Dr. John
Young
1/13/08
Mormons
There are several connections or similarities between our Unitarian
Universalist faith and Mormon beliefs and practices, but there are multiple
ways in which we are dramatically different. Both faiths have had significant
influence in America
and reflect interests in the entire world. We are both optimistic about human
capacities and the human future. Both faiths believe revelation is ongoing and
that all people are truly children of God and can continue to make dramatic
spiritual progress in the course of their lives. Many of us agree with the
Mormons that God itself continues to evolve and to participate in evolving
creative and positive energies of the cosmos, and that each human contains
these energies within our own human capacities. Both Mormons and Unitarian
Universalists tend to perceive Jesus as a human ethical model and spiritual big
brother as opposed to a co-equal with God or a condemning judge of humanity.
So, these are illustrative of some of the similarities between our uniquely
American faiths.
As the January 6, 2008, New York
Times Sunday Magazine, the Times Union, and recent The Week
magazines all repeat, “Most Americans know very little about the Mormons and
their beliefs and practices.” This is the primary reason I am doing this
sermon. Part of my obligation as your minister is to digest and summarize
complicated religious, spiritual, and ethical material so that you may gain
informed access to it. For this sermon, I made use of the above current media
resources plus Richard and Joan Ostling’s 1999 big
book called Mormon America. They summarized earlier books, did years of
research, and interviewed many Mormons and scholars of Mormonism. Richard has
been a primary religious writer for Time magazine, CBS radio, and the
PBS News Hour, and his wife has been an editor for the US Information
Agency. They are not Mormons, but are respectful observers over many years.
The Mormon religion began in 1830 with the publication of the 580 pages Book
of Mormon by Joseph Smith. Smith had grown up in a poor, devout but
church-skeptical Christian home in upstate New York state. As a boy he was fascinated
by the nearby ancient Native American mounds and made up elaborate stories
about these ‘Indian ancestors.’ As a young man, he became a treasure hunter
using magical tools. Then, beginning as a teenager he announced that he had had
a series of visions, received new revelations on gold
tablets that had to be translated only by him with a pair of eye-glass like
translating stones. Practically everyone who said they saw either the tablets
or the stones later recanted or died before confirming them. Scribes took down
what he said behind a sheet hung up in his father-in-law’s home.
The Book of Mormon tells of sea journeys of Jewish tribes to America first at the time of the fall of the Tower of Babel and then at the time of the Babylonian
Captivity of the Jews. These people, the ancestors of the Native Americans, set
up an advanced civilization in America.
After Jesus’ resurrection, Jesus came to America to train these people.
Nevertheless after several centuries of progress, they divided and eventually
lost all in a great battle close to Joseph Smith’s upstate New York boyhood. The division was between
dark-skinned people who were the evil ones, and light-skinned people who were
the heroes. The last example of the earlier time, now an angel, Moroni,
along with God and Jesus themselves, came to give Joseph Smith the new
revelations.
These and later scriptures dictated by Joseph Smith became a whole American
scripture that Smith argued set a corrupt Judaism and Christianity straight and
set up the Mormons as the Later Day Saints and the only true Christians and the
sole true and genuine religion. He discovered Adam as a great hero and
identified the Garden of Eden and the place of Jesus’ Second Coming both to be
in or around Independence, MO.
The three presently competing Mormon religions all have
important sites on competing corners of a single crossroads there. This sermon,
will concentrate on the LDS church that dominates the Mormon perspective.
Joseph Smith continued to have revelations throughout his short life. He was
excited to discover that Jews had a plural name for God, Elohim,
and he revealed that God had been first among a bunch of Gods, had not created
from nothing, and had married. He made humans responsible for their progress,
made us all potential gods, co-equal with Jesus in a spiritual sense, and saw
God and humans as progressing alike toward Godhood. A traveling salesman, who
had rescued Egyptian mummies and ancient papyri from a Chicago
museum in the great Chicago
fire sold the papyri and the last Mummy to the
Mormons. Smith used these papyri to discover many more revelations in several
additional unique scriptures. These confirmed multiple marriages for men,
baptism of the dead, the systematic process of spiritual progress,
sanctification, and the evolution of God and Jesus, and the progressive
deification of men. Women’s spiritual future depends in Mormonism upon their
husband’s progress through marriage and child-bearing. People of color could
not become prophets nor join the universal male Mormon priesthood. As you might
imagine, these doctrines inflamed the opinions of most Americans at the time
who did not convert to Mormonism.
