Talk:Jack Mormon

Seagull

This claim seems dubious and unrelated to "Jack Mormon":

A "Jack Seagull" also a pejorative term, refers to a seagull that won't eat crickets.

Before reinserting this line, please give some references. Also explain why this concept is related to Jack Mormon.

WpZurp 4 July 2005 16:09 (UTC)

Jack Mormons and membership

I find the following paragraph to be dubious, but I haven't removed it from the article:

Because of the difficulty in maintaining membership in the church as an unbeliever, it is common for Jack Mormons and other Cultural Mormons to keep their doubts a secret, and maintain a facade of believing in the Church's doctrines, while justifying their inactivity in other ways that will be less likely to cause conflict within the family. One such group founded an Internet community to maintain anonymity, and refers to itself as the New Order Mormons.

I personally know some families of "Jack Mormons". I haven't discussed with them why they are, what we call "inactive" (non-attending), mostly because they are from an older generation; I used to play with their children. I know that one of the parents regularly drinks beer. Their children were baptized but "inactive" as long as I knew them, and I assume that they still are; they have long since moved away. But in the 40+ years that I've known them, they have been "inactive" and are still members of the church. The paragraph that I highlighted above gives the wrong impression about maintaining membership for such people.

What I think that you are meaning to discuss are those, who in other churches would be called "heretics". That is not a term that I have heard used inside the CoJCoLDS to refer to such individuals, but I haven't known any such persons personally. So as not to confuse the issue, I think that this paragraph needs to be reworded. Perhaps it would be best to link to "Related Terms" such as "New Order Mormons". Val42 July 4, 2005 21:55 (UTC)

I know we're not necessarily voting, but I'd remove or at least revise it, being an overgeneralization. While that may very well be true for many "Jack Mormons," there's many more who make little effort to hide any disinterest or lack of effort on their part in following LDS doctrine... some even embrace the title. However, I'd keep a link to the NOM, but stick it at the end under See Also. On an unrelated note, is there any reason that in one usage the term "Mormonites" is used instead of "Mormons"? Deadsalmon 14:05, 29 October 2005 (UTC)

Jack Mormon incorrectly defined

I believe the history of the term is incorrect, but don't have sources to my opinion, but leave it to, "I believe I read somewhere." That said, I believe I read somewhere that the term Jack Mormon originated as a pejorative term used by Mormons residing in Kirkland Ohio to refer to the Mormons in Jackson County Missouri, whom the Kirkland Mormons viewed as less orthodox or devout. Does anyone have any input?207.175.209.1 01:07, 14 November 2005 (UTC)

That is not correct. Jack Mormon was a term used to define folks in Jackson County (and later Hancock county) who were not Church Members, but were friendly toward the church. Today the term has been replaced with the term "dry Mormon" while in Utah in the early to mid-1900s the term Jack Mormon was changed to refer to members of the church who were friendly toward the church, but did not keep the minimum requirements to be called "Latter-day Saints" (ie, drink, smoke or otherwise do not observe the word of wisdom, are less active but accept hometeachers, have sexual sins, don't pay tithing etc.). In this new sense, the term is applied more toward those who were less active but friendly toward the church. For some reading on the topic, you may want to read the references below - it will be very apparent that the change took place between 1940 and 1970. My research has led me to believe Preston Nibley was the cultural influence behind the change (he had great influence over the culture of the Church in the 1900s, through his books and speeches - many Missionary colloquial term originated from him) - as it seems he is the first reported to have mis-used the term that I can find:

"3.Sharp was once an anti-Masonic editor of western New York. He invented the name "Jack-Mason," for all such persons as refused to take part in the anti-Masonic movement of that day and neighborhood, according to a correspondent to the Illinois State Register, writing under date of November 1st, 1844. He it was, also, according to this same authority, who coined the phrase "Jack-Mormon," an opprobrious epithet applied to such non-"Mormons" of Illinois who did not favor the illegal procedure and mob violence of Sharp and his associates against the "Mormons." He is also described as having made himself the "organ of a gang of town lot speculators at Warsaw, who are afraid that Nauvoo is about to kill off their town and render speculations abortive." (The State register article is copied into the Nauvoo Neighbor of Nov. 13th, 1844.)" - B. H. Roberts, Comprehensive History of the Church, Vol.2, Ch.60, p.322

