Lown, who is not LDS, moved to Utah 20 years ago and said she was "astonished" early on when a student brought an article on debt from the LDS magazine, "Ensign," to class. It had 10 suggestions for dealing responsibly with money, "and all 10 things were congruent with the personal finance texts I'd been using. I was surprised at how conservative attitudes were regarding debt" back then. Yet it is that same generation of baby boomers who were reading the advice who are filing bankruptcy in such large numbers now, she said.

"It seems so puzzling. I'm concluding that Utahns are as susceptible to the pressures of advertising as people elsewhere. Maybe it's even worse here, because people know so much about their neighbors and where they work." She believes when people visit each other's homes, they may be thinking, "They have all this stuff, and why can't I have it, too? They don't make any more than I do."

A cultural expectation of being successful may figure in as well. "From talking with LDS people who have been fairly straightforward with me, I've been told you don't get to be bishop if you're a financial failure." Another observation is the "expectation that if you're a good Mormon" and pay tithing, "you will be granted financial success and everything will be taken care of."

The observation comes in part from conversations with students, including one years ago who was in her 40s, and was a "very faithful Mormon."

"She felt some of her LDS neighbors looked down on her and her (graduate student) husband because they didn't have much money, they were renting a house, and they weren't as financially successful as they were supposed to be."

Lown's assumptions are born out by some pervasive LDS myths, according to Paul Godfrey, associate professor with Brigham Young University's Marriott School of Management. A group of his students interviewed 27 Latter-day Saints in Utah County last year, asking specific questions about informal messages they had gathered from LDS culture or from unofficial church sources regarding financial management.

Several responses were given repeatedly, he said, including the following: "you'll make more money if you don't work on Sunday," "if you pray for riches you will be rewarded with riches," "if you pray for riches you will never be rich," "if you live righteously you'll be rewarded with riches," "because I pay tithing everything will be OK," "if you have children, God will provide the means to support them," "filing for bankruptcy is dishonest" and "investing in the stock market is gambling."