what does "Mormon" mean?

I posted previously saying "I'm not a Mormon," and generally on this blog, I refer to myself as "ex-Mormon." But I'd like to pick apart those labels a little. While I'd say that labels are never adequate to describe that complicated psyche inside each person, labels are useful, like shorthand, so I still use them.

Let's start with "Mormon."

It really depends on who you ask.

When I was a faithful, believing member of the LDS church, I considered the word Mormon to apply only to members of the LDS church, be they "active," or "inactive." I couldn't imagine that "inactives" were anything but believers who just had a few problems (with themselves) that were keeping them from coming to church. I didn't consider members of RLDS, FLDS, and any other iterations of Joseph Smith's church to be Mormon. I would venture to guess that many other LDS hold this same definition of Mormon.

As I adjusted my view of the church, I expanded the label Mormon to include any member of any church that places its origins with Joseph Smith. RLDS (now Community of Christ), FLDS, TLC, other polygamous churches, independent polygamists. All Mormon, though not LDS.

Some call Mormons, especially those with roots in Utah, an ethnic group. I didn't like that idea at first. You can't just invent an ethnic group, I thought. Ethnic groups just are. But the more I thought about it, and about the European history of (sometimes arbitrary) formation of ethnic groups in Africa, I realized that ethnic groups are by and large human made. So why not a Mormon one? What makes Mormons an ethnic group? The many generations of endogamy (marrying within the group), the distinct culture, the distinct religion, a geographic center, even a stereotype about what Mormons look like (see below).

If you ask an average American, Mormon means something particular. I never realized it until it was pointed out to me, but there is also a stereotype about what physical characteristics Mormons have. Light-haired, fair-skinned, northwestern European-looking. "Like Ken Jennings," someone told me. And while the expanding church includes people of all races and skin colors, the stereotype of Mormons as white, blond, and innocently sanguine persists. Of course, there are the stereotypes of polygamy, conservatism, innocence to the point of naivety, zealousness, wholesomeness, niceness. Like the creators of South Park said, "If we want to portray a really good, wholesome person, we make him a Mormon." (Quote from BYU NewsNet, but don't link the site from me.)