1. Introduction
From stormy origins to the stability of the American Century, leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints have played the long game of building power and community. Midway through their pilgrimage, the Latter-Day Saints flipped the script from withdrawal into their desert kingdom of Deseret to penetration of the halls of power, culminating in the 2012 presidential bid of Mitt Romney. Mormons have long been seen as a strange mix of the outsider and the homegrown to American creedal Christians. Nevertheless, their success in preserving traditional family structures, gender roles, and a high fertility rate merits close consideration. This article considers how the history of the Latter-day Saints forged them into what they are today, how this relates to potential Mormon support and activities in a political Restoration event, and lessons for the dissident Right in courting and recruiting Mormon support.
Mormonism has faced the deeply vexing challenge of integrating a cultural identity with a centrally-managed identity. Mormons are onion-like, with many layers of understanding, forthrightness, and acceptance or personal interpretation of doctrine. Although Corporate Mormonism has served as the curator of Mormonism itself, it does not define the limits of the boundaries of Mormonism—only the boundaries of the organized form. Instantiation as an institution to preserve the ideals in concrete form is necessary to the long-term viability of most artificial movements, and Mormonism forms an instructive case study for those interested in building generational institutions.
1.1. Motivation
“Mormonism” describes a collection of religious expressions derived from the work of nineteenth-century frontier prophet Joseph Smith. Variously viewed as a prophet or a con man, at the very least Smith was a Coyote-like figure who subverted and challenged his enemies and his followers continuously for a decade and a half. After his death at the hands of a mob in Illinois in 1844, Smith’s movement splintered into several factions. The majoritarian group, now known to the broader world as the Mormons, was led by right-hand man Brigham Young to found a new theocratic kingdom outside the borders of the United States in the Great Basin.
The LDS Church (Young’s faction) is a profoundly cohesive and self-preserving association like Scientology. Unlike Scientology, however, a large, active, civically engaged body of Heritage Americans with roots in nineteenth-century tradition supports the work the Church seeks to carry forward. Corporate and capital assets are close secrets, but occasional leaks give insight into the extent of LDS holdings. Mormon men and women are highly influential in academia, government, and the judiciary, yet typically retain much fidelity to their mother church.
Loyalty-building practices and tiered initiation into the religion have built a high-functioning, high-integrity body of men and women who colonized much of the American West and reintegrated into American society. Mormons practice their religion at a higher rate of engagement and raise families with a higher fertility rate than the white American average.
This report analyzes the historical development and contemporary experience of Mormonism as a vehicle for social and political power, as well as its prospects in a political Restoration state. Theological, historical, and historiographical issues which do not bear on this aim will be neglected herein. The aggregation of social capital and political power will be considered. (Never open about aspects of its history, tightening of access to historical archives and control over personal papers has lent an element of kremlinology to the interpretation of the actions and silences of the incorporated LDS Church.)
Mormonism as a movement is broader than the strict membership of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We will on occasion distinguish between the movement and the church (sometimes capitalized), but in general this distinction is insignificant. This article will employ the terms “Mormon,” “Latter-day Saint,” and “Saint” as referential to the 1830–44 church and the subsequent Brighamite sect.
1.2. Contemporary Mormon Theology
A précis of contemporary Mormon theology is in order. Mormons adhere to a largely traditional framework of Christian belief, including the divine nature of Jesus Christ, the Atonement (the preferred term for his salvific work), the essential elements of civic morality, and the fallen nature of mankind. Although creedal Christians and Mormon Christians have found themselves sometimes at odds, morally and theologically they have much in common.
In the Mormon cosmos, spirit children of God are housed in bodies on the earth where they are tried to see their mettle. The most faithful among them will be elevated as co-inheritors with their elder brother Jesus Christ. To this end, God the Father, the premortal Jesus Christ, and Michael the archangel (assisted by others) created the physical world. Michael took mortal form as Adam, and with his wife Eve was placed into the Garden of Eden under a veil of forgetfulness. They were given a contradictory injunction to not partake of the fruit of the tree of good and evil, and to multiply and replenish the earth, which Mormons believe was impossible in their “paradisaical” state. Eve’s choice to partake of the fruit and effect the Fall of Man was necessary if unfortunate. Due to the Fall of Man, God sent Jesus Christ to redeem creation similar to classical Christian mythical history.
Earthly history occurs in periods of “dispensations”, which occur when God calls a prophet to complete a task or spread a message. A dispensation is doctrinally aligned with God’s will, but within as little as a generation or two the followers have drifted back into apostasy (the normal state of man not in communion with God). Prophets such as Adam, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and Isaiah dispensed messages with varying degrees of success. Other prophets unknown to the Biblical record left documentation of their activities in other parts of the world, such as the ancient Americas (The Book of Mormon) or the modern Americas (Doctrine and Covenants). Jesus Christ effected our salvation through the atonement, which encompasses not only his death on the cross but also his suffering in Gethsemane, but his followers were similarly unable to realize a perpetual institution and apostasy returned. (Mormon Christianity thus remains at odds with creedal Christianity.) Joseph Smith initiated the so-called “dispensation of the fulness of times”, wherein all that remains to be revealed will be as a run-up to the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. Salvation is available to all through adherence to the “laws and ordinances of the gospel,” but exaltation, or becoming a joint-heir with Jesus Christ, is reserved to faithful married LDS couples, “sealing” or marriage being the highest ritual of the LDS Church.
Mormonism is strongly millennarian in outlook, a sentiment supercharged by Cold War angst from the trifecta of the existential threat of nuclear war, the creeping communism of the post-New Deal federal government, and the accelerating decadence of public morals.
Mormon lives are structured around “ordinances” or rituals designed to lead one into salvific covenants. These same ordinances range from baptism to the temple endowment, and are discussed in more detail further on. Mormons are encouraged to prepare themselves always to seek the next ordinance or covenant towards salvation, and otherwise should be engaged in realizing this same ordinance for their kindred dead. While some LDS ordinances and public worship occur in the meetinghouses, the most sacred of Mormon ordinances are reserved to “temples,” or consecrated buildings for worship among the faithful.
What to read: Givens & Barlow, The Oxford Handbook of Mormonism; Joseph Smith, Jr., “The Articles of Faith”
2. A Brief History of Mormonism
Mormonism was fortunate—or unfortunate—enough to be born in an age of newspapers, affidavits, and widespread printed records. Many controversies arise when one examines Mormonism, in particular the period from 1820–1850, too many to examine in detail in this document. We present in summary form the primarily canonical history, with occasional consideration of difficult problems. This history deeply informs the Mormon outlook and is likely unfamiliar to the new student of Mormonism.
2.1. 1830–1844: Origins
Sometime in the spring of 1820, Joseph Smith walked into the woods in upstate New York and sought a manifestation from God. The dramatic response, later called “the First Vision”, informed Smith of the “apostate” nature of post-apostolic Christianity. It took Smith the rest of his life to understand and unpack the ramifications of his encounter with the divine.
A few years later, in 1823, Smith began to receive visitations from an angel named Moroni who directed him to an ancient buried record inscribed on gold plates. This record contained the history of several ancient peoples who lived in the Americas. After several years, Smith was able to obtain the plates and adjoined tools which allowed him to translate the plates. Working with believing scribes, Smith prepared and published The Book of Mormon in 1830.
The Book of Mormon opens with the calling of a prophet named Lehi, contemporary with Jeremiah in the waning days of the Kingdom of Israel (c. 600 B. C.). Lehi is called forth from Jerusalem, and with his family voyages to the New World. His family splits into warring factions. Certain men preserve the record on metal plates, and pay special attention to preserving prophecies which look forward to Jesus Christ’s first coming. Aspects of Christianity prior to Jesus were described, and centuries of warfare, missionary work, and political intrigue follow. The Book of Mormon spans about 500 pages in print. (It is daunting to the new reader that the driest portions are located near the beginning.) The Book of Mormon closes with a description of an ideal Christian church, followed by the rapid destruction of the righteous who fell into apostasy and disbelief.
In 1829 and 1830, it wasn’t yet clear what the result of The Book of Mormon should be. Smith claimed the restoration of divine authority, the “priesthood”, which allowed authoritative rituals to be performed, including baptism. Armed with this power, Smith proceeded to organize a formal church in 1830 in New York. Encounters with communistic Christian groups, seekers of various stripes, and the many-hued texture of frontier religious life led to a series of tenuous holds for early Mormons in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Missouri. Smith prophesied Missouri as the location of the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, and said that God commanded the construction of a temple there. Tensions with neighbors led to the expulsion of the Saints from Missouri in 1838–39, while financial difficulties including the failure of a bank sponsored by Smith caused the church in Ohio to collapse. Smith was imprisoned in Missouri over the winter.
