Earlier this month, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints changed its view on LGBTQ members. “Immoral conduct in heterosexual or homosexual relationships will be treated the same way,” church leaders announced, but married LGBTQ church members will no longer be seen as apostates, and the children of such unions can be baptized in the church. This changed rolled back a 2015 policy that caused quite a bit of heartache in the church, with a certain number either formally leaving the church or just staying away. Many report being happy about the recent change, but will it be enough to keep these folks and their supporters in the fold?
As Jana Riess notes in her new book The Next Mormons: How Millennials Are Changing the LDS Church, the church is not declining in membership, but its growth has started to slow. Riess, a senior columnist for the Religion News Service, finds that “church activity and fervor also appear to be waning among some younger members,” with internal research showing that “only 30 percent of young single adult Mormons could be considered active participants.”
Looking at survey data, including a new survey commissioned for this book, Riess says the top three reasons that millennial former members say they left the church are they “felt judged or misunderstood,” they “did not trust the church leadership,” and the “LGBT issue.” The last one is what really marked the departure for this younger generation, according to Riess, who notes that LGBT issues “did not even crack the top 10 for Mormons over age fifty-two.”
How the church manages this issue may determine what the church looks like in the next few decades. It would be easy to say that the more conservative churches in the United States have done the best at maintaining their membership over time, and that if the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints follows that path, they may have the most success. But the fact that this church believes in continuing revelation suggests that it might have a different definition of what is “conservative.” If there is a revelation that gay relationships are within the realm of acceptable behavior — as there was in 1978 when the leaders of the church determined that black men could receive the priesthood, or when polygamy was prohibited in 1890 — is that the church changing or staying the same?
There are real differences between younger and older church members. Though the young ones still tithe in large numbers, they are less likely to follow the Word of Wisdom, which is a set of behavioral standards that include not drinking alcohol or caffeine. They also seem less likely to be influenced by the central church authority and more influenced by the people immediately around them.
But The Next Mormons is as much about what has allowed the church to thrive until this point as it is about whether that pattern will continue. Take attendance at seminary, which is the church’s version of religious school. Unlike most other American religious groups, seminary mostly takes place during high school instead of earlier, which means that both the curriculum and social aspect of the experience will likely have a stronger effect on religious development and the formation of friendships and romantic relationships with co-religionists. Riess notes that students who attended seminary all four years are 33% more likely to identify as Latter-day Saints today.
Then there are the missions that young church members go on. When the church lowered the age for mission work a few years ago, the option became even more popular. In 2018, there were 67,000 missionaries in service, compared to only 51,000 in 2004. Former missionaries report not only that this service has a strong effect on the development of their faith, they also say it helps them with work, such as learning to speak to strangers and handle rejection well, for instance, as well as their marriages.
The value that the church places on marriage and the nuclear family is very high, and Latter-day Saints tend to marry young and have more children than the average American. But the age of marriage may be creeping up, and more church members seem to be choosing not to marry. The church leadership is caught between trying to put these young people in singles wards together, so they are more likely to meet each other and marry, and keeping them with regular wards, as not to isolate them from families and other generations. Either way, there are complaints. As one woman tells Riess, “I feel like the family has become an idol to the church and we worship it.”
In America, marriage and families go hand in hand with church attendance and other religious practices. The fact that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has placed such a strong emphasis on early marriage and large families has probably saved it from the population decline of other faiths. According to Riess, “The question ahead for the LDS Church as it moves further into the twenty-first century is how far it is willing to accommodate new social norms if the risk of not doing so is that … a substantial percentage of its young people may exit.” But there is a risk on the other side as well: that accommodating new, secular social norms in which marriage is optional and families are smaller may lead fewer people to enter.
Naomi Schaefer Riley is a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and a senior fellow at the Independent Women’s Forum.
