The church of modern-day Mormonism

SERIOUS SOCIAL WATCHERS ARE lately enjoying fascinating changes occurring in the world of Christianity. Faiths are being transformed or are actively resisting transformation as they attempt to adjust to, or resist being affected by (usually impossible), the massive transformations taking place in society at large, specifically in the areas of communications and social relations, both interpersonal and group.

This process of accommodation and resistance is particularly fascinating to watch in America's homegrown Mormons, a faith based on founder Joseph Smith's visions/hallucinations, revelations/ideas, and translations/literary efforts (depending on your point of view). The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormon) is possibly the most aggressive, selfassured, conservative, well-organized church on earth, and is fast becoming one of the wealthiest and most politically influential both here and abroad. Throughout its history the Church has adapted very well to its American environment, managing to both deal effectively with outside pressures and yet maintain a definite aloofness, always insisting that it was and is God's only authorized church, restored to the earth since the demise of Christ's own, which was ostensibly diluted and eventually destroyed by the introduction of man-made doctrine. In response to persecution in Missouri and Illinois, Mormons pioneered the Great Basin, establishing their singular empire in the valleys of the Rocky Mountains. Later, when even there the mores of the nation overtook them, they abandoned the practice of polygamy, which had been a critical staple of the faith, in favor of better national relations and eventual statehood. A few years ago yet another Mormon hallmark was abandoned in the face of various pressures when blacks were finally admitted to the Mormon priesthood, ending over a century of racial discrimination.

What is happening now, and what is making for such interesting viewing, are Church reactions to possibly the most serious challenges it has ever faced, more serious by far to its institutional integrity than the persecutions at its founding or the eventual abandonment of central beliefs. This is the challenge to the Church's sacred history, its virtual core, and is the result of intense scholarly/historical inquiry into Mormon origins. Mormon beliefs are not strangers to hostile criticism, having generated controversy since their inception and during their development in the previous century. What's different is that today the criticism is backed by solid professional research and is occurring as the Information Age begins to kick into high gear, insuring wide and thorough dissemination.

It should be noted that today many Christian denominations face the trial of scholarly examination, and even no less than the person of Christ himself is now subject to possibly the most intense scrutiny ever, often with profoundly disturbing results to the orthodox of many faiths.'

There are other issues. The role of women in Mormondom is debated by lay members more and more in the same terms in which the black priesthood issue was debated decades before. Women, virtually without voice in the decision' -making bodies of the Church, have replaced minorities as the second-class Mormons of today, and how long they wilt consent to remain so only time will tell, though signs of their growing impatience are appearing.

Another problem is the Church's and individual members' enthusiastic participation in government and big business. Some say that the Church itself is a big business, or, alternately, a business cult, both encouraging and benefiting from the worldly success of its members. (Faithful Mormons tithe ten to fifteen percent of their income to the Church, and the latest figures of which I am aware put Church income from all sources at well over six million dollars a day.) The achievement of financial success is an extremely important element in the lives of most Mormon men, leading frequently, if indirectly, to prestigious ecclesi, astical positions.

Yet, with all its money, the Church's lack of involvement in the pressing problems of earth - starvation, warfare, ecodestruction, social injustice, disease - is striking. Mormons seem to view these things as either inevitable (sure signs of the Last Days), or of little consequence; they have more important work to be about, such as raising families in the faith, converting "gentiles" (non-Mormons) to the faith, accumulating more money and power in the national and international arenas, ostensibly in preparation for the role the Church sees itself playing before the Second Coming. (The Church's explosive international growth will likely soon require it to take the problems of earth a little more seriously, causing it to alter a few of its more radically conservative policies and adjust its programs to meet the needs of foreign members who, for instance, may be impoverished and illiterate.) But the questions and problems related to the Church's sacred history are the most ominous because they threaten the foundations of the faith. More than any other major American church, the Latter-Day Saints depend on their history. It is a given that certain events actually and literally happened at certain times, usually as the result of a brief interface between man and God, specifically between one man, Joseph Smith, and God. Here are a few examples of problems related to that sacred history:

1 - The character of Joseph Smith. Arguments on this topic have been quite literally raging since the birth of Mormonism in the 1830s. Fawn Brodie's cornerstone biography of the prophet, No Man Knows My History, 3 focused the debate in scholarly circles, and lately a deluge of work on Smith and early Mormonism has both confirmed much of Brodie's carlier research and enlarged the debate as well. Brodie and later writers examine the seemingly direct influence of Smith's father's dreams (which his father had recorded) on the content of some of the prophet's later "translations" of ancient documents, his dubious financial dealings, and his entanglement with the occult, especially treasure hunting through the medium of peepstones. Most embarrassing for modern Mormonism, which has steadily developed a broadly repressive attitude towards sex, was his sexual relationship with numerous women besides his wife, including the wives of other men, largely, though perhaps not exclusively, through his introduction of "the principle," plural marriage, which both he and other Mormon leaders practiced clandestinely years before it became institutionalized Church-wide. Obviously these activities throw doubt on Joseph's prophetic claims to be the earthly representative of the same god who gave us the Ten Commandments - tricky stuff to handle from the pulpit. Solution: pretend none of it ever happened, a tactic the Church is finding increasingly harder to execute.

2 - Joseph Smith's visions. The First Vision, the initial appearance of God the Father and Jesus Christ to a young, earnest and inquiring Joseph in a grove of trees on the morning of a spring day in 1820, is the seminal event in Mormonism. But the version canonized in Mormon scripture represents a somewhat different event from those described by Joseph in other accounts, including versions related to confidants. Reconciling these conflicting stories in justification of the canonized version has been and will continue to be a major problem for the Church as its early years come under increasing historical scrutiny; viewing Joseph's visionary experiences against a backdrop of similar phenomena occurring to a wide variety of people of differing supernatural persuasions futher dilutes

the Church's claim to exclusivity.

3 - The Pearl of Great Price. Another Mormon scripture, besides the Bible (which Mormons believe contains true scripture unfortunately but unavoidably mixed with the doctrines of man), the Doctrine & Covenants (a record of revelations received by Joseph and a few later prophets), and the Book of Mormon (discussed below). The Pearl of Great Price contains what Joseph claimed were his inspired translations of sacred scripture from ancient papyri which he obtained from a traveling show. Recently some of these papyri surfaced at the Smithsonian Institution, and subsequent translation by contemporary scholars has entirely failed to substantiate Joseph's claim for the papyri, proving them instead to be an ordinary Egyptian funerary document.

4 - The Book of Mormon. This key Mormon Scripture is represented as a record of actual events occurring on the American continents from B.C. 600 to A.D. 421. "Translated" by Smith with peepstones from ancient metal plates, the location of which Smith claimed was disclosed to him by an angel, the book is a record of the rise and fall of a Hebrew civilization transplanted to America by God, written by the ruling members of that civilization (the residue of which is said to be some of the American Indian groups) in a language called "Reformed Egyptian." Never taken seriously by professional non-Mormon archaeologists or anthropologists, the book now also has its back against the wall in terms of textual criticism as well.

The Church is slowly modifying the claims it makes for it, but the book willlikely survive as a remarkable tome of faith and parable. What will be interesting is how long the Church maintains its historical claims in the face of ever-building contrary evidence.

With all its problems, Mormon religion and culture also have many achievements and strengths to their credit, some of which are held in understandably high regard by the same American society that is so critical in other areas. The Church was one of the first influential groups in the west to attempt living with rather than over or against the aboriginal inhabitants. (The Book of Mormon predicts that, as Sons of Israel, the Indians will someday rise in glory.) And few others would have attempted to pioneer many of the desolate areas the Saints laid claim to in the Utah wilderness, especially the forbidding lands in southern Utah, extreme northern Arizona, and eastern Nevada, claims that grew and prospered through the imagination and industry of optimistic people. Today the same spirit survives in the Mormon emphasis on family unity, selfreliance, individual self-worth, meaningfill living (both in mortality and beyond), integrity, and their own particular brand of the Protestant work ethic. How or if these values will change with other areas of Mormon life remains to be seen.

COPYRIGHT 1988 Point Foundation
COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group