Out of these ashes, Smith organized the gathering of his followers to a swamp on the bend of the Mississippi River in Illinois. After his escape from jail, Joseph Smith renamed the burgeoning settlement to “Nauvoo,” laid out a planned city on a sensible grid, and proceeded to negotiate a generous city charter from the state legislature. The Mormons of Nauvoo built a university, a militia, and a temple. (At its height in 1844, Nauvoo was more populous than Chicago.)
Mormon doctrine evolved from 1830 to 1844 as subsequent written revelations from God clarified, canceled, or expanded previous insights. These changes led to exploitable points of argument, disaffection by early prominent leaders, and left Smith reliant on men of varying character and reliability. Brigham Young first rose to prominence during the 1838–39 flight to Nauvoo, and was put in charge of the British Mission which brought many thousands of new Saints to Nauvoo.
Joseph Smith sought redress from the federal government for the wrongs the Saints had suffered at the hands of Missouri mobs and the Missouri state government. The indecisiveness of President Martin Van Buren led to a rift of distrust with the federal government. Joseph Smith decided to run for president in 1844. Smith organized a campaign and sent missionaries cum campaigners to many cities. (His platform notably called for the federal government to purchase the slaves, in an attempt to defuse the tension between North and South. Smith also prophesied the outbreak of civil war starting in South Carolina.)
During this time, Smith’s power and prominence in Nauvoo, possible heavy-handedness in dealing with dissent, and rumors of “spiritual wifery” (plural marriage) led to threats of violence against him. Smith prepared to flee to the West, the Mormons to follow, but his (first) wife Emma begged him to stay. He was apprehended and held in jail, where a mob assaulted and killed him and his brother Hyrum Smith on June 27, 1844.
What to read: Richard Bushman, Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling.
2.2. 1844–1918: Entente Unachievable
Smith’s death rocked the community of tens of thousands of Mormons. In the immediate aftermath, it became clear that the “Succession Crisis” caused by overlapping spheres of authority and accountability would tear apart the fabric of Mormonism. For instance, the relative precedence of governing bodies was left ambiguous despite various revelations on the status and role of these “quorums.” Evolution in stewardship due to church exigencies had not been enshrined in formal documents, leading to post-martyrdom arguments over scope and authority.
In 1844, most pretenders did not claim to follow in Joseph Smith’s footsteps as the Prophet of the Restoration, but instead advocated various schemes of stewardship or regency. Some of the strongest claimants (such as William Marks, the president of Nauvoo’s High Council) did not prosecute a claim for leadership but supported others. Young and the Council (or Quorum) of Twelve Apostles formed a natural team, given authority in the Doctrine and Covenants to govern aspects of the church. Other claimants had to maneuver to build coalitions, but the Twelve Apostles were already united and privy to most of the innermost secrets of Mormonism. The apostolic control over the missions and emigration meant that almost all new Mormons joined the Brighamite sect.
Brigham Young is a fascinating and powerful leader. Born a New England Yankee, he became responsible for tens of thousands of people in conquering and peopling the remote desert against the opposition of Indian tribes and the federal government. Young was not a systematic theologian, and his preaching has an earthy quality. (In Mormon folklore, it is speculated that one can find a proof text from Young to support almost any theological or metaphysical claim one likes.)
Young surveyed the history of Mormonism until that point and decided that Gentile government could not be relied upon to preserve the rights of the Saints. He elected to move to the unpeopled and remote Great Basin. Over the next three years, Brigham Young organized teams of wagon trains to move across Iowa and into Indian Territory. In 1847, the first wagon train crossed into Salt Lake Valley. Surveying to establish a city began almost immediately, and as new Mormons came across the plains Brigham assigned them on “missions” to colonize from Canada to Mexico. (Mormon colonies are still present in northern Mexico.) It is no exaggeration to say that the Mormons built the West, building more than one hundred colonies in Utah, Arizona, California, Nevada, Idaho, Alberta, and northern Mexico. By 1850, more than 20,000 Mormons had colonized the West.
From 1847 until 1850, the Mormons governed as a pure theocracy without interference. Young forged alliances with Ute and Paiute Indian chiefs to enable Mormons to settle the sparse western deserts and mountains. In 1850, U. S. President Millard Fillmore appointed Brigham Young as head of the territorial government. (Young was replaced as governor in 1854.) Initially, Young envisioned a large territory called Deseret (after a word in The Book of Mormon meaning “honeybee”), stretching across much of Nevada, California, Utah, and Arizona. Deseret initially petitioned for statehood in 1849, but the Mormon practice of plural marriage (polygamy, practiced publicly from 1852) was nearly as controversial a topic as slavery in the 1850s. The Republican Party, for instance, was explicitly founded to extirpate the “twin relics of barbarism: polygamy and slavery”. Strong rhetoric, but particularly the looming War Between the States, prevented the Mormon bid from being seriously entertained at that time.
Brigham Young proved a canny and powerful sovereign, and never sat easily besides federal appointees. Mormon resistance to Gentile incursions led U. S. President James Buchanan to send a federal army west to Utah in 1857. The ensuing Utah War saw Mormons raze the prairie, shutter their settlements, bury the cornerstones of their temple, and prosecute a careful guerrilla war against the United States Army. This careful maneuvering enabled Young to strike an uneasy peace with the federal government (now becoming more concerned with slavery and abolitionist unrest in the East). Abraham Lincoln said, regarding the Mormons, “When I was a boy on the farm in Illinois, there was a great deal of timber on the farms which we had to clear away. Occasionally we would come to a log which had fallen down. It was too hard to split, too wet to burn and too heavy to move, so we plowed around it. That’s what I intend to do with the Mormons. You go back and tell Brigham Young that if he will let me alone, I will let him alone.”
Even after the political realization of the State of Deseret proved infeasible, Brigham Young held onto his desert kingdom to the end of his life as an increasingly powerful President of the Church (Young died in 1877). Young’s message, first and last, was one of judicious prudence and commitment:
We are teaching the people to be industrious, and how to raise their own bread, make their own clothing and gather around them the fruits of the earth, that there may be no suffering through our whole community. Is not this praiseworthy? Yes, it is, and the statesmen of this nation—those of them who have brains—are looking at the industry of this people; they admire it.
But take care, if you join this people without the love of God in your soul it will do you no good. If [men] were to do this, they would bring in their sophistry, and introduce that which would poison the innocent and honest and lead them astray. I look at this, and I am satisfied that it will not do for the Lord to make this people popular. Why? Because all hell would want to be in the church. The people must be kept where the finger of scorn can be pointed at them. Although it is admitted that we are honest, industrious, truthful, virtuous, self-denying, and, as a community, possess every moral excellence, yet we must be looked upon as ignorant and unworthy, and as the offscouring of society, and be hated by the world.
What is the reason of this? Christ and Baal cannot become friends. When I see this people grow and spread and prosper, I feel that there is more danger than when they are in poverty. Being driven from city to city or into the mountains is nothing compared to the danger of our becoming rich and being hailed by outsiders as a first-class community. I am afraid of only one thing. What is that? That we will not live our religion, and that we will partially slide a little from the path of rectitude, and go part of the way to meet our friends. (Brigham Young, JD 12:272)
After the conclusion of the Civil War, the Radical Republicans were able to turn their attention to the other nascent rebellion: the desert Mormons. Territorial status, a growing Gentile population, and in particular the construction of the First Transcontinental Railroad greatly increased the degree of control that could be exercised by the federal government over Utah. This meant that legal mechanisms such as acts of Congress could be more effectively enforced. Already in 1862, Congress had passed the Morrill Anti-Bigamy Act which targeted the practice of plural marriage and the real property of the Mormon church, but Lincoln declined to enforce the provisions. In 1882 and 1887, subsequent legislation disincorporated the church and legally authorized the seizure of LDS property by the federal government.
The impact of this “renewed persecution” cannot be overestimated. Polygamous men (15–20% of Mormon families, and a more significant fraction of leadership) went “underground” in an attempt to evade capture and imprisonment. Carefully worded denials or encouragements were passed along as samizdat or by word-of-mouth, and Mormons were commanded to be aloof from anyone they didn’t know (in case they accidentally outed a polygamist-in-hiding). The Mormon Underground was profoundly corrosive to Mormon notions of literalism and authority; simple messages were read for veiled meanings for generations. A fracture between practice and belief took place, wherein one could assent to a practice such as plural marriage but not live it due to worldly opposition. (The most comprehensive source is a Ph.D. dissertation by anthropologist Daymon Smith, summarized in a series of blog posts a few years ago.)
