Geography, Utah and Religion - Utah ’s human geography, specifically religious affiliations

First some terms and concepts
Second some national trends and contrasts and concepts
Third some geographic contrasts within Utah.

CONCEPTS
Native Americans -- Utah and religion before pioneer settlements G-B Missions
LDS to Utah ... geographic reasons ... Why Utah... think the subsystems of geography / earth systems
Utah a state with a high proportion of population with church affiliation
Utah is the center of the LDS church -- a world wide religion -- world view
"Mormon cultural region"G-Bxxx G-Bxxx G-Bxxx G-Bxxx G-Bxxx G-Bxxx G-Bxxx G-Bxxx G-Bxxx
time time time time time time

Within UTAH patterns of religions
Altas, Atlas, Atlas, Atlas Episc Masons



Why a "dangerous" subject for UofU discussion in class....
So... I wanted to know more about it because I hear many opinions and want to explore the data for myself.

Statement of potential biasses:

I am a 5^th generation non-Mormon married to a 5^th generation Mormon-by-heritage and his children are active LDS. He is not but he is on the LDS church records as LDS. My mother was Utah-Catholic. My father was New England-Episcopalian. He converted to LDS in 1976 and died a true believer sealed to my step mother’s LDS family, whom we love and respect. I grew up Episcopalian, went the Presbeterian church for Brownie Scouts, the LDS ward for Girl Scouts, and went to a Quaker college. I’m grateful for my heritage and associations with LDS and non-LDS. I watch with interest discussions of divides, but, frankly, I am intellectually more interested in shoreline of Great Salt Lake as evidence of local and global climate change. I try to not answer questions about my personal beliefs.

Specific geographic questions: What are the geographic patterns of religious affiliation in Utah; how do they compare to the US; and how are they changing?

Data needed: Religious affiliation over time of Utahans by county and for the United States.

BUT I know this information only partially exists… may only exist in comparable statistics for LDS… and that is will have problems as data. I know this in part because my own church acknowledges that it does not know it’s membership except by proxy; and the US census does not track religious denomination. Therefore, from the get-go I know to appreciate the data sets but to respect their limitations. I don’t have the data I’d want to analyze.

Data that I have:

LINK Map of US showing percent of population considered as belonging to a religion in 2000

From D.W. Meinig.

____, 1965, The Mormon Culture Region: strategies and patterns in the geography of the Mmerican West, 1847-1964; Annals of the Association of American Geographers 55, no 2, 191-220. p 196: The Mormon Region, counties by percentage; p 214 The Mormon Culture Region.

____, 2002. The Shaping of America: a geographical perspective on 500 years of history, specifically page 271, figure 72, The Mormon Culture Region.

From the Atlas of Utah, 1981.

Atlas page 142 Mormon Culture Region

Atlas page 143 Mormon Church membership of western US by county

Atlas page 145 Legend to accompany maps Interpretation: of the people who consider themseleves ____, ___ % live in ___ County.

Atlas page 145 Catholics

Atlas page 146 Episcopalians

From Historical Atlas of Mormonism, 1994.

Saints of the Western States (1990) by Lowell C. Bennion LINKand handout

From the Salt Lake Tribune archives for July 24-26, 2005

Matt Canham series on changing demographics LINK? LINK? Handout?

Maps… I could create. Even though the data have shortcomings, I intend to create maps that display the Glenmary data for Utah by county and by denomination for 1971(?) and for 2000. But, until I do the work, and have had it reviewed technically, I won’t go beyond the maps shown above.

Findings:

Glenmary maps:

Observation: Utah shows gray for 1971-2000.

Observation: No other state shows solid gray, solid and striped gray.

Observation: Neighboring states have sections of gray and striped gray and these change, but not dramatically over the 3 decades.

Observation: Other colors of other states change more than Utah’s solid gray.

For maps by county:

Utah is the core geographic location of the world-wide LDS religion.

Utah’s geographies of religion have changed and are changing in response to demographic changes.

Hypothesis #1 and Finding #1:

Utah contrasts with the rest of the Nation with respect to its percentage of LDS.

Hypotheses, analysis and discussion…

Geosphere

Hydrosphere

Atmosphere

Biosphere

Anthrosphere… correlation and causation…

History

Connectedness

Leadership

Demographics

Economics

IN CLASS EXERCISE -- NOTE IT IS ANONYMOUS - Sign the roster for full credit LINK and map and Bennion discussion

Lowell Bennion…

Summarize his hypotheses… your handout

NOTE!!! This hand out is anonymous, but just being here and handing it in you get full credit.

Conclusions:

Utah contrasts with the rest of the country in its proportion of LDS congregations and membership