Q: Alcohol use among the FLDS?   January 27th, 2009

Views: 51033
Q: I know that the LDS Church proscribes against alcohol consumption and I would like to know more about use of alcohol among the FLDS.  Could you point me in the right direction, please?

A: Thanks to the MSSA network, we have access to several people who are qualified to answer this question.  Our first response comes from Janet Bennion, who has conducted extensive fieldwork among polygamists and the FLDS:

The FLDS has a history of relaxed rules on alcohol. For example, here’s one observation by Kevin Barney (May 2008):

On the third weekend of the month there would be a priesthood meeting in SLC. After the meeting, there was always a pizza party at the home of Leroy Jeffs, one of Rulon’s sons and the one most people at the time thought would succeed Rulon (as opposed to Warren). There was pizza, of course, and chicken and lots of junk food. But the big attraction was the alcohol. The women would arrive about 45 minutes before the men and gather in the living room, and really wouldn’t touch the food (the Jeffs had a strict rule against obesity among the women). But they would hit the beer; even the nursing mothers. After several bottles of beer they were laughing and preaching the gospel about keeping sweet and loving your sister wives. They quickly went from being nervous and irritable to having a gay old time.

I do know that the rules against alcohol are a bit stricter in the AUB/Allred group. I know of a few patriarchs who have a glass of wine after dinner, but these are not in good favor with the Brethren who often restrict its use publicly. Yet, on one occasion a beer or two might be tolerated to ease the tensions before sex or after work. I gathered this material during a priesthood meeting in Pinesdale. It is obvious that fundamentalists do not recognize as strict an interpretation as orthodox Mormons do.

Thus, the FLDS and other polygamist groups do have slightly more relaxed norms toward alcohol use.  Carrie Miles offers a suggestion for why this might be the case and offers some additional information:

Enforcing the Word of Wisdom was not a big deal in the church until the 1930s.  Think of it as a boundary maintenance device.  With increased exposure to the outside world, the growth of the church outside of Utah, and the loss of polygamy, the mainstream church needed a new way to force members to maintain their unique identity out in the world.  Nearly all of the fundamentalist groups branched off from the mainstream church before the 1930s (if they hadn’t, President Grant’s campaign against polygamy forced them out), so they do not enforce the WOW (i.e., the Word of Wisdom, which is the proscription against consuming alcohol; see D&C 89). In many ways, the fundamentalists look more like primitive Mormonism than the current church does.

Carrie’s suggestion that the fundamentalist Mormons look more like primitive Mormonism than does the LDS Church does reflect the much looser observation of the Word of Wisdom among Mormons prior to the 1900s.  Joseph Smith was known to have consumed alcohol on occasion and Brigham Young ran a prominent bar in SLC, though not because he was a regular imbiber but to control the flow of alcohol.  Thomas Alexander offers another explanation for the changing adherence of the Word of Wisdom among earlier Mormons:

Excommunications actually took place in the 19th century for an unwillingness to obey the Word of Wisdom. Brigham Young emphasized the Word of Wisdom, according to Leonard Arrington, for economic reasons.  He wanted to keep hard cash from flowing from the territory. The campaign for Prohibition, which eventually led to the reemphasis of the Word of Wisdom, began shortly after the turn of the Twentieth Century.  Some prominent Mormons, including Heber J. Grant, were embarrassed because Evangelical Protestants seemed to be leading the prohibition movement.  Prohibition gained acceptance in the Democratic Party, but it divided the Republicans.  Utah adopted Prohibition when the Democratic Party won the election in 1916. The church began emphasizing the Word of Wisdom under Joseph F. Smith in about 1902.  There are letters to Stake Presidents on the subject.  It was included in the questions for a temple recommend in 1921.  The Utah legislature adopted cigarette prohibition temporarily during the 1920s. I would argue that the prohibition movement probably had more to do with the reemphasis on the word of wisdom than did the attempt to find something as a measure for boundary maintenance.  This is because the Evangelical Protestants, who were arguably the most anti-Mormon of all religious groups, were involved in Prohibition long before the Mormons. It has clearly become a measure of boundary maintenance since then, but originally that was not the case.

Rick Phillips offers some additional information on this topic:

Brian Hales writes: “Joseph Musser, like other fundamentalist leaders even today, regarded the Word of Wisdom, which was a particular emphasis of Heber J. Grant, not as a commandment, but rather as advice that might be observed or ignored. (Hales, “Modern Polygamy and Mormon Fundamentalism”, Greg Kofford Books, 2006, p. 252-253.) Of course, Musser is a predecessor of the Allreds, not the FLDS. On the evolution of the Word of Wisdom as identity marker see chapter 13 of Thomas Alexander’s “Mormonism in Transition” (U of IL Press). See also, Christie Davies, “Coffee, tea and the ultra-Protestant and Jewish Nature of the Boundaries of Mormonism” in “Mormon Identities in Transition” Douglas Davies ed., Cassell.
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Q: Retention Rates and Future Missionaries   October 9th, 2008

Views: 10087

Q: I am researching the recent changes in missionary work and am trying to find out how to get a hold of retention rates for the church as a whole.  Do you have any idea how I might find this type of information?  I am also trying to figure out how to get numbers of potential missionaries, that is, the number of young men ages 19 that are the right age to serve missions so that I might be able to compare percentages before and after raising the bar on missionary standards.  Finally, I want to make sure I have not missed any recent works about this topic including dissertations, articles, etc.

