Were you born in the MorCor?

[Indy Coug]

The reason I ask is I have read numerous things which suggest that one's faith as an adult is predicted most strongly by geographic origin. With so many Mormons being missionaries and some of them moving to the area they served in and with emphasis on education taking people away from where they were both...I wondered whether Mormons were bucking this trend at all. Or whether they are bucking the trend more than their parents.

Since this board is affiliated with BYU-Utah grads/students, it's going to be hard to get a very good cross-section for this kind of question.

[jay santos]

The reason I ask is I have read numerous things which suggest that one's faith as an adult is predicted most strongly by geographic origin. With so many Mormons being missionaries and some of them moving to the area they served in and with emphasis on education taking people away from where they were both...I wondered whether Mormons were bucking this trend at all. Or whether they are bucking the trend more than their parents.

This seems like a no brainer. Utah Mormons vs outside of Utah Mormons are more likely to have: pioneer heritage, BIC as opposed to convert, parents who are BIC as opposed to converts, two parent Mormon rather than one parent Mormon, extended family being Mormon, etc. All of these probably would contribute to someone staying in the church.

[lambdacoug]

The reason I ask is I have read numerous things which suggest that one's faith as an adult is predicted most strongly by geographic origin. With so many Mormons being missionaries and some of them moving to the area they served in and with emphasis on education taking people away from where they were both...I wondered whether Mormons were bucking this trend at all. Or whether they are bucking the trend more than their parents.

I'd say geography has little to do with it, but rather the religion of parents and whether one was raised in a religion is much more important. I'm sure that is what you meant.

[Lost Student]

[clackamascoug]

Wymount Terrace

Wy(not)mount(again)(and again) Terrace is like the epicenter of MorCor prebirthing activities, and births. I don't think you could could name a more distinctive place.

When I was a kid, we lived at 1777 Oak Lane right above Wymount, and I used to hop the fence and play basketball with guys down there. In fact, whenever I used to go anywhere I'd hop the back fence and head off through Wymount.

[UtahDan]

Since this board is affiliated with BYU-Utah grads/students, it's going to be hard to get a very good cross-section for this kind of question.

I realize that.

[Commando]

I don't consider Northern Idaho part of the MorCor. I need a ruling before responding.

I don't even consider Twin Falls or Boise part of the belt, let alone northern Idaho. Just eastern Idaho.

[UtahDan]

This seems like a no brainer. Utah Mormons vs outside of Utah Mormons are more likely to have: pioneer heritage, BIC as opposed to convert, parents who are BIC as opposed to converts, two parent Mormon rather than one parent Mormon, extended family being Mormon, etc. All of these probably would contribute to someone staying in the church.

It's more than just that though, if you look at a map of concentrations of faith there are pretty strong dividing lines of where people choose to live as adults. The idea is partly that if you live among like minded people who have a very similar "reality" to you then you are much less likely to depart from that reality. But as I say, my sense is that Mormons are increasingly raising their kids other places. Maybe I'm wrong.

[FN Phat]

I don't even consider Twin Falls or Boise part of the belt, let alone northern Idaho. Just eastern Idaho.

Can I change my yes vote to a no?

I was born in Boise, however, I was not of the fold.

[Moliere]

I don't even consider Twin Falls or Boise part of the belt, let alone northern Idaho. Just eastern Idaho.

Boise has to be part of it. They'll have two temples soon and the towns around it have decent concentrations of Mormons. There's a little town outside of Boise that has a population of 2,000 and it has two wards.

[Paperback Writer]

It's more than just that though, if you look at a map of concentrations of faith there are pretty strong dividing lines of where people choose to live as adults. The idea is partly that if you live among like minded people who have a very similar "reality" to you then you are much less likely to depart from that reality. But as I say, my sense is that Mormons are increasingly raising their kids other places. Maybe I'm wrong.

Doesn't the job market have a strong say on where people live? That and the strength of family attachemet. My expereince is that people live where they can get gainful employment. I've known a lot of families that have re-located back to Utah once they've had a career opportunity to do so. When that occurs, people state the need to be closer to family more than experiencing a shared reality. One can be an insular Mormon outside of Utah - it's really easy actually.

[UtahDan]

Doesn't the job market have a strong say on where people live? That and the strength of family attachemet. My expereince is that people live where they can get gainful employment. I've known a lot of families that have re-located back to Utah once they've had a career opportunity to do so. When that occurs, people state the need to be closer to family more than experiencing a shared reality. One can be an insular Mormon outside of Utah - it's really easy actually.

Those are all good points. Especially that as a Mormon you can live your social life completely within your faith community if you want to just about anywhere. At least in North America. But to be clear, I wasn't saying that people are thinking in terms of shared realities. Just that it seems to be the case over the long arc that people in this country tend to stay in regions where there are large concentrations of people of their own faith. I'm sure family is a component of that. A big part of it is that one's "reality" or psychological development seems influenced hugely by community. If everyone is Catholic where you grown up in the North East, that world view and way of thinking literally gets hardwired into your brain as you grown up.

I imagine the same thing is true of Mormonism, its just that Mormons are much more socially insular no matter where they are and so that powerful influence can happen in Connecticut as well as Utah (though maybe not as strongly).

[UtahDan]

What got me thinking about this was a couple MoSto podcasts I listened to recently about the psychology of religion. Really it is just about the psychology of human beings in general and is fascinating. I think we have talked about this before, but people are remarkably nonobjective, easily swayed by group think and have terrible memories. The higher the stakes are, the worse it is. It has provided me some personal insight for sure. Before you can combat these tendencies you have to be aware of them.

http://mormonstories.org/339-342-the...r-james-nagel/

Anyway, as we are saying here I think that Mormonism is different from other religions because it is so good a creating communities anywhere. Still, most people who responded to this poll so far were born around dense concentrations of their own faith so it doesn't totally buck the trend.

[FN Phat]

Boise has to be part of it. They'll have two temples soon and the towns around it have decent concentrations of Mormons. There's a little town outside of Boise that has a population of 2,000 and it has two wards.

I lived in Middleton, Idaho for a few years. It has a population of 3500. We had 5 wards at one time. I think they have redrawn ward boundries since and are sitting at 4 wards.

[wuapinmon]

I was born in Alabama to parents born in Georgia whose parents were born in Tennessee, North Carolina, and Wyoming.