The Demands of Authentic Mormonism

Joseph West

Okay, well yeah. I’m Joseph West. I’m a director and founding member of the MTA, sociologist by training.

Joseph West

Kind of to just Give you the full disclosure of where I’m at. I consider myself a believing, authentic Mormon. I’m a member of the LDS Church, not currently active.

Joseph West

My last two talks, so the title is The Demands of Authentic Mormonism, which I always think that I’m bad at titles. I don’t know if that’s really inaccurate descript description of the talk. But previous talks that I’ve given have sort of laid out what I mean by authentic Mormonism. Okay, and so I’m not going to spend a lot of time on that.

Joseph West

other than to say that I’ve made sort of historical and sociological arguments for claiming that authentic Mormonism means basically kind of like Nauvoo Mormonism. Okay, so the essential beliefs are theosis, radically humanistic interpretations of atonement, the kingfall discourse, and in terms of practice, I’m talking about development of temple ordinances. attempts to tie communities together in new ways, sometimes radical ways, willingness and open-mindedness towards Radical social experiments in terms of how we organize families and how we organize economies, okay? So that’s what I mean by authentic Mormonism.

Joseph West

So I want to talk about the Mormon people, who we are and where we’re going and who I even mean by we, the diversity of Mormon of expressions in Mormonism and in subcultural movements within the Mormon world. The Mormon field of cultural production, as I kind of like to talk about it.

Joseph West

And so, just to begin with, a little bit of sociology, there’s lots of Ways to think about collective action. But when social movement scholars talk about a social movement, they mean something specific that contrasts with other ways to think about collective action.

Joseph West

So a social movement Which I’m going to argue that the MTA is, or at least should consider itself, is collective. These are the features of the definition, sustained over time. So basically, like. A riot or spontaneous organization of people is not a social movement, seeks to change society or something about society and seeks this change. This is sort of the key. Seeks this change outside of institutionalized means of airing grievances.

Joseph West

Okay, so like a political party is not a social movement. And because it’s not, because a political party is engaging in these institutionalized processes, that does bring about change. And so assumed by this definition of a social movement is a kind of basic model about how society works and how it changes.

Joseph West

And this is an agonistic view of the social world. There are dominant groups who have power. And society changes when people acting collectively meet those who are in power with sustained resistance from below. And what I kind of want to point out about that

Joseph West

Is that this, I think, I mean, I would argue, and actually, Christopher’s talk kind of goes against this point, but that for Mormonism The idea of an opposition in all things implies this a similar view of the world. Okay, so the thing that Christopher said was that 2 Nevi chapter 2 is not about conflict, but about contrast. And maybe I’m not understanding him completely. And I think that.

Joseph West

I do want to say something about that because it’s essential to kind of what I want to argue: is that trying to say that when Mormons believe this opposition, all things, meaning is the result of conflicting desires. And to reduce it to saying it’s just about contrast or distinction is kind of an inflection that takes away the inconvenient details of that Distinction is the basis for oppression. And so I think that, so anyway, I don’t know. I think that when I’m talking about social movement theory, I just want to make the argument that this is consistent with a Mormon view of the world. That’s the main point. Okay. Okay. One other point about that.

Joseph West

That for Mormonism We we have like a model of how the of this of how the world works and there’s two ways that are presented in our canon in our scriptures for how to deal with this conflict, okay? Two archetypes and Lincoln actually talked about this in his talk. That there is the archetype of Satan who deals with this problem through the oppression of those whose desires conflict with him. With his own. Okay? And on the other hand, there’s the archetype of Christ, which is about seeking mutual fulfillment of all individuals. in spite of this conflict in desires, even if that requires sacrifice and sometimes suffering and even death temporarily. But both archetypes are about this struggle, okay, over this conflict that is our world. And okay, all right.

Joseph West

There are several forms of collective action, several movements. These aren’t all social movements, but these are all sort of forms of collective action within the world of Mormonism. Obviously, churches are organizations, any kind of organizations.