A: This is an interesting question.  Unfortunately, it is also one that is a bit difficult to answer, primarily because the LDS Church does not release the data it collects on its members.  As a result, the best we can do as researchers is find alternative ways to estimate this information.  You may find the following estimates useful.

First, regarding retention rates…  As noted above, the LDS Church does not release this information.  But there are ways to estimate this and several researchers have done so, giving us our current best estimates.  For instance, Rick Phillips (2006), using census data for a variety of countries, compared the membership information supplied by the LDS Church in its annual almanac to the self-reported membership identifications of people in those countries and found that the LDS Church over-estimated its membership.  The actual number of Mormons in those countries ranged from 20%  to 70% of what the LDS Church claimed.  The major implication of this finding is that retention rates of Mormon converts are fairly low.

Rick, in response to your question, gave this example: If data from the Canadian census is representative, then the disparity between official membership totals and the number of self-identified Latter-day Saints is increasing. LDS demographer (and MSSA member) Tim Heaton observes: “In the 1981 Canadian census … 82,000 people stated Mormon as their religious preference, yet LDS records reported 85,006 members. The difference implies that 3-4 percent of members on the records [at the time did not] consider themselves Latter-day Saints.” By the next decennial census this disparity had widened. In 1991, about 94,000 Canadians identified themselves as Mormons, but the church claimed 130,000. Thus, in the space of 10 years the LDS church went from over-reporting its Canadian membership by 3-4 percent to over 28 percent. The latest data show that this trend continues. The 2001 Canadian census lists 101,805 self-identified Mormons, compared to the church’s claim of over 160,000. This means that over a third of the Canadians now listed on LDS church rolls do not profess to be Mormons. Outside traditional Mormon strongholds in Alberta, disparities are even wider. A similar pattern is observed for New Zealand, and other MSSA members can probably report on other nations as well.

Rick also notes that, with respect to the United States, two censuses of religious bodies, conducted in 1990 and 2000 by the Glenmary Research Center, found that Mormon membership in the U.S. increased 19 percent between the two enumerations. The Glenmary data relies on information furnished by participating denominations, and hence this conclusion is based on figures provided by the LDS church. By contrast, two large-scale surveys of self-reported religious identification, the National Survey of Religious Identification (NSRI) and the American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS), conducted in 1990 and 2001 respectively, tell a different story. The 1990 NSRI estimates the adult LDS population at 2.5 million, while the 2001 ARIS estimates it at 2.7 million—a 1.3 percent increase. Differences between the Glenmary data and these self-report surveys imply that many of those who were baptized Mormon in this decade defected, but are still counted as members by the church. Kosmin, Mayer and Keysar write: “[Mormonism] appear[s] to attract a large number of converts (‘in-switchers’), but also nearly as large a number of apostates (‘out-switchers’)” This same finding is echoed in a new report by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.

Rick Phillips has also pointed out that that retention rates are strongly negatively correlated with growth rates, and that those nations that have high growth rates have low rates of convert retention.  Rick discusses Mormon convert retention in two articles, one currently published (2006) and one coming out in the next issue of JSSR (see references below).  The bibliographies of these papers cite most of the research on this subject. If your library does not carry these journals, we can provide offprints.

Rick also suggested some other sources, depending on your definition of “retention.”  If you want to define “retention” as some level of church participation, then Tim Heaton’s “Vital Statistics” entry in the Encyclopedia of Mormonism is the best place to start. You may also find this discussion of retention by Elder Oaks instructive.

There are some other sources of information on retention in the LDS Church.  For instance, Henri Gooren (2008) found in his field research in Central America that half of all new members left the religion within a year; more leave after that.  That would indicate retention rates lower than 50%.  David Stewart, in his book on Missiology and Retention, claims various retention rates, but most center around 20% to 30% (see pages 257-280).  Stewart cites several mission presidents in his book who admit retention rates ranging from 8% to 18% (p. 278).  Unfortunately, many of the retention rate estimates in Stewart’s book are not referenced and it is unclear how he arrives at his numbers.

In sum, best estimates of retention rates for converts to Mormonism would probably put the number somewhere between 20% and 50%, depending on the country.