Joseph Smith was secretive, and as
he gained followers, he became their king, raised an militia which was 2/3 the
size of the whole US Army at the time, built a city in downstate Illinois,
Nauvoo, which became ½ the size of Chicago at the time within five years. He
set up there a theocratic totalitarian state, declared himself to be its
monarch and then announced for President of the US. He sent his prophets to England and convinced many poverty-stricken
Englishmen to come to America.
Other settlers where there were Mormons saw these peculiar people taking over,
and then it was discovered that Joseph Smith had proposed to the wives of
countless of his followers and had multiple wives, as did a number of his
prophets.
Joseph Smith was assassinated by a mob, and Brigham Young,
also a poor Christian boy with little formal education, but great
organizational genius took over as the new Mormon prophet.
Brigham Young moved over 3000 families from the Midwest to Utah, many of them recent English
immigrants. When Young took command, there were 26,000 Mormons. When he died in
1877, there were 135,000 Mormons, more than 50,000 of them recent British or
Scandinavian immigrants. The organization, which still rules the LDS
denomination, was already established with a very powerful President who was
also prophet, revelator, and God’s sole true primary representative on the
Earth until Jesus’ second coming. He chooses two counselors who serve with him
as the Presidency, and there are then 12 a Quorum of 12 Apostles who are chosen
by the President and serve for life. These 15 white men, almost all have been
from Utah or Idaho,
serve for life, meet weekly in Salt
Lake City, and are absolute rulers over their
denomination. As the Oslings state, the Mormons are
the most successful example of a totalitarian organization in American history.
For the first several generations in Utah,
the Mormons resisted non-Mormon immigration. The worst incident was the killing
of an entire wagon train of more than 100 unarmed men, women and children who
were just passing through; there was a recent TV special on this Mountain
Meadow Massacre. Young supported attacks upon non-Mormon merchants, and urged
Mormons to boycott them. Because of this theocratic, armed kingdom and because
of continued plural marriages, the US and regional governments were
systematically bigoted against the Mormons and did their best to destroy them,
including laws attacking the Mormons and a US Supreme Court case against the
church. The original Republican Party fought against the duel savage practices of
slavery and plural marriage, but President Lincoln sent Young a message saying
that if the Mormons would leave the Union alone, Lincoln would let the Mormons alone.
Given this systematic history of American bigotry against the Mormons and even
systematic attacks upon the denomination, including 40 deaths in Missouri and before, and
the above-mentioned governmental efforts, there is an understandable sense of
martyrdom among Mormons. In fact, the Mormon deaths were far less than
anti-Catholic riots in Philadelphia alone some
years earlier, but there is no doubt that their theocratic kingdom and
continued plural marriages produced much bigotry against them in America for the
first several generations of their history. Mormons continue to this day to use
this history to explain their systematic secrecy, overt attempts to hide how
different they are from other Christian denominations, and to explain their
totalitarian organizational structure and denominational practices. They refuse
to make financial data public, de-emphasize their differences from other
Christians, and periodically discover new revelations when circumstances force
them to significantly change their traditions and practices. So, plural
marriages have been against official church practice for a century now
[although it is estimated that there are still 30,000 or more Mormons now in
such marriages], and as they began a systematic effort to convert colored
peoples to Mormonism, they finally had a revelation that men of color could become
priests and prophets in Mormonism.
