The term “dog whistle” refers to phrases that signal underlying bigotry toward a group without explicitly appearing bigoted. This concept gained prominence during Ronald Reagan’s first presidential campaign with the term “Welfare Queen,” which some believed evoked racial and sexist stereotypes without overtly mentioning them. Such phrases exploit existing biases subtly, influencing those with certain prejudices.
Dog whistles can be contentious because they often address legitimate issues, like welfare reform. So, claims of dog whistles can stifle debate on genuine concerns.
Still, I believe there is value in identifying dog whistles that signal anti-Mormon bigotry. My intention is not to stifle debate but to make people more aware of what might be motivating the arguments and phrases used in discourse around the Church of Jesus Christ and how those phrases are heard by those who do harbor those feelings.
Below is a list of phrases that often function as anti-Mormon dog whistles. This list is not intended to be exhaustive but rather a basic introduction to promote ongoing discussion.
“Weird”/ “Robotic” / “Secretive”
The words “weird,” “robotic,” and “secretive” are often attached to Latter-day Saints without referencing the Church specifically. The goal is to associate an individual with the anti-Mormon beliefs they already have without having to specifically reference those anti-Mormon beliefs. Some have suspicions about the motivations behind their interactions with Latter-day Saints.
This was most commonly done when Mitt Romney was a major national political figure, and his political opponents hoped to capitalize on anti-Mormon bigotry without being painted as anti-Mormon bigots themselves.
“Weird” tends to refer to the theology of the Church of Jesus Christ that is rejected by other US religionists. “Robotic” tends to refer to the tendency of Latter-day Saints to live up to their high standards. “Secretive” is a reference to nineteenth-century stereotypes of the Church while also suggesting the private temple ceremonies Latter-day Saints participate in. This usage was first identified by the “Washington Free Beacon.”
“Nice” / “Clean Cut” / “Polite” / “Mormon Smile”
These positive descriptions of Latter-day Saints are often used by those meaning sincere praise, but they can and have also been used as dog whistles.
These descriptions can be used to generate suspicion. As in, why are they so nice, clean cut, or polite?
These phrases are often used to hint at a perceived insincerity in Latter-day Saints.
Because of the Church’s active missionary program, some have suspicions about the motivations behind their interactions with Latter-day Saints. These comments can activate those suspicions in those listening.
In other cases, these comments are used to plaster over deeper bigotries, such as, “What they do is great, but what they believe is crazy.”
These types of comments can also play into benevolent prejudice that seeks to limit the types of ways certain people can participate in society by putting them in a specific box of behaviors they are allowed.
“Can Take a Joke”
Latter-day Saints have very little cultural cachet. A 2023 Pew Survey noted Latter-day Saints have the lowest net favorability rating of major US religions, beneath Muslims and Atheists, the only other groups with negative ratings.
Saying that Latter-day Saints “can take a joke” or similar derivations often functions to remind Latter-day Saints of their position at the bottom of the cultural hierarchy and the fact they can do nothing about it.
This comment often references the Church’s response to the anti-Mormon play “The Book of Mormon Musical,” in which they ran an ad saying, “The book is better.” It’s a funny joke, but it only exists because Latter-day Saints had no other reasonable alternative in responding. Indeed, any other response probably would have been perceived as “prudish” in the public eye.
“Persecution Complex”
Describing that Latter-day Saints have a “persecution complex” works to reinforce that cultural hierarchy by preventing Latter-day Saints from taking proactive steps to address the harm done to them.
The phrase “persecution complex” is most often used by those within the Latter-day Saint community. Some of those who use the phrase want to maintain their Latter-day Saint identity but prioritize how they appear to those in power. This phrase signals that they’re not like “other” members of the Church because they believe other members deserve the harm done to them.
Describing Latter-day Saints’ complaints about their treatment as a persecution complex erases both historical and present discrimination that exists.
This dog whistle is particularly insidious because it insults Latter-day Saints while rhetorically stopping them from standing up to the insult because doing so would only reinforce the insult. It’s a silencing technique.
“Cult”
Cultic studies, which were prominent in the 1980s, sought to describe anything other than the dominant religious tradition as a cult. This description was used to describe everything from Catholics to Muslims to Latter-day Saints.
Today, the phrase means little beyond “I don’t like your religion.”
However, during the 1980s, there was an effort in the Evangelical community to create “cultic studies.” This was a pseudo-academic discipline that attempted to delineate between legitimate religion and cults.
These studies conveniently described everything outside of Protestant Christianity as a cult in an effort to delegitimize their participation in the public square on the same terms as other faiths.
“LDS Inc” / “Too Much Money” / “Tax Churches”
Many complaints about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints revolve around their money management.
Like the term “welfare queen,” which refers to legitimate public policy, some of these issues can hint at legitimate public policy questions. But oftentimes, these phrases seek to avoid rather than engage these questions.
These types of epithets are often focused on the Church and not on other non-profit groups with similar non-profit status and money management techniques.
So, in practice, these issues often rely on invoking anti-Mormon bigotry to justify their conclusions because of how rarely they are brought up in contexts with organizations that do not face the same kinds of bigotry.
“Tapir”
The tapir has become a kind of inside joke among ex-Mormons. The reference refers to scholarship around The Book of Mormon. Critics of the Church of Jesus Christ often frame themselves as the victims.
Some ex-Mormons find this argument unconvincing and use the tapir to represent their dissatisfaction with the Church.
The tapir, as an anti-Mormon dog whistle, even appeared in a report to the IRS, but journalists reporting on the subject missed the reference and were thus unaware of the anti-Mormonism that motivated the report.
“Force your religion on others” / “Stay out of Politics”
Critics of the Church of Jesus Christ often frame themselves as the victims of the Church. This criticism often comes from the political left looking for approaches to discredit critics of state-recognized same-sex marriage.
But this criticism has been repurposed as a dog whistle. The critique to “stick to yourself” often hints at the Church’s missionary program.
Given how many churches are much more involved in politics, breaking the Johnson rule with impunity, and how frequently non-profit organizations of every stripe engage in political lobbying, the use of this critique against the Church of Jesus Christ often relies on activating the anti-Mormon bigotry of those listening. Because the listener does not want the Church involved in politics because of disagreements, they rely on these claims even though they would not apply them to others.
These and other forms of criticism are ways for those higher in the cultural hierarchy to try to control the terms under which Latter-day Saints are allowed to participate in the public square. While seemingly innocent on a superficial level, the use of dog whistles ultimately seeks to undermine the credibility of a minority faith and its adherents.
