Let’s start out with an article from that trusted news source, The Onion: “National Museum of the Middle Class Opens in Schaumburg, IL.” It satirically describes the future museum’s “historical and anthropological exhibits addressing the socioeconomic category that once existed between the upper and lower classes.” It’s an amusing article, go read it for a smile or two. But let’s talk about this thing called the middle class.
First serious question: Is “the middle class” shrinking? The short answer is yes. This is confirmed by a quick Google search, with the handy AI summary providing the following additional info: “[I]ts share of adults falling from 61% in 1971 to 51% by 2023” and “The middle class has contracted over the past five decades, with more people moving up to upper-income levels (rising from 11% to 19%) than down to lower-income levels (rising from 27% to 30% between 1971 and 2023).”
Second serious question: What does this mean for the LDS Church, which is a middle-class church? You might be puzzled by the term “middle-class church.” I’m guessing your town has some churches, often meeting in store-front locations, that focus on ministering to people who aren’t doing too well financially, who may be on the edge or in crisis. And your town may have an Episcopal congregation full of the high-rollers in town. Then there are the mega-churches or local Methodist or Presbyterian congregations that are somewhere in the middle, with a family emphasis maybe. The LDS Church fits in that middle group.
Tithing acts as something like a filter. The ideal Mormon family makes enough money to pay a 10% tithe (which may be more like 50% or more of disposable income) and has enough spare time after work and household tasks to devote to LDS callings, some of which require substantial time commitments. And who fits that description? Middle-class families. Upper-class folks with plenty of money to spare fit in as well, as long as they act middle-class. [And to be fair, I know of many LDS who have plenty of extra time and money who are very generous in supporting both their local congregation and particular individuals in need.] If you can’t pay tithing, you are an uneasy fit in the Mormon scheme. Significant attention in Conference talks and the LDS curriculum is directed against any temptation to tell the bishop, “Sorry, I just can’t afford to pay tithing.” Even suggesting that might ever be the case is simply verbotten in the Church.
It’s not just a shrinking middle-class that might affect the Church (we’ll get to that part below), it’s that many of those families who remain and look like stable middle-class families are actually under stress: financial stress with costs rising faster than income, job stress because positions are not as stable as they used to be (i.e., people get laid off unexpectedly more often than before), insurance stress because it seems like everyone is worried about their health insurance getting worse or going away, kid stress paying for the various fees for this or that activity or club or device, and oh-my-gosh how are we going to save for junior’s college in just a dozen years? And junior’s siblings? If the middle class has shrunk from 60% to 50%, that remaining 50% is a lot less confident and stable than a couple of generations ago, during the golden years of LDS convert growth and retention.
So, focusing again on the second question, what does this mean for the LDS Church? The numbers published by the Church claim there are still a couple of hundred thousand converts per year, but my sense is a lot fewer “golden families” coming in the front door than before (those who fit smoothly into the Mormon system, paying tithing and able to accept and perform various callings). I have sometimes said the LDS Church at the local level has a deep bench, having plenty of candidates when a new bishop or EQ president or RS president is needed. I think over time that bench is getting thinner throughout the Church. There are fewer converts who fit that ideal Mormon family model, and more families/couples in the Church who are under financial and other stress and who are thereby less able to pay tithing and provide substantial but uncompensated volunteer work in callings.
Third serious question: What could the Church do to help out? Granted, the Church doesn’t have the capacity or resources to fight broad societal trends and developments. The Church can’t reinvigorate labor unions or reverse falling student test scores or prevent corporations from moving jobs overseas. But there are a few things that would help struggling middle class Mormons. (1) Provide low-cost day care in LDS churches during the week, in chapels that are largely unused during work hours during the week. There are some complications (insurance, paying the workers) but businesses and churches all over America deal with those complications, I’m sure the business wizards at the COB can figure it out if they want to. (2) Subsidize missions? Maybe every missionary/family pays $100 a month and the Church covers the rest? (3) Figure out how to give families that can’t pony up for a “full tithe” some sort of break so they can be (and can consider themselves) members in good standing and temple-recommend eligible?