By 1890, when Wilford Woodruff became president of the LDS Church, it was apparent that continued resistance would mean the institutional extinction of the Mormon Church. Woodruff issued a document known as the “Manifesto” which initiated the slow process of backing away from the practice of plural marriage. Plural marriage had been seen as central to Mormonism since 1852, and there was a large body of rhetoric and doctrine which had been built up to sustain it amid persecution and difficulties domestic and otherwise. Besides government persecution and the desire for statehood, economic factors came into play: Woodruff had been courting San Francisco financiers to invest in Utah’s development. After his disavowal of polygamy, they showed themselves more willing to begin building Utah’s infrastructure.
Off and on, some Mormon colonies practiced an economic “United Order” or communitarian Christian communism. Precedents for this exist in The Book of Mormon, but the practice was rarely successful for more than a few years at a time (the record being eleven years at Orderville). Government persecution in the 1880s finally thwarted LDS efforts in this direction, although the United Order has remained part of the Mormon imagination.
Disincorporation and the disruption in cash flow soon left the church in dire financial straits. By 1899, the church faced bankruptcy. Church President Lorenzo Snow, then 85 years old, began preaching the “law of tithing,” a practice that had become neglected during the turbulent years of the Mormon Underground when it was unclear if tithing would end up in church coffers or the government’s. The LDS church membership eliminated the church’s debt by 1907.
There was also the matter of statehood, achieved in 1896, and the consequent demands on the church and its members as citizens. Early attempts at rapprochement were met with scorn. Mormon leader Brigham Henry Roberts was elected to Congress as Representative of Utah, but was never allowed to be seated due to his ongoing practice of polygamy (he later served as a chaplain during the Great War). Senator Reed Smoot was seated after a vitriolic four-year battle that included trotting out elements of Mormon temple worship, such as an oath of vengeance for the death of Joseph Smith. Having weathered these storms, however, Mormonism settled in to become a thoroughly American religion.
What to read: John Turner, Pioneer Prophet; Richard Bushman & Claudia Bushman, Building the Kingdom; Wallace Stegner, Mormon Country; Givens & Barlow, The Oxford Handbook of Mormonism
2.3. 1918–1964: Reintegration
Church President Heber J. Grant (pres. 1918–45) was the first president of the Church to not have known Joseph Smith. Grant’s tenure spanned Prohibition, and emphasized adherence to the “Word of Wisdom,” a dietary code which proscribes coffee, alcohol, and tobacco, as a distinctive shibboleth of 20th-century Mormon praxis. Grant was fairly politically involved. Some of his political efforts, such as the injunction to not allow the repeal of Prohibition, failed dramatically (Utah was the deciding state in ratifying the 21st Amendment). Grant, a Democrat, also opposed FDR and the New Deal on the grounds that the latter was socialist.
At this time, different constituent organizations of the LDS church offered their own materials, and held their own budgets and staff. Mormonism was a loosely-knit array of ecclesiastical agencies, adjunct organizations, and local congregations, centrally coordinated through the Office of the First Presidency. The church had not existed as a legal organization since its disincorporation by the Morrill Act during the struggles over polygamy and the Mormon Underground. In 1923, the church was reorganized as a “corporation sole”, an uncommon form which “allows corporations (often religious corporations or Commonwealth governments) to pass without interval in time from one office holder to the next successor-in-office, giving the positions legal continuity with subsequent office holders having identical powers and possessions to their predecessors” (Wikipedia). (This is the same form of organization as the Archbishop of Canterbury, for instance.) Far-reaching consequences obtain from this decision, which began to bear fruit about half a century later.
During this period, Mormonism allied itself with the American civic religion, including Boy Scouts and government service. Besides political involvement during Prohibition and the New Deal, Mormon boys participated in the military during the Great War and the Second World War. A policy of sending many young men and fewer young women on “proselyting missions” led to a greater awareness of the United States and Europe as well as South America, with nascent efforts in Asia and other regions. The small academic institutions of Brigham Young University and other church-owned schools began to grow, riding the same tide as the rest of the university system.
The LDS Church had stood as a major investor and owner in real property since the beginning of the Utah period. Besides cooperative efforts (the “United Order,” discussed below), the church invested in sugar beets, mining, and healthcare (Health Services Corporation).
Mormonism also received a bracing shock to its system in the form of the left-wing environmentalist anarchism of polymath and professor Hugh Nibley. From the 1940s through the 2000s, Nibley propounded a unique blend of scripture, revised gnosticism, and back-to-the-land conservationism from his venerable position as a professor of religion at Brigham Young University. Nibley’s extraordinarily wide reading and facility with ancient languages lent him much credence among Mormons, and he was without peer or challenger until Mormon academia began to catch up to him in the 1980s. Nibley has posed a vexing challenge to those who wish to understand LDS political thought.
During this period, Mormonism succeeded in organizing itself as a corporation sole with many accouterments; integrating itself as something of an eccentric uncle to the American household; and securing its organizational and financial footing.
What to read: Greg Prince & William Robert Wright, David O. McKay and the Rise of Modern Mormonism; Stuart Parker, “History Through Seer Stones: Mormon Historical Thought, 1890–2010” (dissertation); Mark Leone, Roots of Modern Mormonism
2.4. 1964–2018: Correlation
In the 1960s, an earlier program of “correlation” was revived as “priesthood correlation.” The initial impetus was a desire to correlate curricula produced by the various Church-related organizations, but the initiative ended up dramatically restructuring the church into a modern bureaucracy. Church President David O. McKay assigned Elder Harold B. Lee (later president himself) to spearhead the operation. Lee concluded that the charge could only be satisfied if the church structure and hierarchy itself were aligned to meet the objective.
Constituent organizations which had heretofore been separate were now de facto subsumed into the corporate church, not answering to the office of the First Presidency as before but to the Council of the Twelve Apostles. This represented a shift from staff to line authority for the apostles (Prince).
Henry D. Moyle, counselor in the First Presidency, spearheaded an aggressive building program in the 1950s under the philosophy that if you build it, they will come. Described by a former business partner as a “wildcatter,” Moyle was determined to raise Mormonism’s public image, in part by building nicer chapels in nicer locations. Unfortunately, the anticipated increase in tithing did not occur fast enough to offset the overextension. Church resources were depleted to $10 million in cash reserves by 1961. Financial recategorization, lines of credit, and changes in long-term investment were necessary to shore up the Church’s difficult situation. It is certain that this near-bankruptcy contributed to the prudent management of financial resources over the next half-century. (Prince & Wright, pp. 206ff.)
An interesting political maneuver took place in 1953, during which an attempt was made to redistrict the Utah state legislature such that one senator would be elected per county. This would have had the effect of putting 83% of the Senate seats in the hands of the rural 27% of the population, and would have secured 26 of 29 seats as Mormon, perhaps in perpetuity. Internal machinations led to the president of the church opposing the measure (on the grounds of fairness) while his deputies supported it. The measure failed to pass (Prince & Wright, pp. 342–3).
During this time, the LDS Church opened its archives and many documents were examined for the first time. This fueled a re-examination of Mormon history called, unimaginatively, the “New Mormon History”. This approach has tended to be humanistic rather than apologetic. (See the section “Historiography” below.)
The LDS church has nevertheless developed and maintained a strong consensus doctrine and history, with offshoot groups rarely acquiring more than a few dozen converts.
Perhaps it is best to leave off our historical discussion with a consideration of the “final boss” of contemporary religion: secularization.
The chief challenge for Mormons in the nineteenth century as to build and preserve a theocratic commonwealth in the regions where they settled as a people. The result was an entity at odds with the sectarian orthodoxy and social mores of the day, the expanding authority of the federal government, and the master trends of industrial capitalism. Having survived these irresistible counterforces by ultimately making major doctrinal and policy concessions, the LDS Church today is principally challenged in the same manner as all organized religion by the secularizing tides of modern society. (Shepherd & Shepherd, A Kingdom Transformed, p. 177)
In response this secularization, religious organizations, and the LDS Church, have created organizational and administrative procedures, or become bureaucratic—sometimes specifically in emulation of economic-corporate models. Thus internal and external social relationships become “dominated by the problems and logic of bureaucratic administration.” This in turn leads to the selection of task-oriented, dynamic pragmatists (Shepherd & Shepherd, p. 183). We consider the effects of these changes subsequently, in the section “Corporate Mormonism.”