As regards your second question of potential missionaries… There are really two components here.  The first is the actual number of potential missionaries and the second would be their potential impact on growth of the religion.  Rick Phillips, in his response to your question, noted that the only sure way of finding out the number of 19 year olds would be to contact the Research Division of the LDS Church.  Whether they would release that information is not clear, but you could try.  However, there is a way to arrive at an estimate for the US.  The US Census Bureau generates population estimates by age and sex for each state every year.  The latest year of data available is 2007 (http://www.census.gov/popest/datasets.html).  Using that data, you can create population pyramids (a demographic technique) that illustrates the age/sex structure of a population.  Ryan Cragun used that data to generate four population pyramids (see Figures 1 through 4 attached below).  While it is true that Utah is decreasingly a good proxy for Mormons in the US, generally, careful scrutiny of the population pyramids does give an indication of the number of young men moving into mission ages.  What you see in Figure 4 (the Utah population pyramid from 2007) is a large difference in males in the 21-25 age range compared to the 16-20 range.  That large difference would suggest that the number of Mormon missionaries is going to drop substantially in the coming years (and probably helps explain the large recent drop in missionaries).  Considering the 11-15 and 6-10 year age ranges are closer to the 16-20 age range in size, the smaller number of missionaries (from Utah at least) is likely to continue for the next 15 years or so.  However, there is a possibility that the lower numbers in Utah (and the US, generally) may be slightly offset by growing numbers of missionaries outside the US as population pyramids outside the US in developing countries are much wider at the bottom (in younger age ranges) than at the top.  But all of this also depends on the percentages of 19 year olds who serve missions, a number that is also unknown except by the LDS Church.  Additionally, the reduction of missionaries may be due to the “raising the bar” efforts of the LDS Church in the early part of this decade, but the demographic shift seen in Figure 4 seems to suggest otherwise.

Figure 1

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 2

Figure 3

Figure 3

Figure 4

Figure 4

If you couple the declining 19 year old population with the lower returns from missionary efforts, the future of Mormon growth looks even more interesting.  Rick Phillips noted in his response to this question that the number of convert baptisms per missionary has fallen over the last 20 years. In 1986, there were 6.3 baptisms per missionary, in 1997 this fell to 5.6 converts per missionary, and the latest almanac shows 5.1 baptisms per missionary for 2007 (David Stewart estimates it as 4.5 converts/missionary from 2000 to 2004; see p. 23).  Thus, the smaller number of eligible young men to serve missions combined with the lower returns of their efforts (and other factors) indicate Mormon growth is probably going to continue to slow.

One last item you may find interesting is the attached Balance Sheet of Mormon growth in the US by MSSA member Richley Crapo (attached below).  It shows that LDS growth in the US is much lower than the actual conversion rate.

Hopefully this answers your questions.  If you have any other questions, please let us know.

References:
Gooren, Henri. 2008. “The Mormons of the World: The Meaning of LDS Membership in Central America.” Pp. 362-388 in Revisiting Thomas F. O’Dea’s The Mormons: Contemporary Perspectives, edited by Cardell K. Jacobson, John P. Hoffman, and Tim B. Heaton. University of Utah Press.
Phillips, Rick. (2006) “Rethinking the International Expansion of Mormonism.” Nova Religio: The Journal of New and Emergent Religions 10(1):52-68.
Phillips, Rick. (In press) “‘De facto Congregationalism’ and Mormon Missionary Outreach: An Ethnographic Case Study.” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 47(4):628-643.
Stewart, David G. 2007. The Law of the Harvest: Practical Principles of Effective Missionary Work. Henderson, NV: Cumorah Foundation.

Update 1: Fri, 2008-11-21 23:52 — Shawn Bennion

I would like to point out on Richley Crapo’s chart that the net gain in Mormon membership (E4) does not include children of record in the United States for 2007. Though I do not have a specific number, this would add to the net total, meaning that the church growth for the year would be higher than the U.S. general birth rate. While I understand that his intent was to show movement through agency, I feel that this is still an important factor in terms of growth trends of Mormonism.

Update 2: Sun, 2009-08-16 08:07 — David Stewart

Terminology needs to be clearly defined, as activity is officially defined as the number of members who have attended church at least once in the past three months, whereas activity rates are regarded colloquially (and by many sociologists) as the percentage of members attending church on a given week. The latter number is more meaningful, and more measurable, although it is not technically an “activity rate” according to the Church’s definition.

It is stated above that “David Stewart, in his book on Missiology and Retention, claims various retention rates, but most center around 20% to 30% (see pages 257-280)…Unfortunately, many of the retention rate estimates in Stewart’s book are not referenced and it is unclear how he arrives at his numbers.” This is because the wrong section in my book is cited above. Pages 257-280 principally comprise the chapter “Understanding the Conversion Process” which deals with theoretical issues and matters of practical implementation.

The references on LDS activity and convert retention rates are found primarily in the chapter “Trends in LDS Member Activity and Convert Retention,” pp. 36-50, online here. Every statistic there is referenced, and so there should be no confusion regarding how any number has been arrived at.

Additional data can be found in my “LDS Church Growth, Member Activity, and Convert Retention: Review and Analysis” which is online here. This review includes itemized data from relevant sources (national censuses, independent sociologic studies, statements of church leaders, and quasi-official sources like the Encyclopedia of Mormonism) divided by geographic region, with the pertinent supporting references, and a discussion of key considerations which are essential to the proper analysis and understanding of LDS growth and retention data (double affiliation, address unknown file, survey methodology, unknown denominator, outcome reporting bias, and so forth).

