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The following is correlated from the Pew Forum Surveys. The actual chart can be viewed from a link in the article to which I am linking. The money quote is: Quote:While no definitive conclusion can be made about a religious organization’s true well-being, it is is interesting to note that there is a clear discrepancy between wealth and education and religious devotion. Churches who scored high in wealth and education (Hindus and Jews, for example) scored quite low in religious devotion. Conversely, churches who scored low in wealth and education (Historically Black Churches and Jehovah’s Witnesses) scored high in religious devotion. Most of the churches remained somewhere in the middle.
Mormons are the anomaly in this chart, as the only religious organization that scored high or relatively high in all six categories, making their composite score (55) much higher than the others.http://thevisualcommunicationguy.com/2013/11/12/religious-health-o-meter-infographic/ The LDS Church doesn’t work for everyone, but when it works, it tends to work really well. It’s easy to forget that in the midst of a faith crisis / transition, but it’s important to remember not to destroy what works so well for others just so one’s misery can have company.
Apart from Mormons, there is almost an exact inverse in the sorted scores between wealth and answers to prayers (those highest in making over $50k are lowest in prayers claimed to be answered monthly). Interesting.
Hmmmm. . . That’s interesting, but I can’t help but wonder about it. Maybe it’s because I study statistics and always question causal or correlational results! Why do you think this would be the case for Mormons? Obviously education and wealth would go together, but why do these things not deter Mormons from religiosity, as it seems to happen in other religions? Or is it that for Mormons their religion encourages education, which leads to wealth, but the blessing of that gets reinforced back to believing in the religion? It would be interesting to see if the wealthier or those with more education are as orthodox as other members. I don’t know that I like the idea of God blessing Mormons with more wealth than other religious people, so what this means remains a bit confusing to me. journeygirl, wealth is correlated to education more than to any other demographic factor. That’s why they are grouped together in the comparisons. Thus, I think it’s not so much “God blessing Mormons with more wealth” but rather the LDS Church emphasizing education so strongly – to the point of encouraging adult converts to seek more education as a way to escape poverty, heavily subsidizing higher education for members, establishing the Perpetual Education Fund, pioneering continuing education programs for adults who start but don’t complete college degrees (BYU was WAY out in front on that one decades ago), setting up new remedial educational options to be run out of meetinghouses (in the process of being rolled out currently), (in some cases) providing welfare assistance to single and/or divorced mothers to allow them to pursue degrees, etc.
I’m not aware of another denomination that makes education such a major part of its expenditure allocations. The collective, relative wealth is a result of that focus on education.
Quote:The LDS Church doesn’t work for everyone, but when it works, it tends to work really well. It’s easy to forget that in the midst of a faith crisis / transition, but it’s important to remember not to destroy what works so well for others just so one’s misery can have company.
I try to keep this in mind all the time but some times the blessings people think they are getting because they are Mormon, they get because they are practicing good common sense and it has nothing to do with their religion.
I agree, church0333 – but, in the context of this thread, sometimes they are exercising that common sense specifically because they are being encouraged at church to do so. 
I’m not in full agreement with the author’s conclusion. Just look at the data objectively and critically. Mormon’s are first in terms of marriage rates — granted. But they are 8 out of 11 on wealth and 9 out of 11 in terms of having “some college” in this sample of religions. So, I don’t see Mormons as the happy, wealthy, educated exception — they are far less wealthy than average, have less education than average, but stay married more than the average religious person. To me, the data confirms the idea that low income and education rates correlate with high commitment. Mormons are not an exception.
So, although I agree with Ray that Mormonism works for many people, I’m not sure it succeeds with the wealthy, well-educated type where other religions are not successful. In fact, the tendency for the church to see intellectuals as a threat (BKP said this once, and even the BoM is negative on the learned) confirms this for me.
At first, I felt like the problem with my own commitment is my personality. While this is partly true (I am creative, don’t like structure, achiever, intellectual type), I think there are unecessary cultural pressures that damage family and damage commitment that the church doesn’t address.
SD, I think you might have looked at the wrong color for the LDS Church. Mormons are no lower than 5th in any category. That matches the writer’s point that they are in the middle of the pack or higher in every measure. I stand corrected. I got them mixed up with Evangelicals. Now all the Evangelicals are all going to be ticked off at me. You are right, it appears that wealth and education do not correlate with lower commitment levels as with other churches. So, it appears that Mormonism works better for the wealth and educated than in other churches. Why would this be so? What are the possible reasons?
I’m not so sure it means that the LDS Church works better for the wealthy and educated. I think it probably means that the LDS Church is better at creating an environment that leads to relative wealth for more of its faithful members (the standard is $50K/year – not a really high standard in the United States as a marker of “wealth”), largely because it emphasizes education (and hard work) so strongly (which has the highest cause and effect relationship to relative wealth). I also think there are too many members who believe in the prosperity Gospel at the individual level (rather than the communal level), so they focus more directly on education and being relatively well-off financially.
I think that is an excellent aspect of Mormonism, as well as part of the curse. Like most things, there is a central paradox – and I believe many members navigate it wonderfully, while others don’t.
Old-Timer wrote:Like most things, there is a central paradox – and I believe many members navigate it wonderfully, while others don’t.
Yes, I am in the latter category. I did navigate it wonderfully for about 20 years, though. I think there is a subgroup of people who take things at face value, that overcommitment can lead to burnout, disillusionment, and a feeling that its not worth it anymore.
Old-Timer wrote:I think it probably means that the LDS Church is better at creating an environment that leads to relative wealth for more of its faithful members (the standard is $50K/year – not a really high standard in the United States as a marker of “wealth”), largely because it emphasizes education (and hard work) so strongly (which has the highest cause and effect relationship to relative wealth).
This is what I was speculating as well, but what I don’t get is why Mormons remain religious even as they obtain wealth and education. Do you think the people like us who struggle and doubt are more often in the category of higher incomes and education? Or is there no connection to being more orthodox and wealth/education like there is for other religions?
I am a self-made educated person…none of my parents had much education. So, in my case, I joined the church, and stayed committed for 20+ years, and have an OK lifestyle…am married, have advanced education. I don’t credit the church for any of that. The reason I stayed active was a) spiritual experiences b) a feature of my personality that follows through on commitments when I make them and now c) the family and social pressure.
Also, I found that GBH sort of ruined the whole education thing for me — he commented that the church leaders like education because it improves people’s ability to serve in the church. Not because education improves their character, ability to succeed, family prosperity — it improves their ability to serve in the church.
However, we don’t know the causes of this — why the well educated and wealthy Mormons tend to be more active than other religions. I think there is a possiblity it has to do with teaching that we should go to university/college/school, but I think there are a lot more rites of passage in our church than others that keep you “responding” with commitment throughout your life. And the relentless pressure to get TR’s has a lifelong impact.
church0333 wrote:Quote:The LDS Church doesn’t work for everyone, but when it works, it tends to work really well. It’s easy to forget that in the midst of a faith crisis / transition, but it’s important to remember not to destroy what works so well for others just so one’s misery can have company.
I try to keep this in mind all the time but some times the blessings people think they are getting because they are Mormon, they get because they are practicing good common sense and it has nothing to do with their religion.
Amen.
In this part of the world, most of us are not well educated or well off. I’m better educated than most local members, sometimes so much so I have to dumb things down for them… We have issues with literacy, historical knowledge, political savvy, and independent thinking. I’ve got issues with my personal wealth right now, as it’s going down the tubes.
When our members here get educated, they often disappear.
On the other hand, Americans coming into the ward are usually well educated and
often well off.
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