Joseph West

I’m going to talk about Symbolic boundaries and how the MTA, I’m trying to make some practical recommendations here, should be defining itself relative to two of these. So I’m going to kind of talk about like The MTA defining itself in terms of like liberal sort of secular post-Mormonism on one hand and a more kind of like conservative Protestant Mormonism on the other hand. Okay, so But first, just a tiny bit more sociology. I’ll try not to make it too boring and be quick with it. Let’s see.

Joseph West

The most important question in the contemporary study of collective action social movements is how to maintain it. Okay? So contemporary social movement studies begin with the observation that Grievances are ubiquitous. There used to be this idea that if people are just mad enough, they will collectively act and do something to change it. But the beginning of contemporary social begins with this idea that, well, grievances are actually ubiquitous and collective action is actually very rare, very difficult to maintain. and sustain. So why? How do we explain and attempt to be scientific about it? How do we explain when those movements are successful?

Joseph West

And economists can talk about this Problem, the thing that prevents collective action from being sustained, they call it the free rider problem, which basically means that whenever you have people gather together, In a community, they tend to create collective goods, okay? And those goods are good for the people in the community, but there’s an incentive for quote-unquote rational actors to partake of those collective goods without putting in the effort to sus sustain and build that collective entity. Okay, so this is the free rider problem. And it ends up being it is a huge problem. It ends up being what bogs down collective actors And prevents mobilization from occurring and sustaining itself. Okay?

Joseph West

And sociologist Rodney Stark, who some people might be interested in because he did extensive work on the sociology of Mormonism. And Stark and his colleagues took this insight, this sort of economic insight, even though he’s a sociologist, to explain why strict churches tend to be stronger. In our contemporary culture. Because strict churches create strong symbolic boundaries, and strong symbolic boundaries enable members of the group To monitor each other, because if you have strong symbolic boundaries, everyone within those boundaries knows who each other is, okay? So you can monitor each other and make sure that there isn’t free riding. That’s kind of.

Joseph West

And I would say that the s things like the tempo recommended interview are actually sort of directly, in sociological terms, kind of like Addressing this, making sure that there isn’t free riding going on. But I actually think that there’s another way, non-economic way to think about this. It’s a similar thing. It’s called subcultural identity theory. And the theory has two parts. I’m going to talk about one.

Joseph West

The first is explaining why religion still exists in a contemporary world despite the science, the advent of science. That’s the subcultural identity theory of religious persistence. But the thing that I want to talk about is this theory of religious strength. So it’s a very similar thing. It’s like how do we maintain successful collective action mobilization? Okay? And he’s talking specifically about religious groups. The book that this comes from is actually about. explaining why American evangelicalism was so remained so strong. It was written in 1998. But

Joseph West

Here’s what we said. In a pluralistic society, those religious groups will be relatively stronger, which better possess and employ the cultural tools Need to create both clear distinction from and significant engagement and tension with other relevant outgroups short of becoming countercultural. Okay, so what that means is that part of the reason why these strict churches are stronger is because they are good at picking fights with groups that are different. Making those conflicts public in the sense that people can observe it, and this creates strong symbolic boundaries that empowers the people on the inside. Um and uh let’s see. So, okay.

Joseph West

I guess another thing. I kept adding to my notes. That’s why I’m worried about going overtime. Based on all the talks, because I thought these were so many great talks. But, okay, I think this is why, not from a theological perspective, but from a practical perspective. Energy towards universalism tends to have difficulty succeeding. And uh okay, so oh yeah, oh one other point.

Joseph West

On this subcultural identity theory, on Carl’s talk, he talks about To the Jews, a stumbling block to the Greeks’ foolishness. But that is exactly an illustration of this point. So, like, a group that’s capable of Identifying themselves and defining themselves against the Greeks on one side and the Jews on the other side, that is in part, according to this theory, an explanation for their success, okay? Because they have strong symbolic tires and are able to. To be mobilized on the inside of those symbolic batteries. Okay, eight minutes. Here we go. I’m going to do this quick.