What to read: D. Michael Quinn, Mormon Hierarchy (volumes 1 and 2); Shepherd & Shepherd, A Kingdom Transformed, 2ed.
2.5. Minor Branches
In 1844, with the death of Joseph Smith, the Mormon church he founded split into several factions. (Over time, Mormonism has proven as fertile a schismatic generator as Protestantism. By my count, there are many dozens if not hundreds of breakaway groups.) Prominent among these are:
- Josephite. Joseph Smith III (child at Smith’s martyrdom). The “New Organization” persisted informally until 1860, when it became the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints under Joseph Smith III. (Some Mormons stayed put or scattered through the Midwest before reorganizing into the “New Organization” waiting on Joseph Smith III to come of age.)
- Rigdonite. Sidney Rigdon, counselor in First Presidency. Never large due to Rigdon’s inability to operate an organization.
- Brighamite. Brigham Young, president of Twelve Apostles. The Apostles controlled the missions, particularly the British Mission, and thus had a large natural constituency for their claim. (This is the contemporary Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.)
- Wightite. Lyman Wight, Apostle who received charge to investigate Wisconsin and Texas as possible destinations. He doggedly clung to Smith’s last charge to him, ultimately building a temple in Zodiac, Texas, the ruins of which are now under a reservoir.
- Strangite. James Strang, claimant on the strength of visions and calling similar to Smith’s. Produced purportedly ancient translation in the manner of The Book of Mormon.
No Mormon sect has seen success on the scale of the Brighamite faction, and there is little to be gleaned from the history of other groups that is useful for the insight of building power. It is worth considering, however, three cases in brief: the Strangites, Josephites, and fundamentalists.
The RLDS under Joseph Smith III (”Josephites”) laid claim to many of the Mormon properties in the Midwest during the late nineteenth century. The RLDS embraced Smith’s early teachings but shied away from Nauvoo-era theology. Eventually, as new documents came to light during the “New Mormon History” period of the 1960s, accommodationist and revisionist history became mainstream in the RLDS. With the introduction of a humanist, “nuanced” history, the RLDS lost much of their distinctiveness as a Mormon sect, and never grew to more than 250,000 members worldwide. The conservative branches of the church sheared off as independent churches in the 1980s as the main body of the RLDS embraced the ordination of women and other “progressive” doctrinal changes. The lack of any rightward anchoring force accelerated the leftward drift of the RLDS church.
James Strang was a charismatic prophet in the vein of Joseph Smith and attempted to replicate Smith’s career and successes. (The Strangites were one of the very few non-Brighamite groups to adopt the practice of plural marriage.) Since the Strangites went to Wisconsin and did not relocate away from the American mainstream, they were unable to build a power center and their population and adherence has dwindled over the years to a few dozen followers. In addition, the field of potential converts had already been swept through by the Mormon missionaries, meaning that Strang’s pool of potential new members remained small. Successor groups do not succeed by reproducing the success formula of the founder, and may require some sort of physical, social, or philosophical distance from other groups in order to cultivate their own power.
The so-called “fundamentalist” branches of the Brighamites who formed the Short Creek Community in the 1930s as an attempt to preserve the practice of plural marriage were excommunicated by the larger church in the 1950s. Their potential for growth has been curtailed by secrecy and seclusion. The practice of plural marriage by groups such as the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS) is seen as retrograde. Thus, they are unable to attract sufficient women converts to sustain growth, leading to the practice of casting young men out of the community. In addition, enforced secrecy has allowed unseemly practices to flourish, such as extremely young marriage and the “reassignment” of wives from a dissident to a more believing husband. Ultimately, most of these fundamentalist polygamist groups have faced severe government repercussions, internal fragmentation, muddied lines of authority, and schismatic violence.
3. Corporate Mormonism
Corporate Mormonism, or the institutional form and behavior of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, offers a fascinating study of effective, if not always conscious, social engineering: transformation generation over generation, frequently with minimal academic or broadcast media intervention. The LDS Church builds social, political, and financial capital aggressively, and manages its holdings through a lawyer’s dream of religious nondisclosure laws and holding corporations.
Mormonism is structured with the Office of the First Presidency holding full power to direct the affairs of the church, nominally composed of the President of the Church and two or more counselors, traditionally drawn from the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. The Quorum of the Twelve Apostles is next in authority, and is ordered by length of tenure, with the longest-serving apostle succeeding in the Presidency of the Church upon the latter’s decease. (An adjunct Presiding Bishopric oversees churchwide “temporal” affairs, meaning facilities, holdings, finances, etc.) Various Quorums of the Seventy are organized to administer regional affairs of the church. The diocesan level is represented as a “stake”, with a stake presidency and a high council of twelve men. Stakes are composed of wards, each ward having a bishop and between fifty and three hundred members.
Stakes act as contained administrative units. Stake presidents regularly meet with seventies, who meet with apostles in turn. The Quorum of Twelve Apostles manage most of the affairs of the church, in conjunction with the “Presiding Bishopric,” which oversees many physical facilities and financial instruments. Church policy is set at the level of the First Presidency. Unanimity of the quorums is required in all public actions of the church. Since the proceedings have been closed for decades, one cannot know if unanimity is the result of spiritual guidance, argued consensus, political dealing, or overwhelming force of personality. Deference to seniority among quorum members is reportedly de rigueur.
The corporation sole provides the President of the Church absolute power over the Church and its holdings and organization. Precipitate change can in principle occur at any time, although only a handful of instances have occurred in the past few decades, such as permission for blacks to be ordained to the priesthood; changes in priesthood ordination and missionary age; or revisions to fundamental ordinances.
The LDS Church has been described as gerontocratic. Rule by the longest-tenured apostle provides stability of traditions and doctrines over generations. For instance, current president Russell Nelson had a long professional career as a heart surgeon, including developing the heart-lung machine in 1951 used in the first open-heart surgery. Nelson was also offered the headship of the University of Chicago’s thoracic surgery department but declined. For all this, he still had 34 years of tenure in the Council of the Twelve before becoming church president in 2018. Next-in-line apostle Dallin Oaks has previously served as a university president and a member of Utah’s Supreme Court, and has 35 years in the Council of the Twelve. However, senescence can lead to long-standing periods of paralysis during which the bureaucracy attempts to govern by proxy. In the past fifty years, at least four presidents have experienced long periods of recuperation or senility. David McKay expanded his First Presidency to include five counselors, of whom three were similarly geriatric. Spencer Kimball called a third counselor when his entire presidency was disabled, and Ezra Taft Benson was incapacitated for about seven years from 1987–94, who had energetically served for 45 years as an apostle, reached across the Iron Curtain to East German Mormons, oversaw publication of new editions of the scriptures, and compassionately served for decades, spent his tenure as president of the church suffering from advanced diabetes and was uncharacteristically brief in his later remarks and presence.
The effectiveness of decisive top-down direction can be tempered by the bureaucratic apparatus of the Church. A central “correlation committee” reviews all products for doctrinal approval. Many programs are extensively field-tested before a decision is made on their introduction or cancellation. The idea of a formalizing a “prophet emeritus” role has been in the air for decades, but never realized; upcoming leaders seem to be energetic and unlikely to motivate such change. The church bureaucracy is loyal to the president of the church, partly due to socialization and partly due to the long tenure and effort of these men before they succeed to the presidency. Initiatives are discreetly and energetically pursued.
Spiritual programs have always proven elusive to quantify: how does one measure “faith in Jesus Christ,” for instance? Proxies have been employed extensively as an index of spirituality. For instance, missionaries weekly report such metrics as number of contacts made, number of lessons taught, number of baptisms realized, number of “reactivations” (bringing lapsed members back to church), etc. Men and women in the church are assigned monthly visits to families under their stewardship, and the visits and outcomes are reported to local church leadership. Tithing and charitable donations are closely tracked, as is meeting attendance. Metrics change from time to time, but the surveillance of patterns of behavior persists.
What to read: Shepherd & Shepherd, A Kingdom Transformed, 2ed.
Finances. Latter-day Saints typically make two kinds of voluntary donations: tithing and “fast offerings”. Tithing is 10% of one’s income, and faithful members pay this value directly to the church as a tax-deductible charitable offering. Tithing may be used by the church primarily to maintain or extend ecclesiastical real estate holdings: meetinghouses and temples. Fast offerings (so-called because they are derived from the money saved by fasting) are designated solely for charity. A robust local welfare program assists members who have fallen into financial difficulty.
