People do not usually grow more open and flexible as they age. We tend to become settled in our habits of behavior and in our opinions. We cluster comfortably into groups of like-minded folks and shake our heads at those who live, think, and behave differently than we do. Because we find safety in the group, we find it easy to ignore or excuse any inconsistencies that may appear between what the group claims to stand for and the actions of some members of the group.
It is easy to explain this behavior. Seeking safety within a group evolved long ago as a human survival strategy in a dangerous world. Yet this “us versus them” mentality no longer serves us well. We no longer need to band together against the lions of the jungle or the bears of the forest. Survival in a modern society is best accomplished through trust, cooperation, and helping each other.
People are complex
[The] quest for identity is important and fascinating, but it can also be dangerous. In attempting to define a clear identity for myself, I might close myself off to the world. I might conclude that my identity is defined by belonging to a single group of people, emphasizing those parts in me that connect me to the chosen group, and ignoring all my other parts.
Yuval Noah Harari
People naturally belong to many different groups – depending on their interests. Identifying with one group, such as football fans, does not exclude one from another group, such as bird watchers, or science fiction readers. More importantly, membership in one group should not require one to belong to another group. People who can move comfortably among multiple interest groups live fuller, richer, lives.
When groups create psychological pressure on individuals to conform to the views of group leaders (or other group members), rather than to express their own opinions (or personalities) the result is group-think. Group-think is a common cause of flawed decisions made by otherwise knowledgeable people. It is made even worse when the pressure to conform within a group is accompanied by pressure to isolate oneself and cut ties with other groups.
Groups can be manipulated
When we don’t have a clear view of our own opinion, we simply adopt other members’ – often, without even knowing it. Once we adopt that preference, it becomes a lens for the information we receive.
Colin Fisher
It’s important to remember that there are evil people who deliberately, consciously, and strategically manipulate our human tendency to gather into like-minded groups in order to gather power and gain for themselves. They want to divide us. They use lies, exaggerations, and charged emotional language to generate fear, distrust, and cynicism. This results in people retreating even more completely into familiar groups and old ways of thinking.
Many fearful, distrusting people have been manipulated into believing political lies, conspiracies, and fantasies. Yet these same people like to believe that they, and their party, are intelligent, noble, righteous, patriots. The insidious implication, of course, is that the members of other political parties must be ignorant, low-life, evil, traitors. This false perception is how political violence is born.
Rather than protecting us, when we narrow of our interactions with others, limit our sources of information, and harden our opinions, we actually become weaker and more vulnerable to manipulation. Fearful, truth-impaired, insecure, people eventually become angry, stubborn, and blind. They fall prey to authoritarian leaders and become immune to objective truth. Such people are easily led to feel anger and to commit violence.
Narrow-minded group-think in the Church
Since the 1960s, most US members of the LDS Church have considered themselves to be, and have voted, Republican. I personally think this was largely caused by the conspiracy-based thinking of Ezra Taft Benson – who was heavily influenced by W. Cleon Skousen, J. Reuben Clark, J. Edgar Hoover, and Robert W. Welch, Jr. (the founder of the John Birch Society). These men were all rabid, fear-mongering, reality-challenged, “anti-communists.” Welch even went so far as to claim that Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower and his inner circle were all communists!
It was Benson who said that a Latter-day Saint could not be both a good Mormon and a good Democrat. This lie, which was vigorously opposed by both Gordon B. Hinckley and Thomas S. Monson, is still around, and believed, today.
Many members of the Church who believe this false doctrine are self-righteously cruel, sarcastic, patronizing, and/or judgmental to other members of their local ward on a weekly basis. This behavior is unchristian, ignores Church teachings, violates the commandments, and breaks solemn covenants. Too many Mormon Democrats have stopped attending Church because they got tired of the harassment.
The Church’s effort to counter right-wing extremism failed
When Gordon B. Hinckley became president, he tried to moderate years of right-wing extremism in the church. In 1998, he had Democratic general authority Marlin K. Jenson interview with the Salt Lake Tribune. The purpose was to say, and to demonstrate, that a person CAN be both a Democrat and a faithful Latter-day Saint.
The strategy did not work. Mormons are even more strongly bound to the Republican party now than they were then (especially in Utah, Idaho, and Arizona). In fact, I would contend that many Mormons are more strongly allied to the Republican party than they are to the Church (though they would never admit it).
Case in point, many Church members rebelled against President Russel M. Nelson’s recommendation to wear a face mask and get inoculated during the Covid-19 pandemic. They chose to believe right-wing, anti-science, propaganda over the advice of a medical doctor that they supposedly believe to be a Prophet of God.
The Republican party fell prey to demagoguery
The flaws in this type of blind, narrow-minded, group-think have always been present. Throughout history, such people have become easy prey for demagogues. The fact that Republican Mormons supported the candidacy and presidency of Donald J. Trump clearly illustrates the dangers.
An immoral, unqualified, bullying, misogynistic, toxic narcissist, with ties to Russia, who had a mob lawyer as his mentor, actually ran for and became President of the United States with the support of a majority of American Mormons (and other “Christians”). This happened despite the fact that Trump, both in his character and in his behavior, closely resembles the worst villains in the Book of Mormon.
Party over Church
To a person who was NOT deceived by Trump, it is mind-boggling how anyone, let alone a member of the Church of Jesus Christ, could have supported such a vile man for ANY political office – let alone the Presidency. The only explanation seems to be that they have allowed their party affiliation to take precedence over the teachings of the scriptures and of the Church.
This process has been accelerated by the ring-wing propaganda media and their campaign to encourage people to listen ONLY to them. These well-funded liars tell their listeners daily that other news sources are the liars. Most people now only listen to news sources that reinforce their pre-existent beliefs and prejudices. For Republicans this often means spending more time with Faux News (or other right-wing media) than with the scriptures.
Every human being is heir to the whole of human creation. People who in search of their identity narrow their world to the story of a single nation are turning their backs on their humanity. They devalue what they share with all other humans.
Yuval Noah Harari
Sources:
Jana Reiss, “How did Mormons become so Republican?” Religion News Service, October 7, 2020.
Matthew L. Harris, Watchman on the Tower: Ezra Taft Benson and the Making of the Mormon Right, University of Utah Press, September 2020.
Yuval Noah Harari, “The Dangerous Quest for Identity,” Time, Jan, 30 / Feb 6, 2023.
Colin Fisher, “Group-think: what it is and how to avoid it,” The Conversation, May 27, 2021.
Spot on and gutsy to spell it out like it really is. What you’ve said has been my observation as well both in the move towards party over church but also democratic members leaving. It’s not that the democrats have quit believing but they have grown tired to the attacks and having to defend everything they say to other church members.
I remember that Marlin K. Jenson interview. Very interesting, talking about how the lack of real dialogue caused many problems in Utah. And Eugene England also wrote on Why Mormons Should be Democrats. Currently, Roger Terry at BYU is up to part 16 of his series on “Is It Possible for a Believing Latter-day Saint to Be a Republican?” He makes many excellent points, though my favorite at the moment is his Part 8 quotation from Teddy Roosevelt that Big Government is required to preserve freedom from the control of Big Corporations. And really so many Republican Talking Points amount to saying that “A man prospereth by his strength,” and “Whatsoever a man doeth should be no crime” (i.e., deregulation, especially with respect to health, safely, environmental, and ethical concerns”) which collectively demonstrate the attitude that “Am I my brother’s keeper?”