From Ideology to Ideologue: How the Mormon Church Utilizes the Ideograph to Interpellate Identity

Abstract

This study sought to form a more thorough understanding of how a prominent U.S. religion has utilized internally-generated media to interpellate its preferred identity onto members. Specifically, this research investigated how the ideograph was utilized as a tool for interpellation in the context of Mormonism. To do this, an ideological criticism of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' Ensign magazine was conducted. A single ideology was found:The ideology of the perfect order. Constitutive ideographs of this ideology were also discovered.In connection to the use of gender, sex, and sexuality language to express the perfect order ideology, the ideographs of <marriage>, <family>, and <priesthood> were located. The perfect order ideology was also expressed using class ideology and the following ideographs were found in connection to this: <self-reliance>, <work>, and <tithe> were described. These results evidenced the ideograph fulfilling three specific roles as a tool for interpellation: an intermediary role, a comparative role, and a regulative role. Each of these roles and how they are carried out in the Ensign were discussed at length. Lastly, implications and limitations for this research and directions for future research were discussed.