The travails of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries led Mormon leadership to be chary of overextending the corporation’s commitments. Disincorporation and near-bankruptcy had alerted them to the need for steady financial footings. Colonization and development of the Intermountain West led to the Church being invested in many diverse projects, from mining to sugar beets to healthcare.
Finances are divided into two types: “sacred funds”, meaning tithes and offerings, and non-sacred funds, meaning income derived from assets, holdings, and investments. Sacred funds are applied only to ecclesiastical ends. A long debate raged in the first half of the twentieth century about the wisdom of investing sacred funds. The modern consensus appears to be that sacred funds are invested, but the capital itself is only ever spent on explicitly religious endeavors.
The LDS Church has not publicly disclosed finances in decades, so accurate estimates of its gross and net worth are difficult to come by. However, one can infer from public activities something of the corporation’s worth. For instance, in 2012 the Church opened the City Creek Center as an urban renewal project in downtown Salt Lake City. The mall was estimated to cost $1.5 billion and was likely funded through the for-profit businesses the church owns. An additional $3.5 billion was committed to downtown rejuvenation. (It is apparent that the corporate church feels a deep responsibility to maintain Salt Lake City as an attractive and desirable place to live and raise families.) In 1999, the authors of Mormon America estimated the church’s holdings to be worth $25–30 billion dollars. In 2018, leaks indicated that subsidiaries of the Mormon Church were involved in the management of assets of at least 32 billion dollars, although it is unclear if the church is sole investor or one of many. The church also maintains and operates more than 150 temples and 30,000 local congregations. Reuters estimates the temples and meetinghouses alone to be worth $35 billion. The LDS Church through wholly-owned subsidiaries is a major real estate landowner in Utah, Arizona, Idaho, California, the Midwest, and Florida. Prudent financial stewardship has been absolutely key to the Mormon church’s ongoing stability and ability to bankroll its operations regardless of the broader economic cycle.
What to read: Ostling & Ostling, Mormon America
Missionary Service. Mormon men are expected to serve a two-year mission for the Church while still young unmarried men. Many Mormon women also elect to serve eighteen-month missions. Missionary service is assigned by the central Church office, and the terms of service assigned to an aspiring missionary are considered divinely inspired. Applicants are assigned a country and language, then sent to a “Missionary Training Center” where they learn the rudiments of the language and immerse themselves in missionary culture. Missionaries abide a strict rulebook, including constant companionship, no unchaperoned contact with the opposite sex, designated “tracting” and curfew hours, and mandated study. “The mission” welds together the experience of Mormon men in particular. One of the first questions a Mormon man will ask another after meeting for the first time is, “Where did you serve?” Passion for the culture in which they served can influence career, study, marriage, and friendships. Speaking as a former missionary, the experience is spiritually and physically intense, requiring the rest of one’s life to fully understand and unpack. Mormon families sacrifice to send their sons and daughters or themselves on missions at their own expense (through a standardized-cost program). Approximately 65,000 full-time missionaries currently serve (January 2019).
Education & the Church Educational System. Since the Nauvoo period, the LDS Church has esteemed secular education highly. The University of Nauvoo briefly operated prior to the martyrdom of Joseph Smith as a municipal university. The University of Deseret secularized and became the University of Utah. The corporate church has long maintained a corps of instructors and faculty capable of offering religious and secular instruction at “institutes of religion” (located adjacent to college campuses across the world) and at high schools throughout Polynesia and Latin America. The crown jewel of the system is Brigham Young University, situated in Provo, Utah.
BYU serves as a locus for Mormon education, courtship, and culture. Tuition is assessed not by in-state/out-of-state terms, but by an LDS/non-LDS division. BYU student congregations are separated into single and married wards, with heavy social emphasis in the former being placed on finding a spouse. BYU provides an avenue for many Mormons, particularly those with the highest educational aptitude, to experience a secular education suffused with religious sensibility—and the former is not rhetorically or practically subjugated to the latter. The religious education and history departments occupy a status on campus not unlike that of classics departments before the 1920s.
More broadly, Mormonism places a high premium on education, and men and women are both encouraged to get as much education as they can afford. Mormons are among the most well-educated religionists in the United States. This leads to an otherwise unprecedented phenomenon: apparently for Mormons increased intelligence correlates with increased fertility.
Public Relations & Political Lobbying. The LDS Church has engaged in actively cultivating its public image since at least the 1920s (when the “Good Neighbor” policy of Grant began to de-emphasize the longstanding animosity of the Mormons for the United States federal government). Over time, this has developed into a fully-featured public relations office, and extensive outreach through associated vehicles like the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. The Mormon Church only rarely participates in ecumenical efforts, and seems to do so largely from motivations of potential evangelization or public relations (Shepherd & Shepherd, p. 197).
The LDS Church has been judicious in its political involvement, weighing in infrequently on such issues as right-to-work laws (supporting the Taft–Hartley Law), the Equal Rights Amendment (in successful opposition), the MX missile controversy (in successful opposition), and California’s Proposition 8 (initial success at the polls overturned by Obergefell v. Hodges). Although frequently aloof, the church can hardly be said to be either activist or passivist, but lobbyist in its efforts.
Political lobbying of the federal government has been practiced since Joseph Smith, although it has developed in sophistication since Brigham Young’s 1854 letter telling Congress to “kiss my ass, damn you!” The long process of pursuing statehood was a careful courtship. Of course, the church has a strong polarizing influence on the Utah state government, which is worthy of further study by one more familiar with that governmental venue.
Politically prominent Mormons include Senator Reed Smoot, Undersecretary of State J. Reuben Clark, Secretary of Agriculture Ezra Taft Benson, Secretary of the Treasury David M. Kennedy, presidential candidate George Romney (1968), Senator Orrin Hatch, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, many representatives and other senators, Utah governors and state officials throughout the West, presidential candidate Mitt Romney (2008, 2012), and Pat Buchanan’s sister Bay Buchanan who served as Treasurer of the United States.
What to read: D. Michael Quinn, Mormon Hierarchy (volumes 2 and 3)
4. Personal Mormonism
Mormonism as a lived religious experience embraces every aspect of one’s life. Daily occurrences and intuitions are identified with “the Spirit”, meaning the Holy Ghost. Men and women are to present themselves properly and modestly. The dietary code of the Word of Wisdom obtains (no tea, coffee, tobacco, or alcohol), and a Boy Scout-like attention to personal integrity is encouraged. The Church consciously sees itself as manifest in an increasingly indifferent world via its members, and these should play the part well. Members are enjoined to read the scriptures daily, in particular The Book of Mormon, and to be alert to “missionary opportunities”, or the chance to inform others about the Restored Gospel.
Intellectuals, pseudo-intellectuals, church authorities, folk and family traditions, and one’s own interpretation (by the light of the Spirit) all inform one’s personal take on Mormonism. While the church cannot audit this personal viewpoint, it can observe actions and encourage social proof activities such as “bearing one’s testimony”, or sharing one’s convictions with fellow Mormons or Gentiles. This can make it difficult to perpetuate heterodoxy. Until recently, the LDS church officially discouraged study groups and meetings outside of the auspices of the church; this was recently reversed (October 2018) and the results remain to be seen.
As essentially all male Mormons hold the “priesthood”, they are able to participate in the ritual “ordinances” and exercise “keys” (the right to preside over ordinances). All members are given “callings”, or assignments, which range from teaching to clerical to worship to administrative tasks. As one holds a calling for several years at a time, this seeps into Mormon identity deeply, particularly if a pattern in callings is perceived. It also gives members glimpses of many aspects of the organization and provides variety in experience.
Mormonism relies on what we may term “life scripts” for much of its personal power. Multigenerational—or in some cases dynastic—family structure, as well as local stake and ward structure, provide a framework for thinking about family, personal history and development, and esoteric experiences (whether ritual or spontaneous). This succeeds in inculcating subsequent generations with Mormon behaviors and attitudes effectively. Mormon youth programs and ward life provide many proxy father and mother figures, peer role models, and instructive examples. Thiscan serve as a weakness for those who find themselves not fitting the script, however, leaving contemporary Mormonism in an odd situation: it’s just the thing for you, if you’re the sort of person it’s just the thing for.
