Blog 5

“There is a completely false notion that as a Mormon community, we must all be conservative republicans. This idea is absurd. Both political parties have ideas that could be good, but the most important thing is that as Mormons in either party we must serve to do well in God’s kingdom,” said Judge Thomas B. Griffin of the circuit court of appeals for the Washington circuit.

            There is a widespread false political identity that all Mormons are conservative republicans. One reason this political identity is false is because the church does not endorse any political parties. As best stated by the church itself, “Mormons are politically diverse. While the church is politically neutral, Mormons are considered to participate in the political process wherever they live,” (mormontopics.org).

A reason why there appears to be a political identity within the church could boil down to values and interpretation. Our church has many values that guide our choices thus are highly influential in our political opinions. Interpretation then turns the values into political opinions. Church members using their values to guide their political opinions often ends up in similar interpretations and we thus create the false political identity of the church. An example of how many interpret values similarly is how Mormons view gay marriage. About 8% of Mormons agree with the more liberal view of legalizing gay marriage, (“Public Opinion on gay marriage in Utah”).  This is one of the clearest example for how many Mormons agree together in political identity. (In this case, opposing gay marriage.) However, because there is that 8% that do not believe in the political opinion the majority do we cannot say that the Mormon political identity is true.

This idea of a political identity is brought about in the two basic ways described by David Samuels in “Comparative Politics.” The first way is through the primordialism view meaning, “an approach to understanding identity which assumes that identities are  something people are born with or that emerge though deep psychological processes in early childhood, given one’s family and community context,” (Samuels, 153). A possible implication of this is that children will be whatever party most Mormons are in their area.   This could lead to children being conservative if they grow up in a place where most Mormons are conservative such as Utah or children being liberal if they grow up in a place like California where most Mormons are liberal. The primordialism view once again verifies how there is a political identity although it is often false.

The second view presented in Samuels’s book is constructivism. This 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,” (Samuels,153). In this theory a church member is not born with a political identity but rather through their experience with the church, outside influences, and a personal choice comes to their political opinion. This approach explains why church members could go through life being taught the exact same thing but come up with two completely different political opinions.

In conclusion, there is a political identity associated with the church when the members of the church are viewed by both members and non-members all over the world. However, this political identity is false because of the many who don’t agree with the majority. In examining the very prominent yet false political identity of the church, it is crucial to remember the two points that were in the wise quote by Judge Griffin. First, as church members we are not commanded to be in a certain political party so there can be no Mormon political identity. Secondly, the most important and only true political identity of the church is that we strive to build the Lord’s kingdom through what each of us thinks can help the most.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Works cited

·         Samuels, David J. Comparative Politics.Boston:Pearson, 2013. Print

·         "What Role Do Politics Play in the Lives of Mormons?" What Role Do Politics Play in the Lives of Mormons? N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Oct. 2012. <http://www.mormontopics.org/eng/politics>.

·         Patterson, Kelly. "Public Opinion on Gay Marriage in Utah." Utah Data Points.org. N.p., 09 July 2012. Web.