"When he arrived in Utah he was met by Captain Hooper and a party of friends in a special car at Farmington, and escorted to the city. He came to the territory at the time the McKlean judicial crusade was at its height, and when anything like conservatism in relation to Utah affairs was out of the question; for no sooner was such a disposition manifested than it evoked the most violent attacks from the anti-"Mormon" "ring" and its organ, the Salt Lake Tribune, which was then supporting the judicial crusade to which reference is made above. In evidence of this it only needs to be pointed out that the fact of Governor Axtell being met by his old friend Captain Hooper, with whom he had served In congress, and by him accompanied to Salt Lake City, as already described, was made cause of offense by the Utah anti-"Mormon ringites," and was sufficient to discredit the newly arrived governor with them, and led at once to his being denounced as a "Jack-Mormon"- (i. e., one not a member of the church but in sympathy with the "Mormons")." - B. H. Roberts, Comprehensive History of the Church, Vol.5, Ch.152, p.596

"19. Hay says four shots were fired--his information came, of course, from the mob side. He also says that Joseph Smith had "two loaded, six-barrelled revolvers," and hints at responsibility attaching to General Miner R. Deming, whom he calls the "Jack-Mormon sheriff of Hancock county," for the prisoners having arms." - B. H. Roberts, Comprehensive History of the Church, Vol.2, Ch.57, p.285-

"On motion of the defense the array of jurors chosen in the first week of the trial was set aside because of alleged prejudice of the county commission and the county sheriff and deputies who selected them. Thomas Owen and Wm. D. Abernethy were appointed elisors for the case. Neither of these elisors was a "Mormon." The first was regarded as a "Jack-Mormon," the second was known as an anti-"Mormon"... "One friend of the Mormons and one anti-Mormon were appointed for this purpose; [i. e. to choose the jury] but as more than a thousand men had assembled under arms at the court to keep away the Mormons and their friends, the jury was made up of these military followers of the court, who all swore that they had never formed or expressed any opinion as to the guilt or innocence of the accused." - B. H. Roberts, Comprehensive History of the Church, Vol.2, Ch.60, p.323 - p.324

"Mother and Sidnie are still mending. The mobbers have been burning the houses of the Saints up to this time. They have burned out and drove all south of us, and they have sent us word that they would visit us today. They have permitted the brethren to take their things out of their houses before they set them afire. The Twelve Apostles have counseled the Saints not to resist them up to the present time, although Sheriff Backenstos has done all in his power to quell them. He is friendly to the Saints and the mobbers hate him. They call him a Jack Mormon. We fully expected the mob would burn our houses today, and I began to prepare for it, by taking some of the things out of my house." Warren Foote Autobiography, typescript, BYU-S, p.71 - p.72- "17th.

Assembly Honoring George Luther Barrett, BYU Speeches, October 14, 1960, p.8 "but Uncle George insists that he is a Jack-Mormon. He says that if you do not know what a Jack-Mormon is, to tell you that it is the closest thing to being a Mormon without being one" (traditional sense)

"I must admit, however, that I am attracted by the immediacy of some of the descriptions of people and places--Manti often comes alive--and to the insight the writer shows in dealing with certain cultural discomforts. Her definition of a Jack Mormon: Jack Mormons are Mormons who aren't really. Or aren't all the way. It usually means they are Mormons but they don't keep the Word of Wisdom which forbids the use of tobacco, alcohol, coffee, tea, Coca-Cola, drinks too hot or too cold or anything that's bad for the body. When you ask somebody "Are you a Mormon?" and he says he's a Jack Mormon, that means he takes a drink. It also excuses him for almost everything." - Book Reviews, BYU Studies, Vol. 16, No. 3, p.434