Joseph West

Frames just means It’s like a term in social movement theory that’s who has the power to frame what happened, frame the meaning of events, that’s very important in determining outcomes. And then the last one, this is the most nerdy one, sorry, discursive opportunity structures. That means that in these, when we experience these sort of like events that happen and then there’s discussion about it. We have to pay attention to opportunities that arise that allow us to put in our discourse, okay, that are favorable to what we want to add to the debate. Okay, because I’m going to talk about that. All right.

Joseph West

Collective action in the world of Mormonism. First, just some brief thoughts about sort of the Mormon stories community, which I’m kind of lumping these together. I don’t know if they go well together, but. Probably some people within those communities would disagree with that, but I’m going to kind of try to speak generally. So, this is a picture of John DeLin, whose high-profile was excommunicated as he’s the founder of Mormon Stories.

Joseph West

Okay, so here is a critique of Mormon stories that was written by Rosalind Welch a couple years ago. So there’s been a lot said recently about this same thing, but I think these. These quotes are particularly illustrative of a way of thinking about it that I kind of want to critique. Okay, so Mormon stories has not brought. To light any new historical interpretation, the organization does not feel any actual intellectual void, okay? So the assumption that it’s an intellectual void that’s needing to be filled. Still, it did represent a novel contribution to the landscape of Mormon, and that’s Mormonism, and she’s talking there about the ways that enabled people to come together in unique ways. Using technology, but she also says: this is hardly a remarkable achievement. Feelings of community are easy to generate on the internet simply by provoking any intense emotion in the audience and providing a place for discussion. Okay.

Joseph West

So I think that this, what these illustrate is a sort of, I don’t know, I kind of want to say a They’re representative of what I think is kind of a myopic perspective from faithful Mormon intelligentsia on as they see these kind of like post-Mormon communities. and um Mormon stories type of things. Okay? So um and um let’s see. I’m running out of time. Um

Joseph West

Okay, so I want to argue instead that not because of some intellectual contribution, but that John DeLin has forever shaped The path of Mormonism, okay? 50 years from now, you’re not going to be able to tell this story by telling how what took place in these communities shaped the way that we think about Mormonism. Okay, and the reason why that is is because this is going to get us back to discursive opportunity structures.

Joseph West

Theodore Adorno said, The need to let suffering speak is a condition for all truth. Okay? And so. Going back to this how things become reconciled in this world of conflict and what social movement theory has to say about that, social movement theory doesn’t have a moral prescription for that. But it does offer us a chance to examine empirically the prescription that is made by our religion, which is This following this archetype of Christ, become Christ in seeking mutual fulfillment. Okay?

Joseph West

And when Adorno talks about allowing suffering to speak as the condition of truth, he’s We’re still in the Mormon world. We’re talking about truth as defined in this 93rd section of the Doctrine and Covenants as knowledge of things past, present, and future, defined both in terms of knowledge, which is subjective. and things which is objective. So this kind of gives this existential emphasis, where truth, rather than being about a set of propositions that corresponds to a set of things in the world, is more about Talking about truth as a path to truth, okay? And it introduces this social element, this socially constructed. part of it. And we cannot attain that without allowing those who are suffering under the current sort of like discursive regime To make their feelings known.

Joseph West

And that is what Mormon stories did on a mass level. And that’s why it caught on so fast. So, okay, what I want to say about that in terms of what the MTA, how the MTA should respond to that. Is one other quick thing.

Joseph West

So, this is this book, it’s a document, a letter to a CES director, which has gotten a lot of attention, and it’s basically kind of a Kind of a anti-Mormon might be too strong, but it’s basically this particular author, as the subtitle indicates. Felt a need to explain why his testimony was lost. And I mean, to sum it up, it’s just all this evidence after evidence that, well, the reason I don’t believe in these things anymore is because these things are kind of stupid, these beliefs are dumb. And that’s why and so So, but what I see in all this kind of discourse is not just an explanation of, like, well, these things are dumb, and so I don’t believe them anymore, and you shouldn’t either. But also it’s a condemnation of where the individual used to be. So it’s sort of like an expression of shame of the past belief in those things.

