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Q: Mormon socio-political values and prior religious affiliations of Mormon converts

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.

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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Version 1 of Updated Mormon Social Science Bibliography

  1. The bibliography is available in several electronic formats: EndNote bibliography format (requires EndNote 9 to open; this is zipped and has instructions inside it), a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, an rtf file (viewable in any word processor; this is also zipped), an Adobe pdf file, and a RIS file. These files can be freely viewed or downloaded by anyone on the internet.
  2. When deciding whether or not to add a work, we asked ourselves if a social scientist studying Mormonism might find the work helpful. This criterion implies that many works included are not social science strictly defined, yet it is hoped that it makes the bibliography useful for a wider social scientific audience. We have, however, restricted ourselves to published works.
  3. The database uses the same classifications as in Armand’s bibliography under the field name “Label” in the EndNote and Excel files.
  4. We hope that the MSSA will formally assume responsibility for maintaining and updating the database. In practice, this means a single person (i.e., Mike for now) will be responsible for entering and updating references.
  5. The database has some errors, some worse than others. For example, a bad error is that for chapters in edited volumes, the editors appear as authors and the book titles do not appear. This apparently occurred during our change from one bibliography software to another. Please notify us as you identify other errors. It will take some time to correct all of these errors.
  6. The database almost surely omits works that should be included (we especially apologize if we omitted one of your works!). We appreciate and need help identifying such works. Please email any references for inclusion to Mike (mcbride [at] uci [dot] edu) or go to the MSSA website and type that reference as an electronic comment under the bibliography post.
  7. How frequently this database will be updated is not yet determined but probably at least annually.
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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?

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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Q: What is the percentage of first-generation members among LDS Church membership (active or otherwise)?

A: Unfortunately, this question is not easily answered as the LDS religion does not publish these numbers explicitly.  The answer can be estimated from the growth figures found in the LDS Church Almanac as well as some numbers in a few other sources.  To calculate this number you would actually need all of the following information:

  • annual number of converts (available)
  • what percentage of the converts are “adult” converts, meaning they are the first members of their family to have joined the religion (occasionally available)
  • what percentage of the converts are “child” converts, meaning they are the children of existing members (occasionally available)
  • what percentage of each of the above groups leaves the religion every year (not available)

Only one of the above numbers is readily available, the annual number of converts.  That number is published in the LDS Church’s Deseret Morning News Almanac on a yearly basis (usually with a 2 year lag in reporting the numbers, i.e., in 2007 they reported converts through 2005).  The percentage of adult and child converts has been reported in the past (and used to be included in the same Alamanac, but is no longer).  Most recently, the LDS religion reported these percentage on their website here.

Because we do not have all of the data we would need to actually calculate the exact percentage of Mormons who are first-generation and second-, third-, fourth-generation and so on (i.e., 2nd-generation+), the best we can do is estimate this.  Gary and Gordon Shepherd did some of these calculations in an article published in Dialogue (Shepherd, Gary. and Gordon. Shepherd. 1996. “Membership Growth, Church Activity, and Missionary Recruitment.” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 29(1):33-57.), which gives us a few key points of data that allow us to improve our calculations.

We can use our “known” information to estimate the “unknown” information.  Our “known” information includes:

  • annual number of converts
  • ratio of adult converts to child converts for three points in time – 2006, 2001, and 1960 (1960 data come from Shepherd and Shepherd 1996)
    • 2006 adult/child convert ratio: 3:1
    • 2001 adult/child convert ratio: 4:1
    • 1960 adult/child convert ratio: 1:1

If you use growth data going back to 1930 (which is about the average lifespan of people in the US) and estimated ratios of adult/child converts (assuming linear changes in the ratio over that time span), you can estimate the total number of first-generation and 2nd-generation+ members of the religion (see attached Excel spreadsheet).  The numbers you arrive at indicate that somewhere around 65% of Mormons are first-generation; ~35% are 2nd-generation+.

