Any Democrat in Utah can attest to the fact that there is a definitive LDS political identity– one of conservatism within the United States. (For purposes of this paper, any mention of conservatism refers to American conservatism, and likewise liberalism, American liberalism.) While some members of the Church swing toward the left politically, they are viewed largely as anomalies, given that a significant majority of Church members are likely to identify themselves with the Republican party. As the LDS Church continues to function in a modern world, rapid social change is causing a move away from primordialism and toward constructivism in shaping individuals’ political identities.
This conservative political identity is manifested in many ways; according to the Utah census, the state’s population is 62.2 percent Mormon, and is seen as a Republican stronghold in elections (Canham.) While individual areas such as Salt Lake are more liberal, electing Democrat leaders; the state as a whole has not elected a Democrat for governor in 32 years. On a national level, a Pew Research Center study reports, “Seventy-four percent of Mormons surveyed say they lean toward the Republican party, and 66 percent describe themselves as conservatives, much higher than the national average of 37 percent” (Khan.)
Often, Church members identify with conservative party values because the Republican platform is traditionally opposed to abortion and same-sex marriage, issues that the Church takes a stance against. These hot-button issues are not the foundation of any one political party, but they carry enough moral weight that many Latter-day Saints feel voting for a party which endorses these issues would be voting against their moral beliefs. This politically conservative persuasion was mobilized in 2008, when LDS Church leaders asked members to take an active stance against California’s Proposition 8.
The two schools of thought that seek to explain our path to political identity are primordialism and constructivism. Primordialism suggests that the deep conservative trend within the LDS church in the United States is a consequence of one’s upbringing. For example, if two Republican parents raise their child with the conservative ideologies of self-sufficiency and traditional family structure, these ideologies will remain with that child for life (Samuels.) On the other hand, conservatism argues that political identity is much less firmly established–and because everything can become politicized, religion may not hold the trump card on a person’s voting record (Hawkins.)
The phenomenon of Church partisanship is that one’s political identity is first established through primordialism, but has begun to move–most notably since 2008– to constructivism. This shift in cultural theory can be attributed to rapid and polarizing changes in the push for same-sex marriage, and the Church’s response. Although many members of the Church were raised in conservative Mormon households, the same-sex marriage debate has marked a huge shift in the social context; this change has heated the waters enough to make malleable our original bonds of political identity.
However, this transition to constructivism has an inherently Mormon quality to it– Church doctrine puts a premium on man’s free will, and expects its members to be proactive and questioning (to an extent) in their search for truth. In many ways, the shift in the why of Mormon political identity is like the coming-of-age of children who can no longer live off of the borrowed light of their parents’ testimonies. Within the LDS church, individual agency holds the trump card; although many members of the church now find themselves at odds with Mormon doctrine, they cannot (nor do they wish to) remove their cultural Mormon heritage.
The LDS Church’s Republican political identity is currently in the process of changing from a primordial structure to a constructivist one. Although Mormon culture and doctrine continue to stress the importance of teaching values to children in the home, recent changes in American society–specifically, a great push for same-sex marriage– has led some Church members to fall away from its teachings. This same shift in national culture has caused Latter-day Saints who remain in the LDS church to reevaluate their political identity, thus making it a malleable product of their own decisions– not their familial upbringing.
Sources
Canham, Matt. "Census: Share of Utah's Mormon Residents Holds Steady." Utah Local News. The Salt Lake Tribune, 17 Apr. 2012. Web. 11 Oct. 2012. <http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/home3/53909710-200/population-lds-county-utah.html.csp>.
Hawkins, Kirk. "Political Identity." Comparative Politics 150. Brigham Young University, Provo, UT. 10 Oct. 2012. Lecture.
Khan, Huma. "Pew Survey: Majority of Mormons Lean Republican; Half Cite Discrimination Against Their Faith." ABC News. ABC News Network, 12 Jan. 2012. Web. 11 Oct. 2012. <http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/01/pew-survey-most-mormons-feel-they-are-misunderstood-not-viewed-as-mainstream/>.
Samuels, David. Comparative Politics. New York: Pearson Education, 2013. Print.
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