That individuals identify themselves as Latter-day Saints on national censuses in Chile, Brazil, Mexico, the Philippines, etc., does not necessarily imply that they attend church, but one can be fairly confident that those who do not identify themselves as members do not attend. Such data thereby define “ceilings” on possible participation, even if the lower limit is difficult to precisely define. However, there are relatively few believing but non-participating members outside of the U.S. (see articles by Van Beek, Decoo, Numano, and others in the Spring 1996 Dialogue). By aggregating membership participation, affiliation, and self-identification data by country or region, it is clear that the number of Latter-day Saints attending church worldwide on any given Sunday cannot exceed 35% of nominal membership. My best estimate is that the true figure is likely in the 28-33% range; the limitations of currently available data do not permit greater precision than this.

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Q: Mormon Participation in the Civil War?   September 20th, 2008

Views: 3665

Q: I am studying Mormon participation in the Civil War. While an undergrad at BYU, I came across a private collection of eleven Mormon Civil War soldier journals. Curious about these soldiers’ motivations for fighting in a war for a country that, to that point in history, had grossly neglected their needs, I set about compiling information. To this point, my search for additional primary sources has been in vain!  Knowing of your past work on issues of identity and current work on the LDS, I was wondering if you have come across anything that might be beneficial. Any suggestions for new paths of inquiry would be most appreciated.

A: Several members of the MSSA made very helpful suggestions in addressing this question:

Armand Mauss:
There has already been quite a bit written on the Mormons and the Civil War, including some theses or dissertations. Go to http://mormonhistory.byu.edu/ and search on “civil war american 1861-65″.  Several dozen references (direct and indirect) on Utah and/or Mormon participation in the Civil War will show up.  Also see references to “American Civil War” on page 480 of the gigantic bibliography, Studies in Mormon History, 1830-1997 (Univ. of Illinois Press, 2000). Most of these sources are secondary, rather than primary, but in their bibliographies you might find references to primary sources that would help you with the kind of project you envision.

Rick Phillips:
Another starting point would be: E.B. Long, The Saints and the Union: Utah Territory during the Civil War. University of Illinois Press, 1981.

Robert Freeman:
Additionally, there are several individuals whose research focuses on Mormon soldiers and Mormon participation in wars:

Damon Lewis:
Finally, one MSSA member suggested conducting some research at Fort Benning where there is a war museum with artifacts from every major war, including, obviously, the Civil War.  It is possible there are connections among those artifacts to Mormons.

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Q: Do you know anyone who could give a lecture comparing Protestantism and Mormonism?   May 29th, 2008

Views: 855

A: We have as members or know a number of people who are well-suited to give a lecture on comparative religions – specifically comparing the LDS to traditional Protestant Christians.

  • Jan Shipps, PhD; emeritus professor from Indiana-Purdue University at Indianapolis – One of the most obvious choices is Jan Shipps, who was both recommended by others and emailed me herself to let me know that she has prepared this exact lecture and given it before to both Methodists and Lutherans. She is also a life-long Methodist and has studied the LDS for “half a century.” She would be an ideal candidate for the lecture you are proposing.
  • Brian Birch, PhD; professor at Utah Valley State College – According to two members of the MSSA, Professor Birch was recently at Claremont Graduate University working on a book comparing LDS theology with that of traditional Christendom. He, too, would be an ideal candidate for such a lecture/presentation.
  • Robert L. Millet, PhD; professor at BYU – Armand Mauss suggested Robert L. Millet would be a good candidate for such a talk. He’s a professor of Ancient Scripture and has his PhD in Religious Studies.
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Q: What are “children of record” and are they included in the total membership of the LDS?   May 22nd, 2008

Views: 562

Q: Does the officially reported membership number of the LDS religion include “children of record”?  In other words, as of 2007, the LDS religion reports 13,193,999 members.  Does that number include children of members younger than 8, or are they excluded from that number?

A: Several members of the MSSA who are in positions to know exactly how this works informed us that it is as follows: Children of members (a.k.a. “children of record”) are included in the total head count of LDS members up to the age of 9. They are supposed to be baptized after they turn 8, but those who get to 9 without baptism are dropped from membership.

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Q: How do I find a long lost member of the LDS religion?   December 19th, 2007

Views: 740

Question:
My wife, (in 1950), was a very close friend of an… LDS member, in high school… Her maiden name was XXXX & she & my wife went to school at XXXXX. Since we were married & I was in the Marine Corps, we lost contact with XXXXX. Please advise us how to locate her. Thanking you in advance, XXXXXXX.

