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Leavers are redder than many think

We’ve written recently about how U.S. Latter-day Saints, especially younger ones, are shifting to the left politically.

But what about former members?

It’s a question that captured the attention of data geek Alex Bass, who made a startling discovery.

“Members are becoming less Republican,” he writes at Mormon Metrics. “Leavers are becoming more Republican.”

In fact, Bass notes from a 2024 Pew study, former Latter-day Saints represent “the only major religious tradition in America where Republicans outnumber Democrats among leavers, 41% to 37%.”

Lest you think GOP elephants are running wild, Bass says that ex-members remain far more likely than members to be riding Democratic donkeys. After all that 4 percentage point edge for Republicans among leavers swells to 35 to 40 points among the stayers.

In a follow-up Mormon Metrics post, Bass explores why former members are more likely to lean red than blue and landed on a key reason: education.

It turns out that adults who leave the church are more likely to lack a college degree than those who stay. And those without that educational attainment are more likely to be Republicans.

A big question: Do these leavers stay red or slowly turn blue?

Latest ‘Mormon Land’ podcast: A conversation with Carol Lynn Pearson

Legendary Latter-day Saint poet Carol Lynn Pearson fought for the Equal Rights Amendment, women’s rights and the LGBTQ+ community. Now her first diary in a four-volume series is out. She discusses her life, legacy and how she, in essence, left “parts” of the church.

Listen to the podcast.

Around the world

• President Camille Johnson, leader of the worldwide women’s Relief Society, met with Maryland Gov. Wes Moore last month.

The two discussed ways to expand service opportunities in the state.

“Service is something we believe to our core,” Moore, a Democrat and Maryland’s first Black governor, said in a news release.

• The Democratic Republic of Congo is home to three new stakes, giving the Central African nation 49 of these regional clusters of congregations, independent church tracker Matt Martinich reports at ldschurchgrowth.blogspot.com.

Meanwhile, Zimbabwe and Mozambique gained two new stakes apiece, while Argentina, Benin, Brazil, Florida, Honduras, Idaho, Madagascar, Mexico, North Carolina, Tennessee, Utah and Zambia each added one stake.

• Apostle Gary Stevenson racked up plenty of travel miles last month with visits to Australia, New Caledonia, Samoa and American Samoa.

Meeting with members, missionaries, youth and civic leaders, Stevenson emphasized the universal nature of the Latter-day Saint gospel and God’s enduring love.

“This is a work of happiness, of gladness, of joy,” he said during a stop in Perth, Australia. “It is God’s plan of happiness.”

• On a literary front, “Latter-day Eloquence: Two Centuries of Mormon Oratory” is out this week.

“Latter-day Saints exhibit a reverence for the spoken word and its centrality to their lived experience,” co-editors Richard Benjamin Crosby and Isaac James Richards write in a By Common Consent blog post. “They demonstrate a great love of eloquent orators, like the late Jeffrey R. Holland and the charismatic Dieter F. Uchtdorf. They also show a profound respect for more austere speaking styles, like that of Bruce R. McConckie or Spencer W. Kimball.”

The volume features voices ranging from Eliza Snow, Emmeline Wells and James Talmage to Mitt Romney, Richard Bushman and Melissa Inouye.

• Stretching out along a wide bend in the mighty Mississippi River, Joseph’s “City Beautiful” (i.e., Nauvoo) made the World Atlas’ list of 12 “most charming towns” in Illinois.

The historic district, a designated national landmark, includes the rebuilt Nauvoo Temple, the Joseph and Emma Smith Homestead, the Mansion House, the Red Brick Store and the graves of the martyred church founder, his brother Hyrum and wife Emma.

• Germany’s president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, met last week with the church’s popular German apostle, Dieter Uchtdorf, at Berlin’s historic Bellevue Palace.

From The Tribune

• Women were as central to Jesus’ ministry as men, says a top Primary leader.

• The church’s lesson on U.S. founding celebrates pluralism in a rebuke to Christian nationalism.

• Echoing Pope Leo XIV, apostle Gerrit Gong emphasizes that artificial intelligence needs a “moral compass.”

• How the church’s new Humanitarian Center makes space for Muslim workers.

• A new digital database tells the remarkable history of a Native American Latter-day Saint congregation.

• Tribune guest columnist Eli McCann comes face-to-face with pure religion during a train trip in Ukraine.

• Fellow guest columnist Rebbie Brassfield wonders how far fame will take “Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” star Whitney Leavitt.

• A guest commentary says Latter-day Saints are obligated to speak up for the world’s poor.

• Three weeks after a fire at the Eugene O’Neill Theater, “The Book of Mormon” musical is back on Broadway.