The Causes of Mormon Political Identity

Mormon political identity has been shaped incrementally throughout its history. With some shifts and changes, it has reached a point where it is largely conservative. While members of the LDS church are largely Republican, even those who claim to be Independents or Democrats often consider themselves to be conservative, particularly on social issues. This is apparent in many of the Democratic candidates running for office in Utah who have more moderate or even conservative agendas—particularly on social issues.

According to a study completed in 2008 by Trinity College, Mormons are more than twice as likely to be Republicans (59%) than non-Mormon Americans (27%) (Phillips and Cragun 2008, 2). But why is this? Perhaps an attachment to social issues and the church’s strong stance on moral issues leads members to feel an obligation to politically support parties that support those particular issues. Or perhaps the homogenous nature of the church—mostly white, middle to upper class—lead Mormons to be made up of predominantly conservative members Americans (Phillips and Cragun 2008, 4). We know that minorities and the lower-class tend to be more liberal and/or identify with the Democratic Party and are disproportionately represented in the Mormon Church.

This understanding is consistent with the discussion held in class regarding the meaning of political identity. Professor Hawkins defined identity as “a subset of culture, based on our ability to attach labels to ourselves and others or to define ourselves in terms of the groups we belong to” (Hawkins 2012). According to this definition, LDS members could easily find themselves adhering to a particular political identity because of the shared groups we belong to—race, class, education, etc. The LDS church is much more homogenous than many groups, leading to a more strictly adhered to set of beliefs.

In contrast, throughout the world the demographics of Latter Day Saints, and their political beliefs, vary widely. Perhaps because of the varied races, socio-economic classes, education levels, and other varied characteristics of members outside of the United States, you can find a more politically diverse group of Mormons. This lends itself to constructivist theory, which states that “political identities are malleable, even if they often appear to be primordial, and suggest that we think of identity as an evolving political process than as a fixed set of identity categories” (Samuels 2012, 153). Constructivist theory does more to explain the reason that members of the church in America (or even in Utah) are more conservative and share a political identity than perhaps the church on the aggregate.

But perhaps most influential on the political ideologies and identities of Latter Day Saints is the association of religious beliefs with political identity. For example, in the early days of the church many members opposed the early Republican Party because of the party’s opposition to polygamy. Church political views have changed as church doctrines have changed. This shows that the church’s political views are malleable dependent upon their context. Members in the United States on the east coast may have a different political stance than in Utah, where there is a high number of Conservatives.

Political identity is complicated to measure and it is often even more difficult to understand the cause of these identities. In the church it is likely influenced by the doctrines of the church and its overall demographic makeup—which is largely homogenous. Could the political identity change? Perhaps it could, if major demographic or doctrinal changes occur. Until then, context will most likely have the largest influence on the identity of Latter Day Saints.

REFERENCES:

Hawkins, Kirk (2012). In class lecture. Brigham Young University. October 8 & 10, 2012.                   

Phillips, Rick and Ryan T. Cragun. (2008). Mormons in the United States1990-2008: Socio-demographic    trends and regional differences. Trinity College. Retrieved from commons.trincoll.edu on 11                October 2012.

Samuels, David. (2012). Comparative Politics. New York: Pearson Education. 148-172.