakes in the Church are always putting together workshops that teach members to build a resumé, gain employment skills, can and store food, etc.  Although the Church does have a functioning welfare program, members are encouraged to only use it as a last resort and even then, they are expected to clean a Church facility or work at a Bishop Store House in order to earn what they receive.  Many people who have been members of the Church for the entirety of their lives learn that working for one’s living is something that everybody must do so it is easy to see that some might look at the Democrat party and the money that is poured into the federal welfare system and see it as a bad thing for our country because they feel that some people are essentially free riders and are not earning what they are receiving. In this sense, one could say that the political identity of the Church arises from primordialism.

            This claim is further supported by the fact that many more Mormon Democrats have a favorable opinion of Mitt Romney than Mormon Republicans that have a favorable view of President Obama.  Considering all Utah Democrats, 23% have a favorable view of Mitt Romney compared to only 5% of Utah Republicans for President Obama (Monson).  23% (42% of just Mormon Democrats) is unusually high for a country like the United States where political differences are extremely important to many people.  Is it really likely that almost a quarter of Democrats in Utah actually agree with Mitt Romney’s political agenda?  What is more likely is that those people, especially those that are members of the Church, are attracted not so much to the economic policy, but to the fact that they know that a Mormon candidate will likely share

their same conservative views that the Church helps to instill in us. 

            The political identity of Church is best explained as conservative because even though the Church remains politically neutral, the ideology of Church doctrine points people in that conservative direction. 

Works Cited

Samuels, David. Comparative Politics. New York: Pearson Education, 2013.

Monson, Quin. "Utah Data Points." Utah Data Points. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Oct. 2012. http://utahdatapoints.com/

Khan, Huma. Pew Survey: Majority of Mormons Lean Republican; Half Cite Discrimination Against Their Faith. Web. 11 Oct. 2012. http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/01/pew-survey-most-mormons-feel-they-are-misunderstood-not-viewed-as-mainstream/