Latter-day Saints are full of jokes, jabs and judgments about so-called “Utah Mormons” — how church members who live in the heart of the faith are somehow different than those who live elsewhere.
New survey findings from writer-researcher Jana Riess show that’s true, especially when it comes to orthodoxy and some cultural influences.
Latter-day Saint scholar Patrick Mason, who grew up in Utah but has lived in the Midwest, Eastern Europe and now Southern California, has noticed the differences, too. For instance, in those places away from the Intermountain West’s Mormon Belt, he said, when members attended church, it didn’t matter how they were dressed.