Answer:
Here’s the skinny. If you had tried finding XXXXXX about 2 years ago, there may have been an option for you. The LDS religion used to use its extensive membership database and contacts to help people find someone they once knew. But they have discontinued that service as of about a year and a half ago (as per a phone conversation with someone in membership services on 12/19/2007; 1-800-453-3860). So, that option is no longer available to you. Many of the members of our organization suggested this as some of them had been contacted via this route in the past. But, alas, it is no more. I also double-checked with the person at membership services as to whether a bishop in the LDS religion could find out this information for a member and he said that no one can do so at this point. So, even if you get a “powerful” member of the religion to ask for you, apparently it’s not going to happen anymore. (I’m not sure if the LDS religion was sued or what, but they said it was discontinued for legal reasons)

So, what are your options now? Well, the person I spoke with at member services suggested trying a variety of mission websites. If XXXX served a mission or was in a mission at the time, she may have joined one of the following websites:
www.ldsmissions.net
www.mission.net
missionsite.net
So, you could try tracking her down there. That was the suggestion made by the person at member services. This option was seconded by a member of our organization (who was the only person who knew that the other service was no longer available).

If neither of those options work, you’re probably going to have to turn to other, non church-related resources. One member suggested ancestry.com. According to her, “It gives access to lots of public websites, and even has family tree information on people who have submitted data. There is also a place where you can connect with other people looking for the same person (or even the person themself).” Another member of our organization suggested a “people-finder services; most seem to charge about $25.”

The last suggestion I received was for you to contact XXXX’s high school, “Many high schools have 50-year reunions, and XXXX’s graduating class at XXXXXXXX would have had such a reunion in about the year XXXX depending on when XXXXX actually graduated. The principal’s office at that school might be able to put you in touch with someone on the organizing committee for that reunion, and that person(s), in turn, might know how to contact XXXXX, especially if she came to the reunion.” That may be an option for you.

If all else fails, you can try hiring a private detective, but I’m guessing that isn’t cheap and it probably depends on just how much you want to find her.

I’m sorry we couldn’t be of more help.

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Q: I was wondering if you could point me to the right place to find out research done or being done on LDS singles who are over the age of 30.   October 23rd, 2007

Views: 698

Q: I was wondering if you could point me to the right place to find out research done or being done on LDS singles who are over the age of 30. I would like to specifically find out the following information:

  • How many LDS singles over 30 remain active
  • At what age most singles tend to become inactive
  • How many males remain active versus women over the age 30 (single versus married)

I would like to find out more information but these three questions are most pressing. I attempted to contact the church office building but they said the statistics where confidential so I am looking for studies in the public domain. They did tell me that “pretty much if your over 30, single and male your inactive.” One bishop at a singles conference I went to said that between the age of 30 and 34, 50% of singles become inactive, but I am not sure if I am allowed to quote him on that. I am still trying to contact him. If you have any ideas or can be of assistance please let me know.

A: You are right that the data the LDS Research Division has on singles over 30 is confidential.  However, I (Ryan T. Cragun) have it on good authority (I cannot reveal my sources) that it is not accurate to say, “pretty much if you are over 30, single, and male, you are inactive.”  My confidential source said that it would be more accurate to say it like this, “If you are over 30, single, and male you are less likely to be active than females in the same demographic.”

Rick Phillips, the current President of the MSSA, did a little searching of numbers in a large, publicly available data set (the General Social Survey or GSS), and found some information relevant to your question.

From the General Social Survey, it is clear that married LDS over 30 attend church much more frequently than those who are not married (i.e. divorced, never married, widow[er]). This is demonstrated in the first table. The unmarried are three times as likely to say they never attend church as the married. These results are not surprising and conform to a wealth of findings about activity in other Christian faiths.

Married Not Married
Never 6.3% 17.4%
Less than 1/month 18.9% 22.7%
At least 1/month but lt 1/week 15.1% 22.7%
1/week or more 59.7% 37.1%

When broken down by gender, the positive effects of marriage remain, but married or not, women attend more than men.

Married Not Married
Males Never 7.8% 28.2%
Less than 1/month 23.5% 12.8%
At least 1/month but lt 1/week 15.0% 28.2%
1/week or more 53.6% 30.8%
Females Never 4.8% 12.9%
Less than 1/month 14.5% 26.9%
At least 1/month but lt 1/week 15.2% 20.7%
1/week or more 65.5% 39.8%

I also broke the data down by age category to try and answer the question of when single LDS fall away. These conclusions should be taken with a grain of salt because some cells had very few cases, but it appears that single 30-39 year old Saints are a little more likely to be weekly attenders than 40-49 or 50-59 year olds. They are also less likely to say they never attend.

Church attendance (frequency)

Age

Never

 Less than 1/month At least 1/month but lt 1/week 1/week or more
30 – 39 10.5 26.3 21.1 42.1
40 – 49 22.7 4.5 40.9 31.8
50 – 59 19.0 23.8 28.6 28.6
60+ 19.6 27.5 13.7 39.5

A couple more members of the MSSA offered some suggestions.  Armand Mauss said,

As far as I know, I would think that Tim Heaton and some of his colleagues at BYU would be able to provide a lot of the necessary information on this topic, either from their own research, or from references to the professional literature, or both.  As for quoting something reported by a bishop in a singles conference, I would assume that it’s public information, and I see no reason that the figure can’t be quoted (though not necessarily naming the bishop who reported it). The 50% figure, furthermore, accords well with everything I have ever seen on the subject, and certainly it fits with the situation in my own ward and stake.