Now these and other proposals might seem reasonable and achievable (even easily achievable) but I doubt LDS leadership would do any of these or other similar things. Why not? (1) Self-reliance as a Mormon virtue. You’re supposed to solve your personal and financial problem by yourself. You might get a bit of advice from the bishop and maybe some short-term financial assistance, but don’t expect changes or programs that would provide systemic assistance or ongoing relief. (2) If it ain’t broke ... With a financial system that has generated a hundred billion dollar surplus (and it’s still growing, apparently), LDS leaders are highly unlikely to look at their balance sheet and say, “Hmm, we have a problem here.” If feedback ever trickles up to senior leadership that LDS families are having a hard time, I think most senior leaders would blame the victims (they should work harder!) and think of how in their youth sixty or seventy years ago they got ahead in the world by doing just that, working hard. (3) Money in the bank. You might think that with the Hundred Billion Dollar Fund on hand, built on the backs of member contributions over the years, senior leaders would feel more inclined to use some of that surplus to (to use a Mormon phrase) strengthen families in the Church. No, I don’t believe that’s how they think. They like having a huge financial cushion to protect LDS Inc. as an institution from any future financial reverses. It’s money in the bank that will never be used. As if at the final day, decades or centuries from now, Jesus Christ will return and the future First Presidency will greet the returning Lord with a few trillion dollars in the bank and a checkbook to spend it with. Leadership takes the parable of the talents way too literally.
Okay, I’ve said enough. Maybe you agree or maybe you don’t.
- Is the US middle class, arguably the backbone of the LDS Church in America, shrinking and under stress?
- How is this middle-class drama playing out in your ward or stake?
- Should the Church do anything to help out? Or is this simply outside the responsibility or capacity of the Church to alleviate?
- Name one thing the Church could do to help. Or name one thing the Church has done already that is helping. Or name one thing the Church is doing that is the opposite of helping.
Wheat & Tares 
There is one good argument why the church require missionaries, even senior missionaries, to pay their way. It is to establish a test of willingness. For while the church wants every member to be a missionary, it wants some selectivity of who is a full-time representative and adding the financial test helps make the selection. I’m not saying this is the best way to filter, but it is a way to filter.
As far as promoting a “middle class” the church long lost the argument about that. The practice of self-reliance, avoiding debt, paying Tithing, having food storage, etc have the effect of reducing consumption and enabling a family to make it on a single primary income. But people like to consume! And the modern economy has been extremely successful at inviting greater consumption. So even in Utah, the culture changed from one of modest consumption to great consumption and that demand forces prices higher and encourages a debt financed lifestyle.
The more immediate challenge for the church is that it is in the middle and upper class cultures that one finds people willing and able to serve in the church. As the middle class evaporates (or is overwhelmed with earning money to survive), the church is going to be ever more challenged to operate as a voluntary organization.
Many white collar workers are being replaced by AI, further shrinking the middle class. One very, very small step would be for the Church to hire paid building custodians, as the Church once had. Many of the top Church leaders grew up during the “Beaver Cleaver” era of the 1950s to early 1960s when women could be stay-at-home moms, and a blue collar working man could still afford to purchase home for his family. Back then, a man could work for the same company his entire career. That era is long gone.
Something the church is doing that is currently helping:
I think the church has a good track record in providing aid in disaster zones and in poor countries. These are much needed and provide a lot of relief. I would rather that we did significantly more here (reinvestments still far outweigh charitable spending), but I do think real good is done here.
Something the church is doing that is hurting:
The church recently updated the handbook as follows “22.3.3. Help Members Build Self-Reliance (emphasized that a Self-Reliance Plan is used with all members receiving assistance)”
Forcing all members to receive a self reliance plan creates exhausting hoops to jump through for people already in significant financial strain. I think it also creates pressure for people to pay the 10% tithing before getting anything from the church.
Not to mention the huge organizational strain to make, review, and maintain these plans. Guess what the bishop, EQ president, and relief society president are going to be spending the majority of the time on?
Our government has lots of hoops people need to jump through to get aid too. I have a dear friend with Type 1 Diabetes who was recently divorced and has been trying to get in Medicaid for months. Without family support for the insulin and other diabetes supplies he would have died while the government was slowly reviewing his case file.
Adding organizational hoops will just eat up leader’s time and make it harder to get the aid where it is needed.
How is this middle-class drama playing out in your ward or stake?
The middle-class is steadily vanishing and the last few struggles to even be seen or heard. Most leaders are upper-class pretending to be middle class. But when the entire stake leadership comes from two upper-income wards and the last three stake presidents had incomes easily over $500,000 annually… well it has become a church for the wealthy. The lower middle/working class has slid into inactivity or disillusionment. But it’s their fault. Afterall, the men in those households are just elders, right?