The Mormons are by far the wealthiest denomination per capita in America. The
Church itself has a total wealth of at least $30 billion dollars. They own the
biggest the cattle ranch and control most of the nuts in America. The
Mormon grain elevators in Salt Lake
City, prepared for the end-time emergencies, hold 100
pounds for every Mormon. The Deseret Industry stores distribute Mormon products
to members. Since every Mormon in order to have a temple card and participate
in the primary rites of Mormonism must tithe 10% of their income. They have a
cash influx each year in excess of $5 billion. If the LDS Church
was a US Corporation, it would rank between Paine Webber and Union Carbide,
mid-way in the Fortune 500 list on annual revenues alone, if all church
enterprises were added in, it would be much higher on the list. The Evangelical Lutheran
Church is comparably sized in America, and it
has about 1/20 of the Mormon’s assets. The 7th Day Adventists, who
have similar global membership and growth rates, or the Lutherans, have 1/3 of
the annual revenues. All the money goes to headquarters and then is dispersed
according to the leaders’ priorities. Although they are not theologically
trained, the leaders have almost all been business and organizational leaders,
and the Mormons have unparalleled organizational efficiency. No other religious
organization is even in their league organizationally. Perhaps, it is hardly
chance that Stephen Covey is an active Mormon, as the popularizer
of current American organized living.
Mormons now have over 100 temples world-wide. These are open to the public when
they are first built, but are then are closed except to Mormons with a current
temple card. To have and keep a temple card, a Mormon must pay the tithe, face
an annual interview, and maintain complete obedience to the leadership and the
doctrine. Dissenters and critics within the faith are disciplined, and then if
necessary banished. Meeting houses are built geographically; often three local
congregations or wards of 200-300 members share the same meeting house. Each
3000 or so members or about dozen wards become a stake, like a Catholic or
other ecclesiastical diocese. The chain of command is similar throughout.
Completely male dominated, absolutely obedient to higher leadership, and
constantly watching one another to wipe out dissent.
A devout Mormon goes to 3 hours of worship in the local meeting house every
Sunday, an hour of communion service, an hour of all-ages Sunday school, and an
hour of male organizational meetings and women’s meetings. Even the women’s
auxiliary leaders are chosen by the local male leaders. There is a required
Monday family evening in each Mormon home that combines worship and family fun.
Each month, all Mormons skip two meals and give that money to the internal
Mormon welfare system. Mormons are expected to work hard, not build up debt,
and solve their own problems, turning to family first in time of need, and then
finally to the Mormon welfare system. Only about 5% of Mormons ever use the
system, and usually for only several months and average about $300, much of it
in commodities or used furniture to set up a new household. There is no
comparable welfare system in the world.
All Mormons are baptized at age 8, the boys become priests at 12 and progress
through levels of priesthood that include deacon, Boy Scouts, teacher,
pronouncing, blessings, praying for healing. In high school, all Mormons teenagers
get up at dawn to go to required 5 days a week religious education before they
proceed to regular school, learning the Mormon-revised Bible, the Mormon
scriptures, rules, and obligations. All Mormons are not supposed to consume
alcohol or illegal drugs, use tobacco products, or caffeinated beverages,
gamble, get into debt, date before age sixteen, have
sex outside of marriage, use birth control. They are supposed to be patriotic
Americans, hard working, and volunteer significant time to their church.
All 19 year old males are supposed to go on a two year mission. They raise the
$10,000 or more needed through teenage labor and family support. They are
trained for a few weeks in missionary methods and as needed language training.
They are assigned where the church decides, and have almost no contact with
their family for two years. The always go in pairs, with a more experienced
with the less experienced. They live in dorm-like situations, are allowed no
contact with the other sex, and are supposedly to constant watch one another to
ensure proper behavior. They go as boys and come back as men; many consider it
the most significant time in their lives. This combination of teenage
systematic religious training and two years of mission absolutely bonds most
Mormon males to their church for life. Women gain their spiritual fulfillment
through marriage and childbearing, and find spiritual fulfillment through their
husband’s spiritual progress.
Many Mormons give 20 hours or more a week to their denomination throughout
their lifetime in volunteer service. No other denomination comes close the
pervasive level of religious involvement, to the strict hierarchy, totalitarian
structure and functioning and degree of absolute obedience to a lifetime male
hierarchy.