Mormonism extensively socializes desirable behaviors. Church programs are time-intensive, but provide the rewards of community service and a tightly integrated sex-segregated social network. Mormons are raised from birth to attend church weekly for three hours (recently reduced to two hours in January 2019). Youth attend “seminary,” a catechism-like experience reviewing church history and scripture, five days a week in the morning, as well as once a week participating in an evening activity. Young men in particular are expected to serve a proselyting mission, which takes two years full-time beginning at age 18. (“Full-time” meaning not 40 hours a week, but 24 hours a day.) Semiannual general and stake conferences also provided extended instruction to general adult and targeted subgroup memberships. Teachings from these conferences are viewed as “marching orders” and referred back frequently to during the next six-month period. Members are encouraged to marry within the faith, and hypergamously tend to prefer more “qualified” or ecclesiastically promising members (returned missionaries, for instance).
Because Mormonism provides strong life scripts, many major life events occur under the aegis of the church or are interpreted through a religious lens. Priesthood-holding fathers dedicate the family home, bless their children ritually (by the “laying on of hands”) for health and success and comfort, frequently perform family baptisms, and are explicitly called to “preside” in the home.
Temple worship, which is a key element of Mormon practice and identity, requires a “recommend”, or an ecclesiastical recommendation, which screens for “temple worthiness” via questions about practice and belief. Much like the “bearing of testimony”, considering and answering these questions cement Mormon group identification (an argument made by former BYU professor Faenrandir (/u/bwv549)).
Authority & Obedience. The encouraged possibility of personal revelation from God leads to an acute problem of authority. Mormonism deals with authority under two headings: stewardship and keys. All members have stewardship, which designates the particular concerns of one’s own life, family, and calling. Certain callings, such as bishop or apostle, have attached to them also “keys”, which are the right to direct the use of priesthood and priesthood resources within that calling’s scope of stewardship. One cannot receive revelation or guidance for anything outside of one’s stewardship, which neatly brackets claims of authority into a cascade of callings from local to general.
LDS rituals are called “ordinances”, after an idiomatic reading of King James English. The LDS Church designates certain ordinances as “ordinances for salvation”. Their administration is typically subject to “keys,” or the jurisdiction of presiding authorities. Ritual ordinances include: the naming and blessing of newborn children, baptism (at age eight), the conferral of the gift of the Holy Ghost, ordination to the higher priesthood (for men), the temple endowment (here meaning a dramatized depiction of esoteric knowledge), and the temple sealing (or marriage). The temple endowment is accompanied by the right and commandment to wear temple garments, which are marked underwear containing reminders of the temple covenants. Faithful Mormons wear these garments daily, serving as an additional reminder of their affiliation and covenants.
Covenant theology structures Mormon thought about personal progression and the afterlife. Each ordinance has attached to it certain “covenant obligations” between the Lord and the saint. Baptismal covenants, for instance, enjoin one to comfort those who stand in need of comfort and to stand as a witness of God. More elaborate covenants follow, proceeding from chastity and following the “gospel” to absolute consecration of one’s goods, time, talents, effort, and life to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Temple rituals are completed once for one’s own salvation, but may be repeated by worthy members on behalf of their kindred dead. Temple rituals and language thus ground Mormon commitment to the church.
Mormon discourse is frequently oriented around the abstract virtue of “obedience”. The referent of obedience is frequently left implicit: obedience to God’s law, to natural law and consequences, to Church and civic leaders, etc. Mormons highly value conformity, a quality useful in the maintenance of a homogeneous community of Latter-day Saints.
Commitment and loyalty is encouraged explicitly through promised blessings (typically otherworldly) and the reframing of difficulties involved with sacrificed time and money as “blessings in disguise.” (One suspects an economy similar to conspicuous consumption operates here as well.) Dietary patterns, conventions in time usage, and intensive practices all drive commitment.
What to read: Shepherd & Shepherd, A Kingdom Transformed, ch. 6, “Patterns of Mormon Commitment Rhetoric”
Family Life. Mormonism is strongly pronatal, and motherhood and fatherhood are accorded particular prestige. Marriage conventionally occurs young (23 years old, but not uncommonly 18 or 19 for women), and couples are encouraged to not delay childbearing for economic, social, or educational reasons. (Normative folktales, such as an apocryphal quote of Brigham Young to the effect that an unmarried man over the age of 26 is a menace to society, support this trend.) An official statement of recent vintage proclaims,
The family is ordained of God. Marriage between man and woman is essential to His eternal plan. Children are entitled to birth within the bonds of matrimony, and to be reared by a father and a mother who honor marital vows with complete fidelity. Happiness in family life is most likely to be achieved when founded upon the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ. Successful marriages and families are established and maintained on principles of faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work, and wholesome recreational activities. By divine design, fathers are to preside over their families in love and righteousness and are responsible to provide the necessities of life and protection for their families. Mothers are primarily responsible for the nurture of their children. In these sacred responsibilities, fathers and mothers are obligated to help one another as equal partners. (The Family: A Proclamation to the World, 1995)
Family practices reinforce norms across generations and throughout extended families. The young marriage age means that frequently Mormons know each other across four generations. A well-used metaphor of “crabs in the bucket” encourages Mormons to keep family members within the fold.
Fertility is encouraged by intrafamilial social pressures, extrafamilial social pressures, and theological justification. Intrafamilial pressure can range from grandparents pushing for grandchildren to subliminal competition among siblings to have more children. Extrafamilial social pressures include regular injunctions from church leadership to have children young despite financial difficulties. The“sealing ceremony” for Mormon marriage specifically commands the newly minted husband and wife to “be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth.” Mormon theology holds that the spirits of the unborn are residing with God and awaiting the opportunity to come to Earth anxiously. Folkloric experiences such as dreaming of children yet to come are common. Significantly, these experiences are interpreted within the framework of Mormon thought, leading members to hew more closely to the church. (Bruce Charlton has explored this phenomenon among British Saints.)
Intellectualism. As with the translation of the Bible into the vernacular, the mass of scriptural autodidacts requires careful management to keep them more or less in line with the corporate version of doctrine. (Mormons distinguish “doctrine” from “policy” from “interpretation”.) This process may be called “correlation”, although the term has been used with inconsistent meaning in Mormonism.
(In)famously, Mormon apostle Boyd Packer claimed in 1993 that,
There are three areas where members of the Church, influenced by social and political unrest, are being caught up and led away. I chose these three because they have made major invasions into the membership of the Church. In each, the temptation is for us to turn about and face the wrong way, and it is hard to resist, for doing it seems so reasonable and right. The dangers I speak of come from the gay-lesbian movement, the feminist movement (both of which are relatively new), and the ever-present challenge from the so-called scholars or intellectuals. (“Talk to the All-Church Coordinating Council”)
It seems from the events of the past three decades that Packer was indeed prophetic in his caution.
Mormon intellectuals have ranged from early systematic and speculative thinkers (Orson Pratt, B. H. Roberts) to faithful academics (Hugh Nibley, Eugene England, Terryl Givens) to dissident agitators (Sonia Johnson, Kate Kelly) to agnostic commentators (Sterling McMurrin) to various stripes of apologist (Daniel Peterson, Robert Millet).
Mormon discourses sustains a vigorous apologetics movement, pro- and anti-Mormon, “full of sound and fury.” Apologetics as a branch of Mormon intellectualism runs interference in providing a justification for belief: it has shaken out as a sort of Mormon Cathedral, defining the boundaries of acceptable LDS thought and speculation. Problems in history frequently lead to sort of fideist anti-intellectual stance among members, derided as “blind loyalty” or praised as “faithful endurance.”
Egyptian and Hebrew symbolism, together with some of the more outré written revelations of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young, provides fertile ground for speculative theology and numerology. Social niches for “scriptorians” (those who have mastered the scriptural texts) and the “doctrinaire” (here not pejorative) are well-established and recognizable in every congregation.
Some Mormons have adopted an activist tack, attempting to pressure the Church into acting in a progressive way by enlisting the focus of the broader sympathetic media. Many agitate for gay rights, feminism, female ordination, etc. Mormon leaders at the highest level have made some policy concessions, such as supporting Salt Lake City housing ordinances, while vocally committing to doctrinal bars to embracing such progressive practices.
Dissident Mormon intellectuals are unable to see the church’s merits as such, frequently due to a greater loyalty to progressive values. The nepotism and insularity of the Church—behaviors which lend it much strength and internal cohesion—are criticized as parochial.
History. The Mormon mental life is predicated on an alternate version of history, and frequently a Mormon carries about two or three conflicting, overlapping versions of history. (This is not unlike many creedal Christians who perceive a tension between secular and sacred mythologies of history.) The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is seen as the culmination of religious history, and continuing hints at the pending Second Coming and related apocalyptic developments may be said to fuel a certain myopia among Mormons. (Notably, I have known Baby Boomer-aged members who never saved for retirement under the certainty that the world would have ended by the time they were that old. I have also seen a persistent hope expressed that Jesus would just come and deal with the whole mess of the modern world. This attitude may be akin to the difficulties the fledgling Christian church faced as it entered its second century after Christ.) Regardless, this means that many Mormons feel little urgency in long-term planning on the order of centuries.
