Blog 5: Political Identity

Blog 5: Political Identity

            When Election Day rolls around and Latter-day saints hit the polling booths, they don’t leave their religion at the door. We were just recently charged by Elder Holland to fight for the righteous traditions of our church. Our religion makes up a huge part of the person we perceive ourselves to be. This identity leans towards the conservative, republican agenda, but I believe our identity is fairly centrist. Of course there will always be those people who are extreme one-way or the other in any group (i.e. the democratic Mormons, or the ultra conservative tea party Mormons).

Normally, our Mormon identity would not be political (or present), but because basic principles of our religion are under debate in the political arena, our identity has become far more political. Topics such as gay marriage, small verses big government, and taxes are issues that we interpret our doctrine to have specific answers to. The Church even spoke out about Prop 8.

Utah data points show how the Mormon population is moderate by listing statistics about their view of Gay marriage. Only 29% of Mormons are opposed to same sex marriage in Utah now, while 43% are okay with civil unions (a compromise between the right and left) and 28% fully support gay marriage.²        This also shows that the Mormon political identity is a constructivist identity. A constructivist theory is one that considers a political identity as a choice and is malleable or continually changing¹.

            Another theory on political identity is called primodalism, and believes that a person is born with their identity (that it is in their DNA), or was raised into it (basically indoctrinated) at an early age; therefore this identity cannot be changed³. But this theory is most often found to be not true because there are many converts to the church who were not born or raised with the Mormon identity. But after conversion, they’re political identity may change. This is an argument for constructivism, because it has evolved over time. If you look at the political views of Mormons through out history, we have flip-flopped between conservatism and liberalism. During Joseph Smith’s era, Mormons were generally liberal abolitionists from the North. They believed that slaves should be freed and women should be allowed to vote. This was one of the reasons Mormons were persecuted in Missouri. The slave owners were afraid all these Mormon northerners would move in and change their slave laws.

Today, Latter-day saints are considered conservative because we want to keep the government relatively the same as it was. While there is always room for improvement, keeping what we consider to be “righteous” traditions within the government makes us more conservative because we’re trying to keep the status quo on many issues. For example, the majority of Latter-day saints want to keep the government’s definition of marriage as between a man and a woman.

            So yes, there is a present political identity for Mormons, because most Mormons generally have the same political view; although we usually try to keep our views from being too political, after all the Church has officially stated it is neutral. But our views can become political when we feel our traditions and beliefs are being threatened, like in the case of Prop 8 . However while this is an argument for primordialism, it does not explain why our political identity exists, while constructivism explains that our political identity has changed over time.

Works Cited

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

2.   Patterson, Kelly. "Public Opinion on Gay Marriage in Utah." Utah Data Points. N.p., 9 July 2012. Web. 11 Oct. 2012. <http://utahdatapoints.com>.

3.   Hawkins, Kirk. "Political Identity." PlSc 150. 10 Oct. 2012. Lecture.