Item Detail
-
27692
-
0
-
0
-
English
-
Mormon Democrats : Religious Constraint, and Lakoff's Family Socialization Theory
-
Pocatello, Idaho
-
Idaho State University
-
Dissertation
-
This study carries forward the exploration of the intersection between religion and politics among highly religious public-figure Mormon Democrats. Membership of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons, LDS) has consistently measured as one of the most conservative religious groups in early twenty-first century America. However, conducting 15 in-depth interviews with various prominent Mormon Democrats (elected officials, Church hierarchy, and published academics) and sampling from students and faculty at Brigham Young University-Idaho reveals that Mormonism is not a monolithic conservative bloc. Lakoff's ⁰́strict-father/nurturant parent⁰́₊ theory as operationalized in the National Election Survey since 1992 provides a battery of questions testing for authority-mindedness which asks respondents to choose between attractive traits in a child. LDS responses to these questions confirm that like other Americans, Latter-day Saint preferences are correlated with party affiliation and ideological leaning. Yet, an intriguing reversal of the Lakoff theory emerged: an overwhelming majority of LDS preferred the theoretically liberal trait of being considerate over being well-behaved. Statistical analyses confirm that Mormons are a special population in comparison with national sampling using this same observational measure. The data strongly suggest that Lakoffs measures are capable of revealing political nuances within religious groups who are increasingly polarizing in America. Also, the stereotypical "God-gap" theory anticipating differing levels of religiosity between partisan groups was not confirmed among Mormons. Regardless of their party affiliation or political leaning, LDS measured highly similar levels of religiosity in belief and religious practice. Conventional wisdom expecting a difference in religious constraint did manifest itself in two ways among Mormons: liberal Democrats feel less influenced by their religious beliefs (though still moderately constrained), and, they also desire less Church opinion on public issues in contrast to Mormon conservative/Republicans. Even so, contrary to some opinion, these Mormon Democrats did not accept all of their party's positions; instead, they displayed a level of religious constraint inconsistent with national trends, specifically in terms of their political stance toward abortion and gay marriage.