Over the last week, Wheat and Tares has been running a series on “Middle Way Mormonism” with posts by Happy Hubby, Kristine A, Andrew S, Cody Hatch, Hawkgrrrl, Stephen R Marsh, and Churchistrue. On Tuesday, Sam Brunson at By Common Consent took up the mantle, arguing that we should look at most members as Middle Way members. Several W&T bloggers commented on the post, pushing back at Sam’s “expanded” Middle Way argument. After looking at data from Jana Reiss’ 2016 Next Mormons survey, I agree we need to be cautious about putting most members in a Middle Way category, at least as the term is used here at W&T. The numbers just don’t support it. However, we may have more Middle Way members than many people think.
First, let’s take a look at what Sam said at BCC.
But here’s the thing: we’re all Middle Way Mormons.[fn4] Or, at least, the vast majority of us are. Some have undoubtedly made a clean break from the church, and there may be some active members who accept, uncritically, everything that the church and its leaders do and say, even the stuff that contradicts the other stuff. But most people are somewhere in the middle, even if they don’t recognize themselves in that middle.
Sam Brunson, “My Middle Way Mormonism”
Now let’s take a look at the groundbreaking research by Jana Reiss. The Next Mormons survey contains responses from 1,156 self-identified Mormons and 540 former Mormons. For those interested, more information on the methodology and background is available at thenextmormons.org (the book comes out in March 2019).
Two months ago, Dr. Benjamin Knoll wrote a piece for the Religion in Public blog, “The two kinds of American Latter-day Saints: a Mormon typology.” Applying procedures from the Pew Research Center to the Next Mormons survey results, Knoll identified two types of active members: Faithful and Obedient (62%) and Relaxed but Engaged (38%). These categories were based on many factors, but since we’ve been mainly talking about a Middle Way path in terms of belief, let’s look more closely at a few beliefs of each group.
Faithful and Obedient
- 98% “fully believe and/or have faith in most or all of LDS Church teachings.”
- 82% believe “they should obey their leaders even if it conflicts with their individual conscience,…”
- 92% “believe that the LDS Church is the only true faith…”
Based on what I’ve seen in conversations of Middle Way Mormonism over the past week, these levels of orthodoxy just don’t fit, yet this accounts for the majority (62%) of active members in the survey.
Relaxed but Engaged
- 60% “believe or have faith in most or all of LDS Church teachings.”
- 79% “value individual conscience over counsel from their leaders…”
- “About a third believe that the LDS Church is the one true faith,…”
Okay, now we’re getting somewhere. Prioritizing individual conscience over authority figures meshes better with many of the posts, like Hawkgrrrl’s here at W&T. A majority of these folks also reject the exclusivity claims of the Church. As Kristine A put it in her post, “I have a full belief that many people access and participate in the Gospel of Jesus Christ in a variety of churches and ways — and that Mormonism is a place just as credible as anywhere else to do so.”
But that 60% who “believe or have faith in most or all of LDS Church teachings” makes me question declaring everyone in the Relaxed but Engaged group as walking a Middle Way path. As Churchistrue wrote in his post, his version of Middle Way are those who “have unorthodox beliefs or lack of belief in traditional Mormon beliefs in many ways.” That 60% probably wouldn’t qualify.
So let’s dive deeper into that question of believing or having faith in most or all of the teachings. Last year, Knoll wrote a different article using the Next Mormons survey data, “How Many Mormons ‘Just Believe’ In Their Church’s Teachings?” In this article he laid out how all self-identified Mormons in the survey responded to each part of the question.
49.1% “I believe wholeheartedly in all of the teachings of the LDS Church.”
Benjamin Knoll, “How Many Mormons ‘Just Believe’ In Their Church’s Teachings?”
33.9% “I believe many or most of the teachings of the LDS Church.”
12.2% “Some of the teachings of the LDS Church are hard for me to believe.”
3.1% “Many or most of the teachings of the LDS Church are hard for me to believe.”
1.8% “I do not believe in the teachings of the LDS Church.”
It’s the lower three categories that I would peg as more consistent with the Middle Way we’ve been discussing. Knoll elaborated further on this group who doubt some, many, or all teachings of the Church.
Might this 17% simply be inactive members who have distanced themselves to some degree from their faith community? Not entirely. Among Mormons who say they attend church at least once a week (74% of all Mormons in our survey), 9% expressed some degree of doubt. Among those who say they are “very active” (55% of all Mormons), 6% expressed a degree of doubt. Even among those who are current “temple recommend” holders (a subgroup of active Mormons who pass an interview with an ecclesiastical leader in which the individual is required to affirm belief in core Mormon doctrines, about 52% of all Mormons), 4% expressed at least a degree of doubt in LDS church teachings.