David Knowlton also suggested that you contact a researcher working on this topic who is currently at UVSC,

Jason Singh has been researching the issue of LDS disaffiliation for his M Phil thesis in sociology at Oxford and probably has some data on this.  He is currently teaching here at UVSC and is contactable through the behavioral science department.

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Q: Mormon socio-political values and prior religious affiliations of Mormon converts   October 4th, 2007

Views: 557
Q1: Duke, using survey data from the 1970s through the early 1980s, published some interesting comparisons between Mormon socio-political values and those of Americans in general (in which Mormons of that era held some surprisingly liberal attitudes about civil rights/liberties issues).  Albrecht (and Bahr, iirc) published some interesting information about patterns of religious disengagement and reengagement in the early 1980s as well. Are there more recent empirical studies that update these and show either continuity or change from the earlier findings?
Several MSSA members (Cardell Jacobson, Rick Phillips, and Armand Mauss) suggested the following book as a response to Q1:
Heaton, Tim B., Stephen J. Bahr and Cardell Jacobsen. 2004. A Statistical Profile of the Mormons: Health, Wealth and Social Life. Edwin Mellen Press.

Here is Cardell Jacobson’s comment on that book,

Tim Heaton, Stephen Bahr, and I published a book in 2004 (Mellen Press) that updates political and social attitudes of Mormons compared to the nation as a whole.  It also has some data on religiosity and trends, but nothing on those who join the LDS Church.  It is an expensive book.  Those interested might check for a library copy somewhere.

Armand Mauss also suggested the following,

Minimal data on such attitudes among Mormons during recent decades will be found also in the second half of Chapter 9 in my own The Angel and the Beehive (Illinois U. Press, 1994), where I have also excerpted tables taken from American Mainline Religion, by Wade Clark Roof and William McKinney (Rutgers U. Press, 1987), which itself could be consulted. Chapter 6 in that book compares Mormons with numerous other denominations as of the 1980s. My other book, All Abraham’s Children (Illinois U. Press, 2003) has some recent data on Mormons’ attitudes toward blacks in the last part of Chapter 9. That’s about all that comes to mind without doing any bibliographical searching of my own, which I trust the questioner can also do.

Q2: Is there any available research on the prior religious background of LDS converts? That is, which, if any, denomination(s) are LDS missionary efforts most successful in recruiting?

David Knowlton suggested the following regarding Q2,

While I have not been researching prior religious background of converts to Mormonism in Latin America, I have been researching the social segments Mormon converts come from and presented material on that at last years SSSR.  If the person is interested I would be glad to forward that manuscript.  It has been accepted for publication once I make a few changes.  Where I have worked the vast majority of the converts are from one form or another of Catholicism.  But since Catholicism occupies so much space in Latin America there is a need to look more closely at  “one form or another” and systematize it.  I have been using census data and so am looking more at socio-economics than the religious background per se.  That question remains to be answered.

Rick Phillips suggested the following regarding Q2,

The GSS has a variable called “relig16″ which asks for Respondents’ religion at age 16. You could look at the religion of converts by pulling Latter-day Saints out of the GSS and doing frequencies for relig16. Stark and company have argued that movements like Mormonism have been most successful among the “unchurched”–people who may have been raised within a specific faith tradition, but who weren’t very strong in that tradition. Obviously, in Latin America, those people would have been nominally Catholic. Thus, worldwide it seems a safe bet that Catholicism is the modal religion from which converts come.  Also, for a recent and important article on religious switching using a nationally representative US sample with Mormons in the mix, see:  Darren E. Sherkat, “Tracking the Restructuring of American Religion: Religious Affiliation and Patterns of Religious Mobility, 1973-1998,” Social Forces 79, no. 4 (2001): 1459-1493.

And Armand Mauss suggested the following,

For Q.2, nothing special comes to mind. I have seen commentary, and maybe data, on denominational backgrounds of LDS converts, but not much, and I couldn’t run it down very easily. Maybe my big bibliography (with Reynolds), available through the MSSA website, would have some articles on this topic.The JSSR has carried some good articles on religious “switching” to and from various denominations (by Kirk Hadaway and others), in which I think Mormons were occasionally included. Probably the LDS Research Information Division would be the best source of such data on the religious backgrounds of LDS converts, if you could get someone in that agency to share it.  That’s my best shot without doing any special scouring of the various sources.
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Q: I am wondering if there is any work that has been done on the meaning of conversion in the LDS church and the sociology behind conversion.   September 20th, 2007

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Q: I am beginning research on the conversion experience of women to the LDS church in the 19th century. I am wondering if there is any work that has been done on the meaning of conversion in the LDS church and the sociology behind conversion. Specifically I am looking for information on what conversion means to Mormons and what inspires conversion.