Historiography. The evolution of Mormon historiography is potentially instructive. Mormonism is the rare instance of a religion that developed in an age of mass media. Despite this, the Brighamite church was able to control the narrative that developed around Mormonism to a large degree, the national media acting in opposition or concert.
Joseph Smith wrote a personal history and encouraged scribes to keep records of church activities during his tenure. Brigham Young correctly saw that scrupulous adherence to Joseph Smith’s vision was key to his power, and always framed his doctrinal and organizational innovations as necessary or predicted elaborations of Smith’s vision. After the move to Utah, the Quorum of the Twelve exercised close control over the compilation and publication of The History of the Church during the 1850s. After years of scribal and editorial work, the finished product was presented as the work of Joseph Smith. The History of the Church was profoundly influential on the way Mormon history was told for more than a century. Major editorial interpolations were later publicly identified, leading to relative disuse and a preference for primary sources where available.
The New Mormon History developed during the 1960s and 1970s as the Church opened its archives to academic historians for the first time. Affidavits and other primary sources were frequently unavailable until recent decades, making it possible for the official version of church history to ossify into a “faith-promoting” version that preserved the outlines but arguably deviated from actual events in certain instances.
Deep emotional investment, either for or against Mormonism, combined with the need for an insider’s interpretive ability has hampered the effectiveness of prior attempts to explicate Mormonism for the outsider. (Sympathetic outsiders such as Harold Bloom sometimes make minor gaffes which a native Mormon would never perpetuate in print.) The most reliable historical commentators are probably D. Michael Quinn, Leonard Arrington, Richard Van Wagoner, and Gregory Prince.
Church efforts to control the framing of Mormon history, much like efforts to control the framing of neoliberal democracy, have been severely challenged by Internet forums and blogs which create the conditions for dissidence to flourish.
America. American exceptionalism is Mormon gospel. Mormon scripture (the Doctrine and Covenants) specifically singles out the United States Constitution for praise as the product of wise men inspired by God. Mormon leaders breathed hot and cold about the United States, perhaps consider the U.S. to be in some sense distinct from its government, but as we have seen ultimately settled on rapprochement. Mormons have engaged in government service and have frequently been sought for work in intelligence and diplomatic service due to their exposure to foreign languages via missionary service. Mormons feel a high degree of loyalty for the “Cathedral” without recognizing its lurking dangers. In addition, Mormons feel called to “be in the world but not of the world.”
Several Mormons have served as senators from Utah and other states. Since Mitt Romney’s 2012 bid for president failed, the highest-ranked federal official who was also Mormon remains LDS Apostle Ezra Taft Benson, who served as Secretary of Agriculture for Dwight Eisenhower contemporaneously with his apostolic service. (Benson later became church president, 1985–94.)
Benson and others promoted a strongly America-centered vision of Mormonism, emphasizing promises made in The Book of Mormon that this land is a promised land and can only be held by the righteous. Benson was friendly to the John Birch Society and advocated anticommunist vigilance professionally and ecclesiastically; during this period, he authored the book The Red Carpet: Socialism—The Royal Road to Communism. Cleon Skousen, author of The Naked Communist, was another well-connected Mormon who served as police chief of Salt Lake City. Mormon leaders have distanced the Church from America-centered rhetoric since the 1990s as the membership outside of the United States has grown. This should be seen not as a decreased loyalty to the idea of the United States, but as an accommodation of the worldwide audience.
In addition, Mormon apocalyptic thought has been tightly woven through with Cold War-style nuclear angst, and prophecies about the Constitution of the United States “hanging by a thread” have been repeated by presidents of the church since Joseph Smith. The key idea in the prophecies is that the U.S. Constitution shall one day hang by a single thread, and the Elders of Israel (that is, the Mormon men) will rise up and save it and the United States from destruction. One version, from the Mosiah Hancock autobiography, reads:
The United States will spend her strength and means warring in foreign lands until other nations will say, “Let us divide up the lands of the United States”, then the people of the U.S. will unite and swear by the blood of their forefathers that the land shall not be divided. Then the country will go to war, and they will fight until one half of the U.S army will give up, and the rest will continue to struggle. They will keep on until they are very ragged and discouraged, and almost ready to give up — when the boys from the mountains will rush forth in time to save the American army from defeat and ruin. And they will say, “Brethren, we are glad you have come; give us men, henceforth, who can talk with God”. Then you will have friends, but you will save the country when its liberty hangs by a hair, as it were. (“Hang by a Thread”, Joseph Smith Foundation)
Apostle Orson Pratt said:
It is said that brother Joseph in his lifetime declared that the Elders of this Church should step forth at a particular time when the Constitution should be in danger, and rescue it, and save it. This may be so; but I do not recollect that he said exactly so. I believe he [Joseph] said something like this – that the time would come when the Constitution and the country would be in danger of an overthrow; and said he, If the Constitution be saved at all, it will be by the Elders of this Church. I believe this is about the language, as nearly as I can recollect it. The question is whether it will be saved at all, or not. I do not know that it matters to us whether it is or not: the Lord ill provide for and take care of his people, if we do every duty, and fear and honour him, and keep his commandments; and he will not leave us without a Constitution. (“Hang by a Thread”, Joseph Smith Foundation)
The “White Horse Prophecy” figures prominently in this constellation of records. The White Horse Prophecy was allegedly delivered by Joseph Smith in 1843, but not reported by the putative hearer, Edwin Rushton, until 1900. It has been treated as spurious by LDS authorities and historians but embraced by some of a more fundamentalist bent. Many times Mormons refer to the entire conjunct of ideas around the constitutional prophecy as the White Horse Prophecy without meaning the specific Rushton account.
In all likelihood, Mitt Romney believes that he represents the “boys from the mountains” in saving the U. S. Constitution. Others have taken up this role as well: the Bundys drew on White Horse Prophecy theology in their resistance to the federal government. Orthodox Mormon political thought frequently leans towards Old Right-style libertarianism (tempered with conservative social strictures such as dry-state laws) or perhaps a communitarian minarchism, possibly as a result of this influence.
Conspiracy Theories. The Book of Mormon promotes an explicitly conspiracy-theoretical view of evil. A group of wicked robbers, known as the Gadianton robbers, contributed to the downfall of Nephite society in the years before the coming of Christ to the Americas after his death. This conspiracy of secret oaths is said to have revived periodically since Cain, and represents the worst opposition to righteousness in the world. Although no contemporary equivalent is positively identified within the text, the idea has taken deep hold on Mormon political thought.
Truth Claims. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints claims exclusive and absolute priesthood authority to perform rituals, advance the kingdom of God, and seal in heaven and on earth. No past errors are identified or apologized for, but if necessary to reframe an outmoded teaching prophets may be said to have “spoken as men.” Jocosely, it is said that while Catholics say the Pope is infallible, they don’t believe it; Mormons say the Prophet is fallible, but they don’t believe it.
“Doctrine” is considered stable (somewhat ironically if one considers the evolution from plural marriage to the monogamous nuclear family). His historical reinterpretation of doctrine, combined with the Mormon Underground, leads to a gnostic sense of interpretation, in which fine distinctions are read into nuances of wording or manner. Scriptural interpretation, particularly of so-called “modern revelation”, tends to be literalistic and based on the English-language grammar and word choice.
In some ways, the Achilles’ heel of Mormonism is found in its claims of absolute exclusive truth, and the corresponding rigidity of thought. This establishes institutional loyalty and has proven protective against the leftward ratchet, but is conservative with all the baggage implied.
Mormonism also struggles, perhaps unconsciously, with the kinds of people it produces: loosely speaking, men tend to divide into freethinkers and the obedient, both of whom derive much of their identity from flouting the social conventions or adhering scrupulously to them. Social markers such as the adoption of a clean-shaven demeanor, “modest” (unrevealing) clothing, and wearing white button-up shirts to church meetings are not doctrinal but in practice are softly enforced. Transgression of these markers assumes a droll significance to the observer. (An ecclesiastical Overton window is in full operation here.)
The most ecclesiastically successful men are frequently businessmen, lawyers, and doctors, not from creative or laboring fields, lending the Church a very monochromatically bourgeois outlook.