Benjamin Knoll, “How Many Mormons ‘Just Believe’ In Their Church’s Teachings?”
Knoll says that even among those who doubt some or all church beliefs there members who attend church weekly, self-identify as “very active,” and even hold temple recommends. Now that sounds more like a Middle Way approach. Knoll continued,
While these numbers may be small, it is significant that one out of every ten Mormons sitting in the pews each week expresses skepticism in their church’s teachings. In absolute numbers, this represents somewhere in the ballpark of a quarter of a million active, practicing Mormons in the United States who are uncertain of their beliefs in LDS Church teachings.
Benjamin Knoll, “How Many Mormons ‘Just Believe’ In Their Church’s Teachings?”
A quarter of a million active members. Even if the percentages are small, that still seems like a lot of people trying to make a Middle Way path work.
What do you think? Do you interpret these numbers in a different way? Is this consistent with your understanding of the Middle Way?
Lead image from Pixabay.com.
Wheat & Tares 
Interesting.
Though my post on Jeremiah was what I’d learned from the Old Testament vis a vis middle way analysis.
I updated with a link to your Old Testament post, Stephen. I had forgotten that it was directly related to the conversation on Andrew’s Middle Way post. Apologies.
Thanks for the post, Mary Ann. The data in the survey, as summarized in your post and as broken out in more detail at the link below, adds a lot to the Middle Way discussion. There is also a discussion of the methodology at the link below. I find it interesting that the general Christian population produces seven clusters in the original Pew study, whereas the same statistical algorithm applied to the LDS survey data assembled by these researchers produces only two clusters. That sort of suggests that some of the variables are highly correlated, so if you relax on some LDS measures, you relax on others. Were this not so, there would be several clusters (several distinct ways to go “relaxed” or follow a Middle Way). There is a book coming out in 2019, which will no doubt tell a fuller tale.
Click to access mormon-typology-methodology.pdf
Ah I love these descriptions and numbers. From my anecdotal evidence in places I’ve lived I would have guessed that the number of middle-way mormons to be about 5-10% of temple recommend holders.
I also think I probably didn’t put as much emphasis on the fact that I love a LOT about Mormon theology and beliefs, and I fully believe a lot that is mormon above and beyond a general “christian” label. But because I believe Christian churches have members participating in the atonement fully, reconciling, being forgiven etc I’m just not comfortable with our exclusivity claims. Do we need all of those temple ordinances to be saved? Yeah? But those are supposed to all get done for everyone who accepts them eventually, right?
I wonder how many “Relaxed but Engaged” Mormons suffer in loneliness thinking they’re the only ones in their ward.
One of my favorite memories in primary was when we were in sharing time and for some reason we had a bunch of substitutes standing in for the primary presidency. I’m a primary teacher and during Follow the Prophet, I looked behind me and saw these women doing a zombie impression with their arms straight out and glazed over look on their face.
I wanted to laugh so hard.The craziest part was that these were people that I would have pinned as being part of the “I believe everything 100%”. Yet here they saw follow the prophet as nothing more than being a brainless zombie.
It just goes to show that people may act like they believe everything but that doesn’t necessary mean that they actually do.
Great post, Mary Ann. I think this helps us dial into a better definition of Middle Way. And Kullervo asked a great question, which is along the lines of what I had in mind with my post. A lot can be done to help Middle Wayfarers have peace in their journey.
The proportion of members who will obey SLC even if against their better judgement is 82% of the 62% = 50.84 plus 21% of the 38% = 7.98 totaling 58.84% of active members. I think this is overstated. I have been communicating with another member on facebook. He would say he was obedient, but he also advocates for racism, homophobia, sexism, anti immigration, and is a climate change denier. He does say I can’t be a member and support gay marriage.
So he does not count the things he disagrees only the ones I disagree with.
Do you have to have a TR to be a Middle Wayer (or Wayfarer)? I suspect most of us do not. I won’t submit to the interview. I refuse to fudge on the answers. Besides I don’t understand the temple ceremony. Do you have to obey the WoW? I suspect many of us do not. Coffee anyone? Do you have to pay a full tithe to the Church? Many of us do not. I tithe, but it doesn’t all go to the Church. How about Oxfam, Doctors Without Borders, local NGOs, etc?