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California Mormons Negotiating Inclusivity, Politics and Place

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California Mormons Negotiating Inclusivity, Politics and Place “How Firm A Foundation”: California Mormons Negotiating Inclusivity, Politics and Place Amy E. Flynn-Curran Submitted for the degree of PhD to The National University of Ireland, Maynooth Department of Anthropology October 2017 Head of Department: Dr. Abdullahi El-Tom Supervised by Dr. Pauline Garvey and Dr. Chandana Mathur Table of Contents Introduction “In the world but not of the world”: Mormonism in the Bay Area……………………………………………6 Chapter One “How Firm a Foundation”: Material/historical contexts and embodied faiths………………………..29 Chapter Two “I Love To See The Temple”: Locating and containing Mormon beliefs in landscape, architecture and the home………………………......…………………………………………………………………………....................53 Chapter Three “Pure Hearts and Clean Bodies”: Interiority…………………………………………………………………………93 Chapter Four Fashioning Mormon Selves: Bodies, clothing and surface concerns……………………………………..116 Chapter Five “Are My Words True?”: Creating Mormon contexts with words and things…………………………151 Chapter Six Mormons on the Margins: Sexuality, race and belonging…………………………………………………….184 Chapter Seven The “Mo-Fems”: Mormon feminist activism and the First Ward………………………………………….222 Conclusions……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………262 1 1 Works Cited……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………268 2 2 Abstract This thesis is the result of 18 months of fieldwork inside of a Mormon congregation in the San Francisco Bay Area, the Oakland First Ward. It depicts a community of Mormons in “progressive country”, as they work to maintain their local ward as a place simultaneously rooted in distinct LDS traditions, but which serves people embedded in their local context. Out west in the radical, urban, and ever-changing Bay Area, this affluent, family-centered, Christian community is working to sustain their local flavor within a large top-down organized religion. Supporting a community of diverse experiences and political leanings often involves pushing for a church-culture that embraces broader social movements, calling for inclusivity, acceptance, and an embrace of new (and sometimes disruptive) ideas about how to move Mormonism into the future. This process of negotiation between change and the maintenance of sacred traditions is predicated on the material and embodied ways that Christian faith evolves in diverse contexts. Framing my analysis in terms of materiality, this research unfolds the story of the First Ward through an investigation into the tangible and objectified ways religion is embodied and lived. Creative engagement with these symbolic boundaries creates the context in which members to negotiate with emergent discourses on tolerance, progress and ritual. During my time in the field, Mormon feminists called for more opportunities for women to lead in the church, and advocates for LGTBQ acceptance inside the LDS church grew their digital networks and increased their visibility. These movements were at the forefront of the progressive/traditional ideological divide, as members wondered in what ways they could promote inclusivity and consider these viewpoints while ‘staying the path’ of righteousness. These mediations demonstrate the dynamism of religion in a distinctive social context. 3 3 Acknowledgements This dissertation is the result of long-term fieldwork in a religious community where gratitude was expressed frequently; the setting perhaps magnified my own awareness that it was certainly by the grace of community I have been able to complete this rather substantial project. I have a long list of individuals to whom I am deeply appreciative. Firstly, I am extremely grateful to my primary supervisor, Dr. Pauline Garvey. People say that having a good supervisor is the most crucial thing to completing a dissertation, and over the last decade of collaboration I have found that to be absolutely true. Not only have you attended to the practical tasks of helping me organize my research, set deadlines, and provided feedback on my writing, but alongside this you’ve always been more than willing to think beyond the present, helped me develop my voice, given consideration to my future ambitions, and maintained continual support through some fairly eventful times in the years in which this project came into being. I am enormously grateful for all you have done. And to Dr. Chandana Mathur, my co-supervisor, I want to extend thanks for your advice and encouragement throughout. You have been wonderful in terms of pointing me towards resources, being a sounding board for my ideas, and helping me with feedback, particularly towards the end when ‘all hands on deck’ were essential. I am so appreciative. I also want to extend thanks to Dr. Mark Maguire, Denise, and Jacqui, who all helped facilitate a number of opportunities for me in the Department of Anthropology that