Joseph West

And I think that this shame, and actually this is like hugely related to another earlier talk, that recognizing a deeply misrecognized but deeply influential shame That’s at the result of a lot of this kind of post-Mormon, ex-Mormon discourse, has huge implications for understanding where we should place ourselves discursively, the MTA, relative to that. And I think the reason, and what we can offer that, is I think the source of this shame is ultimately rooted actually in the romanticism of Mormon discourse.

Joseph West

Can you totalize? Can you make whole? Can you make perfect? And if you can’t, disappointment. Okay, of course, Mormonism is a romantic project. We are striving for perfection, and we do claim to believe that we’re the only true and living church on the face of the earth, the LDS Church. But if these romantic ideas are understood too literally and in too concrete ways, they become this mess of lies that distract us from practical tasks.

Joseph West

Practical questions, okay, because Mormonism is a very fragile religious project, but it’s also predicated upon A fragile religious project that has great potential but is predicated upon marginalization and subjugation of women, past marginalization and discrimination of people of African descent, and even present. Discrimination against gays and lesbians. So that’s not, okay, so it has great potential, but this notion that we have it all or that we will ever have it all That’s got to go. You’ve got to push that to the side. And once you push that to the side, it tends to evacuate this language of disappointment from the inability to totalize and to make coal.

Joseph West

And I think that because the MTA’s practical orientation towards the outcome of this diverse prophetic visions of Mormonism We have an opportunity to create a discourse that can do just that, okay? That can sort of take away this romanticism that is at the root of sort of these shameful feelings of what we use. Of people think that they were lied to, that they feel that they were dumb for believing these particular things. And okay. All right.

Joseph West

Conservative Protestant Mormonism. I have to make this point so briefly, but this is a Chart of LDS growth rates. I think I still need to speak into the mic. And this is kind of, I’m just making a coy little point here.

Joseph West

It’s like growth rates for the LDS church is This only goes to 2008. It’s continued to go lower each year. And actually, if you net out birth rates. There’s actually attrition in all industrialized countries and high and very low retention rates in non-industrial countries.

Joseph West

And so and so I just put a this uh is a um thumbnail of the of the book Believing Christ by Stephen G. Robinson and the year that that was published. And I’m not okay, I’m suggesting I’m suggesting that there is a relationship between what I would kind of call the Protestantization of Mormonism or what sociologist Armand Maas calls assimilation. Okay, there’s this assimilation process that really was kind of completed around this time.

Joseph West

And it’s only a few years after the after the publish of this book that Gordon B. Hinckley is asked. Do you believe that man, that God is as man once was, and that man may become God? And Gordon Mahinkey says, Oh, I don’t know if we believe that. Okay? So, this assimilation process of trying to dissolve the symbolic boundaries that make us strong collective actors is kind of what is. This keeps changing. How much time do I have?

Joseph West

We’re giving you more time. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. All right. Okay, I’m done, I’m done. Okay, okay, last point, one last point.

Joseph West

And this is where I think, so I think that in terms of Liberal discourse, there’s less to be done. Okay, all we have to do in terms of creating symbolic boundaries on that side is to say, is to affirm an authentic Mormon identity because Because people who are engaging in this discourse, this is Aesop’s fable of the fox who says those grapes are sour. Okay, he can’t see those grapes. He’s reaching for them and he can’t reach them, so he says, Well, those grapes are sour, I don’t want them anyway. And to participate in the field of cultural production, of Mormonism, of Mormon culture. you have to first affirm the value of the outcome.

Joseph West

Okay, so we just don’t need to do anything that we’re not already doing. And I think the MPA is making too much effort defining itself against a liberal culture, the liberal Mormon discourse. And on the other side, I think that a lot more needs to be done to define ourselves against these assimilation processes. Okay, I’m talking about The faithful good Mormon in an elders Quorum or Relief Society class that does not think that we need to do anything practically towards some of these outcomes that we want. And I think that it will only serve to strengthen.

Joseph West

I think in the past, what has happened is the MTA has been hesitant to marginalize those people and alienate them and scare them away. But I think that to define ourselves more strongly relative to this this kind of more conservative Protestantization and assimilated Mormon culture is only going to serve to strengthen the MTA internally, okay, and further empower us and enable us to uh Accomplish the collective goals that we want. Sorry I took so long.