" I am grateful to have had the privilege to serve in the mission field, grateful for the opportunity that is mine now to be in the Northwest. I bring you the greetings of one hundred forty missionaries, lovely young men and women, and eleven thousand members of the Church, Latter-day Saints scattered all over the Northwest. It is reported that president Nibley said, "You can walk up to any old bush in the Northwest and give it a kick and out jumps a Jack Mormon." (Laughter.) It is strange how far our people have traveled. We find them everywhere,-way up in Alaska, in Fairbanks, 100 of them. In Anchorage, now that the soldiers are gathering there, there will be many of them. In Ft. Lewis and Camp Murray there are over a thousand of our boys that have come from Idaho points. We have been holding meetings with them, fine, clean, lovely young men, and it has been a joy to be with them. We have there too the careless ones, but there are the fine ones--true Latter-day Saints. Their example has been glorious and lovely." - Nicholas G. Smith, Conference Report, April 1941, p.127

Delbert L. Stapley, BYU Speeches, May 5, 1964, p. 8 "He referred to another young man in the company's foreign service who had fulfilled a Church mission in the country of his employment whom he designated a "jack-Mormon." He did not speak of him in the same glowing terms of admiration and respect as he did these two young men before me." (new terminology)

Hope this helps. -Visorstuff 15:09, 14

November 2005 (UTC)

Query on source of term??

I'm digging deep in Seminary memory for this one -- but isn't the term "jack" related to the term "jack" (and "jenny") for mules? Calling something a "jack" (in the nineteenth century) meant it had the general appearance of the real thing, but was actually different in a significant way, i.e. "A mule is not a horse - but sure looks like one." And -- as used by critics of Mormons and friends of Mormons -- it had a meaning approaching the word "jackass." The Mormons evidently adopted the term and put a positive spin on it (as they did with "Mormon"). I have no source. Anyone else remember something like this? WBardwin 05:58, 4 April 2006 (UTC)

I knew there was something to this. Evidently the Salt Lake Tribune used the "mule" analogy on Feb 17, 1875. See: Bagley, Pat. " 'Jack Mormon' once meant something else" Salt Lake Tribune, January 13, 2008, p. B4. WBardwin (talk) 09:30, 14 January 2008 (UTC)

Do we really need this article here?

This all seems rather irrelevant to the purpose of wikipedia and to Latter-Day Saints in general. As far as I can tell, there is no general agreement on what this term means now, anyway (I refuse to use it, myself). When I hear it, it sounds to me like former church member who will not associate with us now. I guess I am just too young to get it; anyway, I would recommend just making this an article for deletion and getting it out of here. --Matthew 04:42, 10 July 2006 (UTC)

• Or maybe it would be just as well to make this a stub i.e. once used to describe individuals friendly to Mormons (by people hostile to Mormons), but now commonly used by Mormons in a slightly pejorative way. Like I noted before, it just seems to lack relevance here and doesn't reflect well on anyone-- in or out of the church. --Matthew 04:46, 10 July 2006 (UTC)

"When I hear it, it sounds to me like former church member who will not associate with us now." My great-grandmother was born into a family who had converted to and left Mormonism within a space of some thiry years ca. 1870-1900. In our family "Jack Mormon" has been used to describe this status as a former member, both as a factual term and as a term that carried a certain amount of pride for us, as well as a pejorative term for Mormon aquaintances. The lack of association was definitely two sided, both shunned and shunning. This article is largely written from a viewpoint which can be construed as an official LDS viewpoint; this may well be an NPOV problem.

You sound as though you have valuable insight in to this topic. Please add the content that you see fit. Val42 02:55, 3 August 2006 (UTC)

I think that this (along with "cultural mormon") should not be a Wikipedia entry (see wikipedia's stance on neologisms) but rather a Wiktionary entry. The fact that third party sources rarely publish on this subject is a good sign that it isn't an appropriate subject for Wikipedia. gdavies 07:15, 20 January 2007 (UTC)

"Cultural Mormon" might be problematic, but "Jack Mormon" is emphatically not a neologism unless 160 years is "coined recently". From the OED:

1845 Quincy (Ill.) Whig 30 Oct. 2/1 *Jack Mormons, and sympathizers abroad may croak and groan over the poor Mormons. 1846 Jack-mormon [see BIG-HEAD 3b]. 1890 Congress. Rec. 2 Apr. 2941/2 In our country we have a genus homo called ‘Jack-Mormon’,..a class of individuals who do not belong to the Mormon church,..yet who are ever found doing the bidding of Mormon priests. 1947 Time 21 July 21/1 The number of backsliding ‘jack-Mormons’ is increasing.

