Mormons the Church of Jesus

Mormons

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS) is an American curiosity. Founded in the early nineteenth century by Joseph Smith, Jr., the faith blends traditional Christianity with visionary fervor. The Mormon Church diverges so much from mainstream American religion and from Christianity in general that it is generally viewed as a fringe faith. The church has come into frequent conflicts with federal law, especially regarding plural marriage. Plural marriage has been a cornerstone of Mormon fundamentalism, and one of the main reasons for the Church of Latter-Day Saints' inability to reconcile itself with mainstream American society.

The policy of polygamy remains central to the Mormon core of beliefs but has been legally banned for over one hundred years. Although the church started in the 1830s, challenges to plural marriage did not arise with any significant political force until the 1870s. Throughout the nineteenth century, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints incorporated plural marriage as an integral part of religious duty. Founder of the faith Joseph Smith Jr. taught in the 1830s and 1840s that "polygamy was divinely commanded and a religious obligation" (Flowers 21). As a result, polygamy was "part of the theology of the church for the rest of the century" (Flowers 21). Female members of the Church of Latter-day Saints did not have the choice of whether or not to enter into a plural marriage; it was simply expected of them. To avoid the divinely-ordained marital order would lead to social isolation and possibly being ostracized completely from friends and family members. Givens relays a story of a Mormon wife who made her life story public. "Mercy's doubts nourished in secret, her resistance to polygamy, and her yearning for sublimity -- all mark her as independent, different, alienated from her own people," (295)

Finally in the late nineteenth century, concerns about polygamy were brought to the attention of the government in Washington. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints framed the issue in terms of the First Amendment. The LDS church was hiding easily behind the libertarianism that prevailed, especially in frontier states like Utah. The Mormon Church championed the Bill of Rights, especially the belief that the United States Constitution protected the freedom of religious expression no matter what that expression might entail. In fact, a limited federal government meant that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which was by then centered in Utah, could advocate any marital structure it desired. States were permitted to "govern within their borders," (Gordon 6).

However, in 1878, the Supreme Court ruled that the federal government may intervene in religious practices even while protecting the freedom to worship. The Supreme Court portaryed polygamy as harmful "to persons or even the moral structure of society" and therefore outlawed plural marriage (Flowers 22). The decision seemed like a direct affront to the Mormon Church. Polygamy remains illegal throughout the United States, although the prosecution of polygamy charges remains a matter of state jurisdiction.

Leaders in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints initially viewed the 1878 Supreme Court decision of Reynolds v. United States as a threat to religious freedom. In 1890, the president and "prophet" of the LDS Church Wilford Woodruff felt "coerced into doing away with the doctrine of plural marriage by the godless government in Washington, D.C." (Krakauer 137-138). Many Mormons felt that the American Constitution was "perhaps not theirs after all," (Gordon 6).

Until 1878, members of the Mormon Church practiced plural marriage with relative openness. In fact, early Mormons believed that plural marriage was integral for "cleansing society of the scourge of prostitution," and for "elevating all of humanity" to a greater spiritual level (Gordon 4). Above all, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints had portrayed plural marriage as a divine injunction, as the foundation for an ideal social order.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints had brought the issue of polygamy to national attention by the turn of the twentieth century. Before long, polygamy became socially as well as legally stigmatized even within the Mormon Church. The few fundamentalists that practiced and continue to practice plural marriage in private risk continued conflict with their religion's leadership, popular culture, and government. In fact, polygamists who claim allegiance to the Church of Latter-Day Saints are not actually members of the LDS church (Krakauer).

According to Gordon, "Mormons believed in a distinct and different moral order based on new divine revelation. To many Mormons, polygamy was the most difficult and arguably the most exhilarating, of the revealed Word in these latter days…brought Mormons into direct and prolonged conflict with the law of marriage in the rest of the nation," (Gordon 4).

Stenhouse explains the individual psychology of Mormon women, showing how and why even Mormon women viewed plural marriage as proper. "When once the disciples of any faith can be brought to believe in present revelation, they think it is wicked to question what they are taught, and they do not allow their own judgments to influence them in the least," (94). The surrender of personal will is a hallmark of many religious traditions. In Under the Banner of Heaven, Krakauer recounts the story of two Mormon men who murder because they believed so strongly that God was speaking to them directly and commanded them to do so. Krakauer uses the story to illustrate how anti-social and misanthropic practices can stem too easily from fundamentalist religious beliefs. As Givens notes, "It's one thing to insist on one's own status before God. It is quite another to universalize convictions about institutions…and to lay claim to certain, divinely revealed knowledge of those things," (27).

Krakauer also comments on the nature of religious fundamentalism in general. "The impetus for most fundamentalist movements…is a yearning to return to the mythical order and perfection of the original church," (Krakauer 137). Because it is a visionary religion, Mormonism seems especially susceptible to radical beliefs and practices. Prevailing social norms has tempered the Mormon conviction that polygamy is the natural order of things. Polygamy was one of the practices that Mormons believed was fundamental to their faith. Plural marriage became part of the Mormon ethos, the Mormon mythos, and Mormon theology. Moreover, plural marriage allowed Mormons to set themselves apart from other Christians in America, even churches equally as evangelical about theological matters.

Givens emphasizes the visionary nature of Mormonism and how that quality has impacted its practical belief in polygamy. The world was different when Joseph Smith, Jr. founded the faith. There were "reports of extensive spiritual outpourings," especially in the Church of Latter-day Saints (Givens 25). Mormonism shares the same spiritual fervor that characterizes other evangelical Christian traditions. As a revealed religion, the tenets of Mormonism are viewed as fact and taken literally. For instance, the founding of the Church involved the creation of a literal Zion in the Western United States. The emotional passion that underlies intense religious belief overrides what is viewed as mundane law, the law of Washington, D.C.