The morphing of Mormonism

One man's cult...

'But when did it dawn on you, that thing that you couldn't tell them, couldn't tell anyone?' Vernon's eyes are fierce behind his glasses as he asks his friend this.

I am talking to two young men, both residents of Salt Lake City, Utah. Both ex-Mormons.

They have had very different experiences. This is the first time Vernon has become impassioned like this, even as he has detailed his upbringing in a small and very Mormon Utah town, his rejection of the church, and the subsequent severing from his family.

'They wanted you to pray to see "The Truth", which means they want you to verify their truth.' He laughs, pushing his glasses up his nose.

'Do you know that when Joseph Smith [the 19th century founder of Mormonism] claimed to have found the golden plates [from which he read the Book of Mormon] he "showed them" to his disciples, and when they didn't see them, he told them they needed to go pray until they did? I felt like them.'

'I did pray, only I always prayed to find the actual truth, not Joseph Smith's. Maybe my prayers were answered, because I study science now.' He smiles, but is not joking.

Rationalism has been a refuge for Vernon, and leaving the church was a veritable conversion.

'The way I look at it is it kind of a mind virus that infects people. It is definitely a cult. Cults try to cut themselves off from society.'

...Is another man's religion

The other young man, Markus, has a very different story to tell. He grew up in Maine, far from the churches epicentre in Utah. Out there the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (LDS) was just one church among many others.

Markus didn't feel so different from his friends who grew up in 'regular' protestant or catholic churches.

'I had a great childhood. My family are great. Really open minded people. I liked Sunday school too.' He explained, adding 'I don't know if it is a cult as such.'

'But when did it dawn on you, that thing that you couldn't tell them, couldn't tell anyone?' Vernon asks, clearly a little surprised to hear a fellow ex-Mormon talk this way.

'Well,' Markus continues, shrugging 'I believed when I was a kid, I was a "good boy" and everything. But then, I just didn't like the way everything was decided you know. I didn't want to get married, and I didn't want all these answers.'

Markus' large family are still close, despite the fact that some practice, and some don't.

'I am still a very spiritual person' he continues 'it is just that I prefer the path of unknowing to the path of knowing.'

Mormonism

Despite their differing assessments of the LDS today, Markus and Vernon present similar versions of Mormon history. It contrasts sharply with the official one received, for instance, on a tour of Salt Lake's impressive Temple sq. - given in your choice of language by an international team of missionary guides.

The controversies regarding Joseph Smith's claims and motives are well documented and are debated frequently online, where an increasing number of Mormons and ex-Mormons are turning to discuss, defend, and interrogate Mormonism.    

Apologetics Online

The really remarkable sites are neither the exposes, nor the blindly pro-LDS strongholds. They are those run by practicing Mormons who attempt to deal frankly with controversies.

Websites such as FAIR and MormonThink don't do this by simple denial, rather they look critically at their own history, cross referencing sources, and frequently exposing those times that their founder and his Prophet-successors up to today expounded offensive or duplicitous teachings.

The LDS certainly has some skeletons in its closet, from virulent racism to insisting that there are people living on the moon, but then so do plenty of other social movements.

Whether you are a communist or a Buddhist you would do well to stand up to the murky ambivalence in your heritage with the boldness of these apologists. 

Recently the managing editor of MormonThink, David Twede, a fifth-generation Mormon who lives in Florida, was threatened with excommunication following an article he published on a history of Mormonism's involvement with national politics, from Smith's attempt to become president, to Mitt Romney's current efforts.

The Romneys

Elsewhere it is Mr and Mrs Romney themselves who have been accused of transgressing boundaries, a perhaps inevitable consequence of their efforts to present a mainstream, acceptable Mormonism.

For instance Ann Romney recently received a flurry of criticism from within the church because she appeared  wearing a short-ish skirt.

This is not only immodest, but it means that she was not wearing the special undergarments that fully initiated Mormons are meant to wear at all times.

A resounding defence came from an unlikely source: the extraordinarily successful blog 'Feminist Mormon Housewife'.

The determinedly liberal blogger and founder of FMH, Lisa Butterworth, stated that although she would never vote for her husband, Ann Romney was a good woman working hard to do the difficult job of 'trying to make us look not too peculiar, but still be a good example of and for Mormons.'

'Are we really so small that we are going to focus on an inch of fabric near Ann Romney’s knee and obsessively discuss this inch of fabric for days?' She asked.

Feminist Mormon Housewife

The FMH's critical, sometimes exasperated, but ultimately hopeful blogs have received attention throughout the community and beyond. Butterworth said that they were born out of the frustration of having no outlet to express criticisms of the church, as well as her liberal political opinions.

Bearing in mind that according to the LDS church, women have 'three principal attributes: namely, (1) the power to bear, (2) the ability to rear, (3) the gift to love', the question that one is tempted to ask is, is it not better for a feminist like Butterworth to simply abandon such a conservative organisation?

It is the old quandary of reform vs. revolution: do you work with problematic existing structures or try to tear them down and start anew?

Well, when your life, your family, and your faith inhabit these existing structures, tearing them down may not seem so appealing - even when you feel they are far from perfect; even when you do not believe everything you are asked to believe.

As one user posted on a popular Mormon forum: 'As someone who often struggles with the faith of belief, I cling to the faith of fidelity. I want to keep the faith in this church that I love.'

Butterworth's FMH blog as reform reaches millions, whereas a blog as protest would probably only appeal to ex-Mormons and people outright opposed to the church.

By staying an insider, Lisa creates a new space within the Mormon identity, and within the church itself, instead of discarding them along with the proverbial baby.

As she puts it herself: 'in a way, “Housewife” gives “Feminist” some subtle “Mormon” legitimacy. I like legitimacy.'

Religion or Cult?

Butterworth is not alone as a reformer. What Mormons have started to term the 'Bloggernacle', evinces a multitude of heterodox of viewpoints, many of them progressive even by non-Mormon standards.

In fact, ever since the LDS outlawed the practice of polygamy in the attempt to get Utah statehood, the church has been inching away from being a cult, which, as Vernon intelligently defined it, willfully cuts itself off from the rest of society, and toward being a Christian organisation similar to many others.

Now, because of the internet, the process is accelerating rapidly.

There is no denying that Vernon's experience of wrestling a 'mind virus' imposed by systematic indoctrination is shared by many others however.

Dr. Marlene Winell is a psychologist who works with leavers of religious movements. Speaking at the ex-mormon foundation's annual conference in 2011 she testified that Mormons tend to produce some of the most isolated and controlling communities in America.

However, as the LDS accommodates itself to more progressive perspectives, perhaps it will not be so catastrophic for Mormon families when members decide to leave for another religion, or for no religion at all.

Maybe Markus' experience of growing up in a 'regular' religion, is becoming more common.

A powerful sign of this is Butterworth's defence of Ann Romney. Despite their radically different opinions on pretty much everything, the FMH is in very real sense allied with the Romneys as forces pulling the LDS belatedly into the mainstream.