Correlation as a system of mental discipline works quite well to shield members from the ravages of progressivism. The low-church leveling instinct is fed from the tap of personal revelation (all can receive guidance of God), but neutered by the strongly hierarchical institution and the shuffling of callings. (One wryly suspects that the unpaid nature of local work and the relative transparency of local processes also contributes.) It has been said that socialism never took root in the United States because every poor man is just a frustrated millionaire whose ship hasn’t yet come in. Similarly, the hierarchical tension in Mormonism is lessened by the prospect of future service.
Mormonism’s metaphysical claims are falsifiable and experiential. At the introductory level, the simple test of the veracity of The Book of Mormon becomes a touchstone for one’s “testimony”. The occurrence and recounting in hushed tones of miraculous events—healings, visions, dreams, glories—fuel a robust sphere of private theology. The uncanny perseverance of nineteenth-century folk magic with the baptized Freemasonry of LDS temple rituals has created a strange mélange that more intellectual members tend to either adhere to whole-cloth or reject as allegorical. Non-negotiables of faithful practice seem to include the historicity of The Book of Mormon, the reality of priesthood and priesthood keys, and adherence to the Word of Wisdom’s proscriptive tenets (alcohol, tobacco, and coffee). (Plural marriage was considered a non-negotiable for many decades but is now a doctrina non grata, occupying an uncomfortable niche in LDS thought.) Even major social issues like feminism can find uneasy coexistence with church membership (Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, Harvard professor), although agitation and activism can lead to excommunication in short order (Kate Kelly, agitator for female ordination).
A wide dynamic range of historical theologies couples in tension with gradually tightening doctrinal clarifications. Faithful intellectuals provide a safety valve for discussion without reflecting actual authoritative doctrine or practice. Church leadership is generally air-gapped by temperament and by career from academe; in addition, the upper echelons of the church’s universities are highly loyal. Like science fiction, this arrangement allows intellectual and speculative exploration of adjacent memetic spaces in advance of possible colonization by the corporation’s doctrinal authorities.
What to read: Givens & Barlow, The Oxford Handbook of Mormonism
5. Prospects of Mormonism in Any Future Restoration
Since the 1830s, state and federal governments have struggled with how to handle the Mormon Question. After shedding certain incompatible doctrines (the United Order and plural marriage) to better meld with the American capitalist tradition, the LDS Church has deftly maneuvered itself into the late-20th-century symbiosis of the Cathedral and the Temple. Should the transformation of society and state that is necessary in Restoration be pursued, the Mormon Question will once again need to be considered. Two aspects dominate: the role Mormonism will play in the lead-up to a political restoration, and the prospect of Mormonism as a state religion.
5.1. Mormonism and Restoration
Mormon Christianity is highly eucivic in both its internal and its external relations. Latter-day Saint communities are fertile, social, pragmatic, and conservative in practice. Mormons became, during the 20th century, Americans par exemplar. Since they see much of the prior history of the United States as divinely guided, and see the Constitution as integral, Latter-day Saints will have to be carefully guided into a story of history which sees Restoration as a culmination rather than a refutation.
Joseph Smith was the first prophet of “the dispensation of the fulness of times,” and as such restored “the fulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ.” “Restoration”, therefore, has already acquired a charged meaning to Mormons. Used carefully, this can promote the idea of political Restoration in the neoreactionary sense.
In the 1840s, the Council of Fifty was established to guide the creation of the kingdom of heaven. In theory rather like the Moldbuggian Plinth, the Council of Fifty was supposed to integrate Mormon and non-Mormon stakeholders in preparing and later governing the political kingdom of heaven. A detailed plan was not worked out prior to Smith’s death, however. In practice, this council primarily served to support the 1844 presidential campaign of Joseph Smith, and was only sporadically utilized thereafter.
Mormonism has long enshrined a doctrine of separation of church and state. Specifically, the church and its works are intended to bring about the salvation of mankind, while the Kingdom of God represents the political administration of the earth under Jesus Christ during the Millennium. This is an ecclesiastical proposition, though, and although the corporate church has been involved with politics since the 1830s (and particularly with the Deseret theocracy, 1847–52), Mormonism also contains prophecies about the “kingdom of God”, or the political state corresponding to the ecclesiastical kingdom of God.[1] The political establishment of this kingdom is envisioned by most Mormons to occur after the Second Coming of Jesus Christ and does not represent an overt political aim. While one cannot make the argument to Latter-day Saints that Restoration is the ushering-in of the millennial state, one can claim that it augurs a beneficent orientation of mankind around values Mormons hold dear: cooperation, productivity, self-reliance, civic order.
Since the Latter-day Saints consider the Constitution to be divinely inspired, and that they are called by prophecy to maintain it, they are liable to perceive certain categories of political action as assaults on that Constitution. This constitutionalism is more often grounded in a conservative interpretation of the Bill of Rights rather than a close originalist reading. Mormons will orient themselves politically along an axis in defense of an “Americanness,” largely traditional but perhaps naive and civic-nationalist. (This caveat illuminates the political successes of such contemporary public Mormon politicians as Mitt Romney and Evan McMullin.) Those working towards political Restoration need to court Mormon opinion carefully to maintain this axis in alignment with the Restoration’s objectives. There is a tradition of rhetoric towards anti-communism and in favor of the American way, particularly from mid-century leaders, which can be drawn upon to reconcile any such effort.
5.2. Mormonism as State Religion
Diverse proposals for the establishment or treatment of the state religion in a Restoration state have been fielded. The neoreactionary hypothesis that every state de facto has a religion implies that citizens and sovereign are better off if that religion is made explicit and stable. Along with proposals for Roman Catholicism, a reactionary Episcopalianism, and a meta-church standard, we should consider Mormon Christianity as a serious contender as state religion of the formalist American Empire.
Mormonism has for its strength the vigor of American nativity. It is no transplanted or grafted tree, being born and bred in the topoi of America from East to West. Mormon scripture enshrines the American continent as a “promised land” and the United States Constitution as divinely inspired. Although viewed with distrust by Protestant Christians (in particular Evangelicals and Baptists), there is reason to believe that a Mormonism Ascendant would behave with tolerance and magnanimity towards ecclesiastical rivals. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is not in its current incarnation well-adapted to be a state religion, but why should it already be so? Prior theocratic experience has passed out of living memory, but the lobbyist activities of the church have continued, as noted previously, and many members have held high political rank.
Necessary doctrinal adjustments or clarifications will include clarification of the relationship of the civic executive to the ecclesiastical authority (the Nauvoo and Deseret theocracies united these); and clarification of the nature and distinction of civil and ecclesiastical discipline. Mormon communities are yoked together by covenant: how they should normatively function with Gentiles will continue to be worked out in practice as it has been for many decades now. Questions such as whether or not one needs to be a Mormon in good standing to hold certain positions of civil authority will need to be decided. The tension between religious establishment and being a characteristically proselytizing faith will need to be resolved. Details of financial and corporate activities may or may not become acute in the event of religious establishment.
Mormon praxis provides a strong basis for collective effort which can be harnessed for the public good, for public works, and for public welfare. Latter-day Saint men, bound by duty and covenant to faithful service, are already exploited by the current regime in high-trust positions and will pivot in loyalty to a more ethical regime as it makes itself manifest.
5.3. Conclusion
Wallace Stegner, in Mormon Country, concluded that, “The Mormons are not, as Mormons, a colorful people…A Mormon’s whole training incapacitates him for recklessness; adventurous as the pioneers were, bold as they were, indomitable as they were, they were adventurous and bold and indomitable in pack, on orders” (p. 347). With their characteristics of group-directed agency and a collectively low time preference, Mormons are conditioned to work well in community and in hierarchy, admirable traits to building a coalition and founding a new civic tradition.
Indeed, corporate Mormonism in the current age may be thought of as a kind of beneficent legal syndicate, the white Anglo-Saxon/Scandinavian Cosa Nostra. As a vehicle for cementing group identity robustly over generations and for building worthiness in the pursuit of power and sovereignty, the LDS Church has performed admirably for more than a century.
The Mormon experience has welded an ethos and identity stable across mass immigration, governmental persecution, and major shifts in practice and non-essential doctrine. A deeper understanding of the Latter-day Saint worldview and experience will build bridges to a significant pool of traditional and traditionalist men and women engaged already in building Restoration.
[1] More recent publications by the Church have collapsed the distinction between the “kingdom of God” and the “kingdom of heaven,” which have both been erratically and confusingly used. What to read: Hansen, “The Theory and Practice of the Political Kingdom of God in Mormon History, 1829–1890”