Drawing the Boundaries of American Christianity: The Causes of Contemporary Political Anti-Mormonism

Abstract

In this paper I explore the relative of Americans to support a Mormon candidate for President despite massive increases in acceptance of other predominantly white religious minorities. The fact that many Americans do not accept Mormons’ self-identification as Christians has long been posited as a major cause of political discrimination; I examine the distribution and political conditioning of this non-acceptance. I take two theoretical approaches: one drawing from the ethnocentrism literature about the general individual tendency to punish out-groups, and one drawing from scholarship about the 'culture war' realignment of politico-religious boundaries that has shaped where individuals draw their boundaries around in-groups and out-groups. I find that a general tendency to punish out-groups is probably the most important factor in willingness to vote for a Mormon, but that individual contextual variables such as ideology and membership of a religious group play a very important role in whether individuals include Mormons as part of the religious in-group or out-group.