There's also a 1992 book titled In Mormon Circles: Gentiles, Jack Mormons, and Latter-Day Saints ISBN 0201608111. It's a term useful enough that reporters and authors have identified people as belonging to this group. Cool Hand Luke 23:23, 20 January 2007 (UTC)

Yes, this is a great article to have. Greenw47 (talk) 13:02, 11 April 2008 (UTC)

Mormon as an "Ethnicity"?

since when? I don't think an anthropologist would agree with that definition. 15.251.169.70 15:24, 6 July 2007 (UTC)

See Mormons for clarification about this. -- 208.81.184.4 (talk) 20:47, 18 July 2011 (UTC)

Liberal-leaning Democrats in the 1900s?

The passage in the section about political usage "LDS Church membership was made up predominantly of liberal-leaning Democrats until the early 1900s, possibly due to anti-Mormon positions held by the Republican party during the latter half of the 19th Century" is unsourced, and I doubt its accuracy as the Democratic Party pre-New Deal was a predominantly conservative political party. Andrewlp1991 (talk) 06:11, 18 March 2011 (UTC)

"[L]iberal-leaning" is an obvious modern misunderstanding, but it is correct that after the People's Party (Utah) was disbanded and LDS members were encouraged to join national parties, the majority of LDS were Democrats until the end of WWII. Much of this was in reaction to the role that the Republican party played in the late 19th century battles over polygamy, both nationally and locally; this included the way the Republican Party in Idaho disenfranchised LDS in Idaho for the political gain of their local party members. -- 208.81.184.4 (talk) 20:43, 18 July 2011 (UTC)

Recommend splitting the article - Jack Mormon and Inactive Mormon

I recommend splitting this article into two articles. One would be Jack Mormon, the historical term, the other would be Inactive Mormon(s) (with or without the s, I don't care). I don't think I've ever heard the term Jack Mormon used in reference to inactive members or less-active members outside of Wikipedia. I am not familiar with sources on the subject, but Bushman's 2008 Mormonism: a very short introduction talks about the definition of being "active" in the church on pages 53-55, and talks about "inactive" members on page 107. "Jack," however, doesn't show up at all. I think the Wikipedia guideline WP:MOSNAME supports me in this. Thoughts? Adjwilley (talk) 17:12, 14 July 2011 (UTC)

Jack Mormon for "less than active" was common usage when I was growing up (was outside of Utah but within the Mormon Corridor). I can give you one example of usage off the top of my head by Jack Dempsey: Nichols, Jeffrey D. (1995), "Jack Dempsey Loved Fighting, Mining, and Cowboying", History Blazer, Utah State Historical Society, I'm proud to be a Mormon. And ashamed to be the Jack Mormon that I am. {{citation}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help) -- 208.81.184.4 (talk) 20:31, 18 July 2011 (UTC)

Common usage in my family as well, both those living in Provo, Utah & Vernal, Utah and now scattered around the country. I still hear the term quite often, especially from older members of the family. Flourish (talk) 15:05, 3 February 2013 (UTC)

Looks like I missed that this quote was already in the article. I fixed the ref for it though. -- 208.81.184.4 (talk) 18:55, 19 July 2011 (UTC)

OED includes an example of the usage of "jack mormon" under variants of the noun "jack", and Merriam-Webster Dictionary online includes a definition as well (jack mormon). -- 208.81.184.4 (talk) 21:12, 18 July 2011 (UTC)

In Sojourner in the Promised Land: Forty Years among the Mormons Jan Shipps uses the term in the modern sense as well. -- 208.81.184.4 (talk) 21:47, 18 July 2011 (UTC)