As your Order of Cover shows Mormon baptisms have shown phenomenal growth in
recent decades. More than half of all Mormons are now outside of the US and yet most missionaries and almost all the
top leadership are still Utah and Idaho ancestral Mormon
white males chosen by previous hierarchy for life-time leadership. Hinckley the present President and God’s Prophet on Earth
is 94. There are now 13 million Mormons world-wide. The 7th Day
Adventists and Assemblies of God are growing as fast, but with their amazing
totalitarian structure, absolute obedience, tremendous financial resources, and
unique theology and scriptures, the Mormons are being presented by at least one
current religious sociologist as the most important religious phenomenon since
the rise of Islam many centuries ago.
Many are baptized, which often
happens after only a couple of visits by the missionary pairs, but relatively
few in some cultures may stick out their membership for long. Brazil is the largest Mormon population outside
the US, and it appears that
less than 20% of Brazil’s
Mormon converts remain active Mormons. Studies have been done of
African-American Mormon converts in the SE, and it appears that there is at
least 70-90% attrition rate, possibly because of the long and systematic racist
history of Mormonism and their scriptures.
So, are Mormons Christians? Mormons
hate that question. They want to fit in, and in fact
to be perceived as model Americans and ideal representatives of current American
conservative ideals of family-values, capitalist Republican responsibility and
patriotism. Republican Party membership and activity are so pervasive among
Mormons that they have felt it necessary to announce periodically that you do
not have to become Republican in order to become a Mormon. Democratic Senate
Majority Leader Harry Reid is a Mormon and got VP Gore to help the Mormons gain
access to Russia.
The Udall family are a Democratic family dynasty in Arizona and now New
Mexico that are Mormons, but the great majority of
other office holders and activists are Republicans, and well represented in
government, military, business and professional circles. They are few prominent
artists or scholars because the Mormons are a frankly proud anti-intellectual
tradition. After all, scholarship and science do not support their scriptures,
traditions, or history, and their active antipathy for dissent and criticism
within or without makes them vulnerable to science and scholarship, contrary
personal experience or democratic practices. I think that historian Jan Shipps has it about right: the LDS think of themselves as
Christians and think of their church as the only legitimate Church of Jesus Christ.
Mormons differ from traditional Christianity in much the same way that
traditional Christianity came to differ from Judaism. It is, in fact, a
separate religion.
In their support for their
families, in their commitment to their faith, in their internal generosity with
time and money, in their eager embrace of hard work, personal responsibility,
clean living, obedient to authority patriotism and capitalism, even perhaps in
their easy embrace of anti-intellectualism and authoritarianism, they personify
the current conservative Republican model of the American dream.
However, the shadow side of many of
these virtues presents the Mormons with daunting challenges for the future. Can
you be a liberated women and remain an obedient Mormon? Why would people of
color embrace a faith that so clearly marginalizes them in scripture and still
too often in practice? Why if you do not think most of the scriptures make any
sense and many of the practices seem closer to nineteenth century Masonic
rituals than present understood realities would you invest your lives in such a
faith?
I think that we can and should
learn to challenge our teenagers as much as the Mormons do. I think universal
national service in America
would do much to deal with the pervasive problems of our culture. I think that
high standards of personal responsibility, healthy living, and volunteer
service would be good for everyone. However, I would want to do these things in
ways that are thoroughly democratic, egalitarian, non-sexist, anti-racist, and
culturally inclusive. There is some real room for fascinating dialogue between
UUs and Mormon intellectuals. I have had the privilege of working with an
active Mormons here in Jacksonville, Ben Warner,
the 2nd in command at JCCI, who spoke here at UUCJ, and in Sacramento, where a Mormon leader joined me in working for
gun-control laws and child support responsibility throughout California. The Mormons and ex-Mormons I
have known personally were often outstanding individuals and good people.
However, I think that the Mormons need to truly embrace the prophethood
of all believers, allow for intellectual ferment within their ranks and be
clear about how peculiar a people they still are.