A number of MSSA members responded with suggestions.

Richley Crapo suggested,

I’m showing my age here, but there’s an old, old book by Anthony Wallace (“Personality”) that includes some material on what he called “mazeway resynthesis” which may be of use in talking about the psychology of religious conversion.

Michael Nielsen suggested,

You may want to consider why and whether conversions to Mormonism are or would be be different from conversion to other faiths.  From a social science perspective, I don’t immediately see why there might be a difference.  If you don’t think there is a difference, you might profitably broaden your literature review to address the 19th century in general.  There might be some worthwhile literature in Armand Mauss’s chapter in Allen, Walker & Whittaker’s “Studies in Mormon History” published by U. Illinois press.

John Hoffman suggested,

My work on Japanese Mormons (esp. Chapters 3-4) and Henri Gooren’s work on Guatemalan and Nicaraguan members (see, in particular, his articles in Dialogue and his book on Conversion Careers [which might not be out yet]) provide a couple of contexts, though not a U.S. context. There’s also a Mormon converts website (mormonconverts.com) that has interesting anecdotes, though not sociological. Stark and Bainbridge’s article Networks of Faith (AJS 85: 1376-95, 1980) mentions Mormon conversions as consistent with their more general theory (I think). A Google Scholar search turns up a few other scholarly treatments that might be useful to Katherine (e.g., Seggar and Kunz, 1972, Review of Religious Research; Paloutzian, Richardson, & Rambo, Journal of Personality, 1999).

Armand Mauss suggested,

If Katherine is just starting, she should start at the beginning, which would be the massive bibliography by Allen, Walker, and Whittaker, Studies in Mormon History, 1830-1997. Within that bibliography, she should consult the topical sections on Conversion, Biographies, Autobiographies, Women, and then Section 4-C in the Social Science portion at the end of this big bibliography (this is available on the MSSA website). This much will get her into the literature on 19th-century Mormon women and their conversion stories, as well as the relatively small literature on conversion models and processes among Mormons in particular. Some contemporary experts on womens’ conversions in the 19th century are Claudia Bushman, Carol Cornwall Madsen, Jill Mulvay Derr, and Maureen U. Beecher, all of whom should be consulted by name in the alphabetical portion of the big bibliography.  Two useful collections containing accounts of early LDS women’s experiences, conversion and otherwise, are Claudia Bushman (ed.), Mormon Sisters: Women in Early Utah (2nd ed. 1997, USU Press) and Maureen U. Beecher & Lavina Fielding Anderson (eds.), Sisters in Spirit: Mormon Women in Historical and Cultural Perspective (U. of Illinois Press, 2d. ed. 1992).  Katherine should also search the main journals in the sociology of religion (esp. JSSR and SR) for theoretical models of the conversion process. Among the most recent work of this kind is Henri Gooren’s, so he should be asked to offer his suggestions. I have attached herewith the bibliography from one of the latest drafts of Henri’s new book manuscript on “conversion careers,” which appears to me to contain the major articles and books on conversion from the social science literature of the past three or four decades. Of course, this attachment should not be passed on to Katherine without Henri’s permission, but I doubt that he would care. Preferably, an updated version would come directly from him, so be sure he is asked. Anyway, that’s what comes to mind for me on first consideration. This much will at least get her started.

Richard Bennett suggested,

Here are some possible sources on conversion in LDS history:
  • O.Bannion, J. A., “The Convert as Social Type: A Critical Assessment of the Snow-Machalek conversion typology as Applied to British Mormon Converts.” (Master’s thesis, 1998)
  • Bradley, M. S. “Seizing Sacred Space: Women’s Engagement in Early Mormonism.” (Dialogue, 1994)
  • Black, Susan Easton. Ed. Stories from the Early Saints: Converted by the Book of Mormon. 1992
  • Maxfield, M. R. “The Book of Mormon and the Conversion Process to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.” (Ph.D. dissertation, 1976)
  • Charney, L. A. “Religious Conversion: A Longitudinal Study.” (Ph.D. dissertation, 1988).
In addition, we have a graduate student here at BYU named Andrea Erickson who has written on the topic of Spiritual Instruction among early LDS women from 1832-1842. You might want to contact her.

Henri Gooren suggested,

In addition to my Dialogue articles, there are also parts in my dissertation on the LDS conversion process in Guatemala City. See Henri Gooren, Rich among the Poor: Church, Firm, and Household among Small-Scale Entrepreneurs in Guatemala City. Amsterdam: Thela, 1999. My Conversion Careers book is still under review at two presses, but it has a huge review of conversion literature. Part of this is also included in my new JSSR article in the current issue 46 (3).  Other works where LDS conversion comes up are the Shepherds’ Mormon Passage: A Missionary Chronicle (U Illinois, 1998) and an article on (folklore surrounding) LDS conversion stories by Eric Eliason at BYU (English department). There’s also a historical book called Amazing Conversion Stories … From the Church of JC of LDS. It contains mostly 19th Century conversion stories, so it might interest her. I don’t have the reference here, although it’s in my Conversion Careers book.