allowed me to carry out this research. And thank you so much also to Tara, my collaborator, colleague and friend - I look forward to reading drafts for you and helping you cross the finish line, so to speak, in a few months time. I would like to also acknowledge the encouragement and help provided by my family and friends – many of you have done a great job of continuously boosting my confidence and helping me prioritize this project by valuing it enough to step in and assist me. Thanks to my mom and dad, especially for babysitting. I literally could not have written this without the time and resources you provided me. Mom, more than being a babysitter you’re one of my best friends, thank you a million times over for that and for being such a dedicated Nana. To Alana, 4 4 Maddi, Marin, Sophia, Grá, Linda, Trish – whether it was taking my daughter for an hour, listening to me when I needed to think through my writing, texting me words of inspiration, or literally making a power-point presentation for me – you’ve all helped me along the way. I am so lucky to have you all. And of course, thank you Ronan. I joked in the early stages of fieldwork that you were my unpaid research assistant, but that wasn’t really a joke. You’ve helped me in every imaginable way; you attended church with me and helped me get to know members of the ward by essentially charming everyone with your accent, you offered unconditional support in order for me to finish what I set out to do, you took on co-parenting-and-then-some when I needed you to, and your steady presence and encouragement have been my foundation. And finally, I am most grateful to the members of the Oakland First Ward. Many of you know that I came to the community interested in Christianity, but decided on the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints because, quite frankly, I thought you seemed like a nice enough bunch to spend 18 months with. I got much more than I could have ever hoped for. You trusted me with your stories; you shared your faith, your sacred spaces and your homes. You made my “fieldwork” fun – between lively book club discussions, low-key volleyball practices, fabulous parties and post-fireside secret meetings, I was never bored (even during those extra long sacrament meetings). Thanks to Greg and Kathryn for welcoming me so warmly and essentially giving me the green light to spend time in your church, especially as you have only asked that in return I be “fair” – it’s been really humbling knowing that you support me without an expectation that I write from any perspective besides my own. Thanks to Lindy for popping over to my house and picking me up for every single activity you suspected would help me get to know the community. Thanks to Heather for introducing me to the extended LDS community in the bay, especially for taking me to march with you in Pride and meet members of Ordain Women. And McKay, for both welcoming me to spend time with your family while I was in the field, and helping me with last minute requests to check church records! Thanks to Britta and Shay for spectacularly honest and thoughtful conversations, even though we often acknowledged how different our views were – your insights made my research feel complete. Really – to all who gave interviews, chatted to me at church, and welcomed me into your community, I am indebted. And finally, thanks to Anne, Ashley and Tracy. It is very unusual for an anthropologist’s research participants to actively help them finish writing up – the fact that you babysat, brought emergency doughnuts, and sent me off to submit with instructions to “make us proud” overwhelms me with appreciation. I hoped that 5 5 my time in your church would provide me wonderful material – but what I gained far exceeded my most hopeful expectations. Dick said during our interview, “Lindy and I have an inestimable amount of gratitude for this ward, and I am not talking about theology or any of that, but for what this ward has done for us. So much of what we are, whatever we are, we can attribute to the people of this area and this church”. I wholeheartedly agree with this sentiment, and thank you all sincerely. 6 6 Introduction “In the world but not of the world”: Mormonism in The Bay Area Sisters In Zion On a bright and sunny Sunday afternoon on Temple Hill in Oakland, California, Sacrament Meeting has just concluded at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Women in bright dresses, and men in dark suits and ties, stream out of the chapel doors and into the hallways leading thorough the various corridors of the meetinghouse, a bright concrete building adjacent to the Mormon temple, containing a multitude of corridors and rooms designed for various functions. This is the gathering place of several of the local congregations each Sunday, and as members of Oakland’s ‘First Ward’ exit the chapel, members of the ‘Tongan Ward’, wearing bright printed fabrics, filter in to take their place in the now-unoccupied pews for their own service.
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