In 1972, faithful Mormon sociologist Harold T. Christensen published a warning about the pressures built into LDS family culture.
Using decades of research on marriage, sexuality, fertility, and family life, he identified five major stress points: sexual repression, young marriage, guilt surrounding premarital sex, pressure to have large families, and patriarchal authority in the home.
Christensen found that Utah’s divorce rate was higher than the national average, even though Mormonism placed extraordinary emphasis on marriage and family. He argued that the Church’s usual response—asking individuals to repent and try harder—ignored structural problems within the culture itself.
In this episode, Hannah examines Christensen’s research on temple marriage and divorce, Mormon purity culture, early marriage, birth control, gender roles, priesthood authority, and the gap between the idealized Mormon family and the reality many families experience.
More than fifty years later, his analysis remains strikingly relevant.
Read Harold T. Christensen’s “Stress Points in Mormon Family Culture”:https://www.dialoguejournal.com/articles/stress-points-in-mormon-family-culture/
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