I just ran across an interesting quote from the historian Will Bagley, who specializes in the American West and is probably best known for his book on the infamous Mountain Meadows Massacre, a very touchy topic here in my home state of Utah:

…I’d also like to address the charges that I’m an anti-Mormon. They’re preposterous, because I am still a Mormon. I’m a heritage Mormon, and I have a great-great-grandfather, grandfathers and grandmothers on all sides, who crossed the plains, most of them before the railroad, and I’m very proud of that heritage, and very proud of the Mormon people.

 

That said, I’ve never believed the theology since I was old enough to think about it.

“Heritage Mormon.” I like that. As someone who has occasionally struggled with how, exactly, to define myself relative to the culture in which I was born and raised but never truly felt a part of, I think it’s a useful term.

Like Mr. Bagley, I trace my ancestry to the intrepid Mormon pioneers who walked across the Great Plains in 1847 in search of a remote place where they could practice their faith in peace, and I honestly take a fair amount of pride in their grit and determination. I can’t help but respect what the early church accomplished out here in the less-hospitable corners of the country. Also, I’ve seen the place where my family’s homestead once stood on the banks of the Jordan River in the central Great Salt Lake Valley and felt a deep connection with that legacy. And I feel no shame at all in admitting that my lineage includes polygamy, as do those of many of the long-established families in this state.

That said, I’ve never been a member of that church, and I do not believe in its teachings. I have a lot of problems with the Mormon culture that dominates Utah, and with the church’s deep involvement in local government. (Briefly, it often seems as if the laws here are being written by the men in the Church Office Building, not the people on Capitol Hill.) But I try not to let my frustration and, yes, occasional anger morph into outright hostility. That would be… counterproductive… considering I have a lot of family and friends who are Mormons.

With all this ambivalence about Mormonism in general, what am I supposed to call myself when people ask me if I am one, and if not, what am I? (This is not hypothetical, by the way… I’ve gotten those questions, in more or less those terms, many times, both here and when I travel.) I need something that accurately describes my outsider status without disparaging the thing I am claiming to be outside of.

“Gentile” — a term which is pretty commonly used in Mormon culture to describe people who aren’t Mormon — has always struck me as odd, probably because it seems like that one ought to be exclusive to our Jewish friends. “Ex-Mormon” doesn’t apply; as I said, I was never actually a member. (Although I did attend “primary” classes — i.e., the Mormon Sunday school for kids — when I was a small boy.) And “non-Mormon” doesn’t really seem right to me, either. To my thinking, that implies someone from a completely different tradition, a polar opposite. And you can’t grow up in this place, immersed in this culture and these beliefs, surrounded by so many loved ones who are members, without being informed by it. I may not be a believer, but there’s no question in my mind I was shaped by Mormonism and its traditions, whether that shape was in response against it or an embrace of it.

So… “heritage Mormon.” Meaning “of Mormon heritage,” but not necessarily implying membership. Yeah… that works for me. What do you think?

(If you’re wondering, the source for that quote is here.)