David Knowlton suggested,

My masters thesis, at the University of Texas, also has a section on conversion and the problems of a phenomenology of Mormon conversion in the context of an indigenous culture, since it deals with Mormonism among Aymara speakers in Bolivia.

Jessie Embry and Janiece Johnson suggested the following,

Janiece Johnson published an article and wrote a thesis using women’s letters from the nineteenth century that might be of interest. Here are the citations for the article and thesis.  The article includes five letters and the thesis 18. “‘Give Up All and Follow Your Lord’: Lucy Mack Smith, Rebecca Swain Williams, Phebe Crosby Peck, Melissa Morgan Dodge, and Olive Boynton Hale, 1831-1841,” BYU Studies 41:1 (Winter 2002), 77-107.”‘Give It All Up and Follow Your Lord’: Mormon Female Religiosity, 1831-1843″ M.A. Thesis, Department of History, BYU, 2001.
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Q. I was wondering if any of you had any idea on a way that I might be able to locate which wards and stakes in the U.S. have organized an interfaith outreach component to their Public Affairs committee?   August 30th, 2007

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A. The membership of the MSSA have a number of suggestions for how to get this information.

Here is Lynn Payne’s response:

I know a couple of things about how the Church is organized for interfaith outreach.  Each ecclesiastical area of the Church in the US (total of 11) has a public affairs office.  Each of these area public affairs offices coordinates local public relations work.  Each area public affairs office reports directly to the Public Affairs Department at Church HQ.  Outside of Utah most stakes have a stake public affairs director.  These stake leaders meet together regularly to plan public affairs work in their areas. Each area public affairs office has different priorities.  However, I am aware that the North America West Area (Los Angeles in particular) has had some fairly extensive outreach with the local Muslim community.  Public Affairs in L.A. has had contact with an Islamic Center in L.A., and several prominent individuals. The Los Angeles Public Affairs office  should have some handle on, or through their contact should be able to find out what units have created interfaith outreach groups.

Here is Richard Stamps’s response:

I have had some personal interaction with individuals in the Muslim community but never on an official basis. In our Grand Blanc, Michigan Stake we have had no official outreach program. One might contact the Bloomfield Hills or Westland Stakes in Michigan because of the large Muslim population in the Detroit area.

Here is Armand Mauss’s response:

I can add to what Lynn Payne has said. He is right that the place to go with inquiries about Mormon-Muslim and other interfaith relationships is to Public Affairs, not to RID. I happen to be the LDS interfaith representative for my stake in Orange County, where there is quite a large Muslim community. Accordingly, there is a long history of Mormon-Muslim relationships here, though I have only recently learned about them, because I have only recently been put on my stake public affairs committee.  One can get into the network involved in Mormon-Muslim relationships by contacting any or all of the following three people: Keith Atkinson (email available upon request), who is the LDS public affairs officer for California; Tom Thorkelsen (email available upon request), who is the main LDS interfaith representative for Orange County (CA); and Steve Gilliland (email available upon request), who is the interfaith rep for LA County. They have all been dealing with Muslim relationships for some years, and they know who else in the LDS Church has been doing the same. If someone were to start with them, he/she could learn of other informants through the “snowball” technique. I think they will prove very cooperative, and so will the public affairs people in SLC, whom Keith Atkinson can help her contact.

Here’s Mike McBride’s response:

Public Affairs in Orange County, CA, has also had interactions with Muslims in Orange County via local interfaith organizations.  In fact, just last Sunday was an open mosque day where mosques were open to the public and LDS were among those invited to tour and learn more about Islam.  This event was advertised in ward bulletins.  I also believe local Muslim leaders were among those who toured the Newport Beach CA Temple during its open house in Summer 2005.  The tours were coordinated via local Public Affairs personnel and interfaith organizations.  I know the PA director over Orange County and can pass along his contact info.

Finally, here is Donald R. Snow’s response:

One place to start would be with the Public Affairs Dept in the Church Office Building. They probably know what’s happening related to the Muslims around the world. I know that when we were in New York City as Directors of the NY FHC in 1999, Karl and Donna Snow were there as the Public Affairs Missionaries and they had lots of contacts with government and NGO (Non-Government Organizations) from the U.N. and around NYC. Among other things they sponsored a large dinner at the Waldorf-Astoria for the Arabic Nations Coalition. They had Elder Neal Maxwell come and talk and they presented a copy to everyone of the first volume of the BYU published translation of the Arabic philosophy series that they are doing. From what I understand it was a major success. I’m sure Karl and Donna Snow still have some of those contacts. They are back in Provo now after a couple of Humanitarian Missions to some of the African countries. Also, I imagine Dan Peterson at BYU would probably have information on some Muslim groups since he teaches Arabic and is involved with that translation series.
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