A Qualitative Analysis of the Non-LDS Experience in Utah
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Brigham Young University BYU ScholarsArchive Theses and Dissertations 1995 A Qualitative Analysis of the Non-LDS Experience in Utah Jesse Smith Bushman Brigham Young University - Provo Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd Part of the Anthropology Commons, and the Mormon Studies Commons BYU ScholarsArchive Citation Bushman, Jesse Smith, "A Qualitative Analysis of the Non-LDS Experience in Utah" (1995). Theses and Dissertations. 4573. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/4573 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by BYU ScholarsArchive. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of BYU ScholarsArchive. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. eggs A qualitative analysis of the non LDS experience in utah A thesis presented to the david M kennedy center for international studies brigham young university in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree master of arts jesse smith bushman august 1995 acknowledgments I1 would like to thank the members of my thesis committee including dr thomas G alexander dr roger keller dr steven epperson and especially dr james B alienailenall of whom have been very helpful in suggesting resource materials and ideas for this thesis their willingness to read the drafts under a rather tight schedule was also greatly appreciated dr carol J ward and dr lawrence A young who spent time talking with me about sociological works apropos to this thesis must also be thanked the charles redd center in the harold B lee library was most helpful in allowing use of their recording and transcribing equipment which greatly facilitated my research and their generous grant which covered the cost involved I1 am most indebted to the interviewees themselves some of whom were willing to be interviewed despite demanding schedules and who it seems to me were honest and open in their responses finally I1 would like to thank lisa for her companionship during the days of my procrastination and her patience during the days of my frantic absence this thesis by jesse smith bushman is accepted in its present form by the david M kennedy center for international studies of brigham young university as satisfying the thesis requirement for the degree of master of arts c y 77 7 thomas G alexander committee chair es B alienailencommittee member 5waw t jytiylayt steven epperson committee member i neil L york aduateacuategigraduate subfield coordinator date valerie hudson director of graduate studies 11 preface during the 1994 95 school year I1 had the pleasure of working as a research assistant for dr james B alienailenat a time when he was completing a history of utah since WW II11 during that time I1 conducted a number of interviews to help him with a chapter on utahs religions while my main focus during these interviews was to gather information on the history of various denominations and congregations I1 began to see an emerging pattern in their comments about the nature of life for themselves and their co congregants in utah many of them characterized their experience in almost identical terms regardless of which denomination or tradition they came from this trend sparked the idea for this thesis and piqued my curiosity to explore in a more in depth fashion the nature of the experience of those utahnsutahna who live in faith families distinct from that of the LDS ililii111 contents introduction 1 chapter 1 relreireligiousiviousigious belief and intergroup relations 5 chapter 2 the roman catholics 22 chapter 3 the presbyterians 60 chapter 4 the baptists national baptist convention 97 chapter 5 the jews and the buddhists 127 chapter 6 so what does it all mean 169 appendix A 197 appendix B 198 appendix C 201 bibliography 204 ivIV introduction soon after its founding the mormon church began to gather its members to central locations they gathered not only for the moral support gained by numbers but also because of a religious belief that it was necessary for the saints to form the community of zion eventually the political power of such concentrated groups Morcormonsmormonsmons often voted as a block along with the unusual nature of their doctrines provoked criticism and persecution this persecution resulted in their repeated flight from place to place until they eventually altogether left what was in 1846 territory of the united states 1 As the mormon pioneers arrived in utah they worked to set up communities under their own control that could not be destroyed by antagonistic outside forces the persecution that church members suffered in the midwest and before that in the east created an us against them feeling among the Morcormonsmormonsmons the settlements that resulted in utah realized the mormon ambition to be a people apart under a theocratic government 2 this situation effected a blurring of the lines between 1 james west davidson et al nation of nations A narrative history of the american republic san francisco mcgraw hill publishing co 503 13 2beingeing the majority allowed the mormons to dictate how the social political and economic currents of the state would run see eugene E campbell governmental beginnings in utahs hishistory ed richard D poll et al logan UT utah state university press 1989 153 173 church state and community essentially all three were subsumed under the umbrella of mormonism during the first two decades or so afafterter the pioneers arrival in utah very few people belonging to any other faith lived within the utah territory and so utah culture became in essence mormon culture 3 after the completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869 larger populations of non LDS people began to move into the state they encountered a society dominated by the mormons and many reacted quite negatively to this situation over the years mormon society gradually accommodated to a number of the demands and pressures of the members of other faiths and the unchurched within its boundaries they abandoned polygamy as an official practice helped create two viable political parties and sought and in 1896 received statehood with these changes life became somewhat more comfortable for those living in utah who did not share the LDS tradition 4 with the advent of WW II11 the total number of non LDS people in utah increased as industries to support the military opened up bringing in a large group of non LDS employees some of these industries have remained since the end of the war others have closed these increases 3seeaseeee appendix A 4seeaseeee robert J dwyer the gentile comes to utah A study in religiousRelicliousrious and social conflict 1862 1890 salt lake city western epics 1971 2 however were more than matched by the increase in LDS utahnsutahna in fact proportionally utahs non LDS population reached its greatest heights during the first three decades of the twentieth century 5 in the last three decades or so utahs positive economic climate has continued to attract various companies including service and financial businesses various manufacturers aerospace companies bio medical and computer related companies A large number of non LDS people have continued to come into the state as a result of this economic growth however even with this increase the percentage of LDS people within utah has remained between 70 and 75 percent for the past four decades making utah a national anomaly and non LDS people a decided minority 6 many if not all non LDS people agree that the mormon population in utah makes life in the state unique different than any other state what is it about mormonism that makes life in utah so unusual Is mormonism per se responsible for what non mormons experience in utah or does their experience owe its distinctiveness to merely human factors such as typify any society rather than theological reasons such as specific beliefs about peoples outside the LDS 5seeaseesee appendix A church news salt lake city 19 june 1983 and barry A kosmin and seymour P lachman one nation under god religionreliareliq ionlonin contemporary american society new york harmony books 1993 88 89 see appendix A 3 tradition it is the purpose of this thesis to discuss the experiences of a small number of roman catholics presbyteriansPresbyterians baptists buddhists and jews living in a state whose population is with the exception of a few major metropolitan areas overwhelmingly mormon and to put that experience into an understandable framework 4 chapter 1 religious belief and intergroup relations in a landmark study commissioned and supported by the anti defamation league of anaibnai brith sociologists charles Y glock and rodney stark completed a survey of several thousand christian americans with the purpose of discovering whether the religious beliefs of these individuals affected their attitudes toward and treatment of jews they concluded that religious belief does indeed have an impact on christian attitudes toward jews 7 this classic study suggests that religious belief and affiliation should be taken into consideration when reviewing intergroup relations armand L mauss a mormon sociologist who studied under glock and stark used the same type of survey to enquire into the beliefs and behavior of mormons with respect to jews african americans and native americans all three of which groups have played distinctive roles in LDS theology 8 mauss concluded that religious belief does indeed impact the way mormons feel about and treat individuals in these three groups mauss surveyed mormons