When Dialogue editor Kristine Haglund discussed Mormonism on a March 2012 installment of CSPAN’s “Religion and American Politics,” she suggested Mormons “learn very early on that Mormonism is something to be constantly performed.” She said that many Mormons have “this sense that [they’re] always on stage, . . . always showing people how good Mormonism is by [their] actions.” By weaving together personal and academic reflections on performativity, this paper will explore the sense of Mormon performativity that Haglund described and discuss the various acts (including rituals, cultural norms, etc.) people might use to “put on” Mormonism, both in theatrical terms of staging the religion for others and in discursive terms of constructing a Mormon identity.

Tyler Chadwick