The LDS church has never tried to encourage its members to
develop a specific political identity, however that being said, the church does
teach strong moral values, which shape members overall identity. So is there a
correlation between this overall identity and a specific political identity,
which the church may inadvertently cause its members to form? Obviously there
are a few exceptions, and the church has not caused any sort of uniform
political identity, but the church does have a profound effect on creating a
political identity among it’s members here in the United States.
There a
multiple evidences to help establish this argument. According to the Salt Lake
Tribune, “Mormons nationally are more than twice as likely to vote republican
than members of other faiths…” (Gehrke
2011) However, perhaps a better indicator of how strong a given
political identity is its ability to transcend allegiance to one particular
political party. For example, a very
small number of Republicans approve of President Obamas performance, that
number becomes even smaller when talking about Utah republicans, which group contains
a much higher number of Mormons, reaching only 5%. (Monson 2012) This shows
that the Mormon ideology does have an effect on people’s political identity and
it causes them to act differently than the rest of the group. Perhaps a clearer
example would be the democrats opinion of Mitt Romney. As Quin Monson reports “While
23% of all Utah Democrats view Governor Romney favorably, that proportion goes
up to 42% when looking only at Mormon Democrats. Only 16% of Democrats from
other faiths and 19% of non-religious Democrats say the same.” (Monson 2012)
This shows that Mormon political identity is evident and influential in Mormon
political tendencies, and causes them to act in ways sometimes contradicting
the actions of their larger political group. So dothese political identities
form more like the primordialist theory argues, or more under a constructivist
theory? Well in some aspects it is formed a little bit by both. On the one
side, most members are born into LDS families were the teachings of the church,
which generally highlight and appreciate conservative ideals, are taught to
them from a young age. However there are also many converts to the church who
come to adopt a more malleable identity later on in life.
The Church’s official response to
the question of it is politically active is, “While the Church is politically
neutral, Mormons are encouraged to participate in the political process where
they live.”
("Mormon.org")
Because the Church teaches ideals that influence one politically, and then
teach them to be politically active, the church is thereby creating, although inadvertently,
it’s own political identity.
This
identity influences people in such a way that their political view may even
occasionally transcend that of the majority of their political party. For
members born in the church, there is a more primordial development of this identity;
where as new members experience the development in a more constructivist manner.
1) Gehrke, Robert.
"Survey: Mormons embrace GOP, shun Democrats." Salt Lake Tribune,
December 4, 2011.
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/home2/53110048-183/mormons-utah-lds-party.html.csp
(accessed October 11, 2012).
I thought it was interesting and creative how you used statistics about approval of political candidates to backup your argument.
ReplyDeleteI like your definition of a strong political identity as one that transcends allegiance to a political party. I think that no matter what constructivism and primordialism say about the emergence of political identities, the effect that the identity has is what really matters.
ReplyDeleteI really like your argument, I agree with you that although the Church does not support one party, its teachings are often conservative and do serve to shape its members values and ideals.
ReplyDelete