Keep in mind that these are estimates, not actual numbers.  This is a BEST GUESS based on limited data.  Additionally, these estimates should be qualified with some of the things we do know about Mormon growth.  First, based on the sociological literature and the work of some members of the MSSA, it is pretty safe to say that the growth numbers are exaggerated (see recent papers by Rick Phillips and David Knowlton).  Additionally, we know that second generation members are more likely to stay members than are converts (Hadaway, C. Kirk and Penny Long Marler. 1993. “All In The Family: Religious Mobility in America.” Review of Religious Research 35:97-116.).  Finally, it is very likely that these numbers vary by region, with the most second+ generation members in Utah, followed by the U.S., then other regions.  With all of these qualifications taken into consideration, more accurate estimates are probably something like: 40% to 50% of Mormons are 2nd-generation+; 50% to 60% of Mormons are first generation converts.

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Q: What information is there on religious discrimination against Mormons?

A: Several members of the MSSA responded to this question. Here are their responses:

Ethan Yorgason:

I don’t know what’s been done from a legalistic standpoint. But on the issue of the cultural stereotypes that might be behind any concrete instances of discrimination, there’s been plenty. Terryl Given’s Viper in the Hearth is probably the most sustained treatment of how such stereotypes are rooted in religious impulses. But see also the work of Jan Shipps (Sojourner in the Promised Land gives a good sampling), Chiung Hwang Chen (including work I did with her on Mormons as a model minority, etc.), Gary Bunker & Davis Bitton (on pictorial images historically), and many more. If the person asking is interested, I can provide several more references along these lines.

Michael McBride:

You may want to check the bibliography on the MSSA website. Several sections of Armand Mauss’s bibliography would be helpful, including section 16 (Media and Public Images of Mormons and/or the Mormon Church) and Section 21 (Anti-Mormon Organization and Activities).

Armand Mauss:

If you are looking for a bibliography of anti-Mormon literature, you should start with pp. 483-87 of Studies in Mormon History, 1830-1997 (University of Illinois Press, 2000), compiled by James B. Allen, Ronald W. Walker, and David J. Whittaker. This reference work will be found, I believe, in most university libraries now. National U. S. attitudes toward Mormons are assessed in an article of March 2, 2007, by Frank Newport, from Gallup data.

Michael Nielsen:

There are also a couple of cases that were in the news recently. One involved a student at the U. of Utah who charged that the curriculum (theatre program) was biased against LDS values. Here is one of the court judgments:

http://www.kscourts.org/ca10/cases/2004/02/01-4176.htm

Another, more famous, court case involved Mormon and Catholic families who sued a Texas school district over religious bias. The school prayed before football games and other school events, but the prayers were very clearly limited to Baptist (or perhaps a more general evangelical) orientation. I’m sure that there are more details of the judgment available than this summary that I found on a Mormon news site, but this will get you started:

http://www.mormonstoday.com/000625/N1SchoolPrayer01.shtml

Finally, anecdotal evidence of bias against Mormonism is found in places such as this internet discussion board http://www.timesandseasons.org/?p=3755 Of course, anecdotal evidence may not be very valuable for your purposes, but it is an interesting illustration of people’s perception of the question.

Jan Shipps:

The chapters in my Sojourner in the Promised Land that deal with perceptions of the Latter-day Saints reflect a careful thoroughly systematic consideration of this dimension of religious discrimination. But what about real honest-to-God discrimination when missionaries are murdered and, probably lots more common, LDS people get passed over for jobs, et cetera? I’m not sure who has done the best study of this dimension of discrimination. Still, I think it will be helpful to make a distinction between what might be described as passive and active discrimination. We all know the history of active discrimination: the Missouri Mormon War, Haun’s Mill, etc and about the Utah War, the Raid, etc. In connection with my current book project (What’s Happened to the Mormons since World War II), I’ll be very interested in references to active discrimination that has occurred in the past half century, especially active discrimination that can be documented.

Mel Hammarberg:

In addition to the other references, there is an entry under “Anti-Mormon publications” in the Church and Society volume of selections from the Encyclopedia of Mormonism, edited by Daniel Ludlow (1992), pp. 16-27.