Conclusion

This concluding chapter argues that in the next few years at least, the polarization within Mormonism will continue, in which those who remain in the LDS Church will be ardent believers but those who don't fit in will pull up stakes and leave. How the Church chooses to finesse the social shifts—specifically, those regarding marriage, gender, racial diversity, and LGBT issues—will signal which trajectory it is going to follow: will it remain steadfast and become entrenched in the role of embattled subculture, or will it lean in, accommodating its message and positioning in order to retain cultural relevancy and attractiveness? The chapter then considers the acute tension the LDS Church is experiencing between assimilation into American society and retrenchment. This ever-present pendulum between assimilation and retrenchment has ensured that Mormonism has successfully maintained its distinctive edge even while making major theological deletions that might have been unthinkable to previous generations.

Rainbow Fault Lines

This chapter details the evolving views on homosexuality within Latter-day Saints. For most younger Mormons now who are gay, acceptance is slightly more likely than it was even in the recent past. Their decision to make their sexual identity public has been aided by a more widespread acceptance of homosexuality—not only in American culture more generally, but also within the Mormon subculture. Indeed, Mormon views on homosexuality have undergone a rapid change just within the last decade. Although acceptance among Mormons has not reached majority status, it is double what it was in 2007. This movement is driven in large part by millennials; more than half of Mormon millennials say homosexuality should be accepted. By contrast, only 38 percent of the combined Boomer/Silent Generation feels homosexuality should be accepted by society—a view that is reinforced by many statements from LDS Church leaders, who are themselves of the Silent Generation or even older.

Single Mormons in a Married Church

This chapter focuses on the journey of many single adult Mormons, wherein the “plan of happiness” they imbibed when they were younger included a partner who never materialized for them in adulthood. Because marriage and children are so central to the Mormon concepts of happiness in this life and exaltation in the next, the absence of those relationships can be acutely painful. Many Mormon singles feel judged or shamed, or express frustration that the Church seems to be worshiping the nuclear family instead of Christ. For some, the grief has been strong enough that they're no longer active in the Mormon faith. For its part, the LDS Church has tried different approaches to meet the needs of single members, including “singles wards,” or congregations where unmarried members can worship together apart from the multigenerational wards that are the usual round of the Mormon experience. However, there are pros and cons to singles wards.

The Realignment of Mormon Religious Authority

This chapter examines how young adult Mormons regard ecclesiastical authority differently than older Mormons do. Mormons stand apart from many other faiths because they believe their leaders are the only men authorized by Jesus Christ himself to exercise all the authority of the holy priesthood. Given this belief—that Mormonism's uniqueness stretches from its ecclesiastical authority in the form of prophets and apostles—it is not surprising that the religion strongly emphasizes obeying the teachings of those leaders. Indeed, millennial Mormons have grown up in a religious tradition that places a premium on obeying the leaders of the Church and have inherited modern Mormonism's expanded view of the role of the prophet. On the other hand, they're also embedded within a generation that takes a dim view of many traditional institutions, including religious ones, and has tended to qualify claims to exclusive truth. The chapter then considers how young adult Mormons reconcile these tensions within themselves.

Social and Political Views among Current and Former Mormons

This chapter discusses the social and political views among current and former Mormons. Since World War II, Mormons have been recognized for their conservative moral values, staunch patriotism, and commitment to the nuclear family. Those core values are still very much present with older generations of Latter-day Saints, though one sees political dilution among millennials who remain active in the Church; the Next Mormons Survey (NMS) finds that millennial Mormons are more conservative than their non-Mormon millennial peers but more progressive than their Mormon elders. Whether Mormon millennials will veer to the right as they age is unclear; there may be an age effect associated with political views, since conventional wisdom dictates that people tend to become at least slightly more conservative as they grow older. Meanwhile, in the former Mormon population, rather than a dilution of the conservative political agenda, one sees an outright rejection of many parts of it.

Rites of Passage and the LDS Temple

This chapter looks at Mormons' experiences in the Latter-day Saints (LDS) temple. Whereas regular Sunday services are open to the public at thousands of LDS chapel meetinghouses around the world, temples are rare—there are just over 150 around the globe—and closed to everyone but the most committed Latter-day Saints. The Next Mormons Survey (NMS) data shows that most Mormons who have been to the temple do have a good first experience. Six in ten current Mormon respondents reported that they had been to the temple for the initiatory followed by the endowment ceremony, which are the two essential rites of initiation for the LDS temple. However, it is possible there is a disconnect between what millennials say about loving their first time in the temple and what some of them actually felt in real time. Overall, the temple emerges as a complex site of contention for many former Mormons.

Called to Serve

This chapter examines the personal sacrifice that is required of Latter-day Saints (LDS) missionaries, and the deep faith that sees them through tough times; the positive feelings most missionaries have about their experience; the sense that a mission demarcates a bright line between childhood and adulthood in Mormon culture; the growing presence of women in the mission force; and the great statistical likelihood that returned missionaries who served the full tenure of their assigned time will remain as lifelong members of the LDS Church. Mormonism's culture of responsibility extends to the mission experience itself—young people are asked to give up between eighteen months to two years of their lives to volunteer wherever in the world the Church elects to send them. What is more, they are often expected to help pay for it. Nevertheless, Mormons who served a mission regard it as a positive experience that helped them in many areas of their lives.

Navigating Religious Practice for a New Generation

This chapter explores the push–pull relationship of behavior and belief in Mormonism. Adherence to expected behaviors, like sexual abstinence before marriage and keeping the religion's strict dietary code, are intricately related to belief. Belief and behavior tend to reinforce one another, which is something the Mormon religion has understood very well as it has defined itself in the postwar era: it has consistently emphasized high behavioral standards as well as doctrinal instruction for Mormon youth. Some of these behaviors continue to be just as strongly adopted by millennials as by older generations. Overall, millennials are adhering most closely to those behaviors that have a clear spiritual component, and less meticulously to those that may strike them as outwardly focused or superficial. Most millennial Mormons consider themselves “active” in the LDS Church—but the way they define “active” may look different than it does for older generations.

Exodus

This chapter focuses on millennial former Mormons. As many as half of millennials who were raised Mormon may be leaving the faith, which is a significant change from older generations, which retained closer to three-quarters of childhood adherents. The Next Mormons Survey (NMS) was able to learn more about former Mormons' demographic characteristics, religious beliefs and behaviors, reasons for leaving, and post-Mormon religious lives. The picture that emerges is complex; leaving a religion is often the result of multiple areas of conflict, not just one. Yet there are common threads that weave the stories of people together. Generationally, social issues like the Church's treatment of women and the LGBT community appear to be galvanizing disaffection among younger former Mormons. Another major concern for them was feeling judged or misunderstood.

Minority Mormons and Racial Attitudes

This chapter assesses the long and complex story about Mormonism and race, particularly with respect to African Americans. Until 1978, the LDS Church forbade priesthood ordination to men of African descent and temple entrance to black men and women, prohibiting them from participating in sacred rituals such as endowments and eternal marriage. Even though that policy was rescinded more than forty years ago, the legacy of the priesthood/temple ban is unsettling for some Mormons who wonder what to do with it theologically. Mormons' views on race are complex and the experiences and views of Mormons of color defy easy characterization. Indeed, while the Church as an institution has made serious efforts to counter racism, the ghosts of past attitudes have not been fully exorcised among members, and the racial composition of the membership is not staying in step with the racial diversity occurring around it.