Viewing Mormons as Christianity's "Other"

Today I researched growth in the Pacific region of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (nicknamed Mormons because they believe the Book of Mormon is comparable to the Bible).

Manfred Ernst

In Winds of Change: Rapidly Growing Religious Groups in the Pacific Islands, Lutheran researcher Manfred Ernst raises a voice of alarm concerning the rapid growth of Mormons and other "fundamentalist" new religious groups. He complains about the tithing and the time commitment required of its members. In response, John Barker of the University of British Columbia, cautions against some of Ernst's conclusion that these new groups are "largely unhealthy" with "oppressive and paternalistic" theology, American-style individualism, racism, and political passivity. He warns against Ernst's top-down assumptions instead of consulting with the indigenous people, who usually "adapt Christianity to their own cultural premises and political ends with great facility" (see review in The Contemporary Pacific, Spring 1996, 235).

A gentle observation: I believe that well-meaning researchers like Ernst treat Mormons as the "Other" of Christianity, trying to classify it with preconceived labels such as "harmful," and "unhealthy" rather than studying it as a careful sociologist does, through evaluating the actual effects on its adherents. Jeff Thayne wrote a thoughtful reflection of "the Other" and "the Same":

According to Levinas,  . . . people try to make sense of "the Other" in a way that turns it into "the Same." It destroys the otherness of the Other by reducing it to the Same. When we describe the Other in words or abstractions, we turn it into something that we can grasp, understand, encapsulate in words, and remake it in our own image. We use the idiomatic phrase, “I get it!” or “I’ve got it!” to describe the way we know the phenomenon we’ve encountered. We thus take possession of the Other, and it thus becomes part of us. We become masters of the Other, because the Other has surrendered to us and has lost its alterity. The word alterity means “the state of being other, or different.” “Perceived in this way,” said Levinas, “philosophy would be engaged in reducing to the Same all that is opposed to it as other.” In essence, the goal of Western philosophy is to turn that which is alien into that which is familiar. (Jeff Thayne, “Levinas and Two Ways of Approaching the World,” http://thinkinginamarrowbone)

Human beings are complicated, and it is vital to see them from "the ground up," as individuals, and not from "the top down," as monolithic abstractions.

So I asked myself, How well do Mormons "adapt . . . to their own cultural premises and political ends"? What do the actual studies say? I searched for "sociological studies on Mormons' well-being" and found a neutral site. Here are a few trends from the same period Ernst wrote his book:

Data from the U.S. Govt. Census Bureau lists Utah as the state with the lowest teen pregnancy rate and the lowest abortion rate in the United States. [Source: Statistical Abstract of the United States 1997: National Data Book. Washington, D.C.: Census Bureau, U.S. Dept. of Commerce (1997).]

Based on a large variety of factors, Utah was ranked as the #1 best state in which to raise children in the 1996 rankings by the Children's Right's Council. [Source: Children's Rights Council Annual Ranking of States Based on Child Well Being] 

Latter-day Saints generally adhere strictly to their health code which prohibits the use of tobacco and alcohol. These practices have always shown up in national health data, which consistently rate Utah as having the lowest rates of smoking, alcohol use, lung cancer, etc. The National Institute of Mental Health ranked Utah as the second-lowest U.S. state in new inpatient admissions to state mental hospitals and the ranked Utah as having the lowest per-capita alcohol consumption. 

Those facts didn't surprise me, but here is one that did: 

Since 2002, Utah has been the state with the #1 highest bankruptcy rate in the nation. Economists and sociologists seem uncertain about exactly why this is the case.

In this very quick survey of sociological studies, I conclude that Mormons seem to adapt to their cultural premises and political ends with great facility (with the possible exception of money management).