Strong LDS political identity

Here in the United States, there are various political identities that people have, and they are not limited to democrat or republican.  There are many factors that contribute to political identity, and those many factors create many distinct groups of political identities.  Maybe people don’t campaign under those other labels, but they certainly contribute to their political opinions.  One such example of a political identity is the Latter Day Saint identity.

I believe that being a Latter Day Saint is not just a religious identity, but also becomes a political identity.  As we discussed in class, “an identity can be very shallow; sometimes though, it becomes so central to us that it shapes our political decisions—how we vote, where we stand on issues, who we listen to; hence any identity that significantly shapes our political decisions [is a political identity, especially when it exhibits the strongest influence in those decisions.]₁”  In the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, their survey reports that 66% of Mormons feel more conservative, and 22% are moderate.  Just 8% identified as having liberal beliefs.  With respect to the upcoming presidential elections, the survey reported that 86% of Mormons support Mitt Romney, the Republican candidate.  Just 10% are not in favor of him₂.  As seen, statistics show that Latter Day Saints are mostly conservative in their view.  The Church itself, which virtually all active members agree with, is also conservative, and has set defined their stance as conservative with respect to abortion, gay marriage, and other moral issues present in the political arena.

This political identity could be explained in two ways, from a constructivist viewpoint and a primordialist viewpoint.  Constructivism is “an approach to understanding identity which assumes that political identities are malleable, even if they often appear to be primordial, and suggests that we think of identity as an evolving political process rather than as a fixed set of identity categories.₃” From a constructivist viewpoint, one could say that week after week, year after year of being in the church eventually forms our political identity as a Latter Day Saint.  As we learn doctrine, and listen to our parents and leaders, we eventually form our own political views.  However, I tend to see a hole in this argument.  The political identity of a Latter Day Saint doesn’t appear too malleable.  In general, Mormons are very established in their political views and they tend not to change, as seen in the stance of the church.  This comes as a result of their beliefs.  Since truth and commandments are absolute, their meanings do not change with time, and as a result, a Mormon’s opinion on those moral issues, which are directly related to their beliefs in God’s commandments, wouldn’t change either.

Another viewpoint on the formation of this identity would be the primordialist viewpoint.  Primordialism is “an approach to understanding identity which assumes that identities are something people are born with or that emerge through deep psychological processes in early childhood, given one’s family and community context.₃” In my opinion, primordialism explains the LDS political identity much more.  Parents that raise their children in the church teach them from a very early age to love God and do his will all the time.  This same instruction is repeated at church, so children from very early age become indoctrinated on what to think of certain moral issues.  Family and community, in this case the church, are the leading influences in primorialist theory.  As seen, children are very much shaped by those two influences.

From the data, it appears that there is a very strong political identity associated with Latter Day Saints.  Overall, they tend to be more conservative in their political beliefs and fairly unwavering in those beliefs.

Works Cited

1.       Hawkins.  Class Lecture 10/10/12.

2.       The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, "Mormons in America." Last modified 2012. Accessed October 12, 2012. http://www.pewforum.org/Christian/Mormon/mormons-in-america-politics-society-and-morality.aspx.

3.       David J. Samuels, Comparative Politics, (Pearson, 2013), 153.