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Date Posted: 08:52:07 08/25/12 Sat
Author: SWC
Subject: The Mormons- Part 1

In addition to reposting my review of "The Pursued", Rick also wanted me to re-post the research I had done on the Mormons. It's long so I'll do it in parts. This one is about what they believed- and why.

Why we believe

Before reviewing the Bonanza two-part episode “The Pursued “, I decided to research the Mormons, or the followers of the Church of Latter Day Saints, the religious group the story is about. There are several references to the actual history of the Mormons in the show and, in order to completely understand the story, you need to understand the Mormons themselves. (Historical information is culled from many sources, including various Wikipedia articles and the Time-Life History of the Old West.)

I am not a religious person myself but religion interests me as a human activity. It’s appeal is clear. We live in a colossal world, (counting not just our planet but the known universe), and it can be a very complex place. The human mind, despite it’s great capabilities, can’t fully comprehend it and there is a great desire to simplify it into something we can understand and something in which we play a much more central role than it otherwise appears. Beyond that, we are confronted with many dangers and fears. Feeling connected with something more powerful than what we fear is calming. The ultimate fear is death and religion usually provides a belief that there is something after death so we don’t have to worry about it so much. It also tells us that if we live a virtuous life in this world, even if it isn’t rewarded here, (and those who lack virtue sometimes are), it will be rewarded and those who deserve it punished, in the next life.

Religions also prescribe ways of living life, sometimes extreme but usually very practical. They generally promote tolerance, in their original form anyway, and provide rules governing human relationships and interactions, even dietary laws that are often derived from serious concerns about the safety of food, a great issue in olden times.

Religions start out as movements that run counter to the establishment and are often repressed by it but over time they tend to evolve some type of hierarchy and to be integrated into existing social structures, (the organization of the Catholic Church comes from the fact that it became the spiritual wing of the Roman Empire, which is how the Bishop of Rome came to be supreme over other bishops and thus the “Papa” of the church or the Pope). Eventually they become a source of power and wealth and the leaders of the religion often become more dedicated to maintaining those things than to the principles the church was founded upon, or so it seems to some. This causes people to leave the church or try to reform it. Those people develop their own sects or create their own religions. The church leadership, seeing their position threatened, will either declare the new movement a heresy and attempt to repress it or co-opt it by keeping it within the church and making a few reforms to keep the adherents of the new movement within the church.

The new movements are usually more democratic, at least at the start, than the organizations they are rebelling against. They are also often more fanatical, viewing themselves as purer and more committed than the “worldly” leaders of the existent church. In extreme cases they make up a religion of their own that justifies every impulse they otherwise had and lash out at anyone they hate feeling they have the sanction of God for their actions. Sometimes there is a background of economic class involved: those who feel disadvantaged see adopting their religion, (or their version of it) as a way of rebelling against the “haves”. In a way, it’s similar to the need to feel connected to something more powerful than what they fear and more virtuous than those they resent.

Other sects are more benevolent and remember that the front lines in the battle between good and evil is in our own minds and judge themselves first before they judge others. Some try to be a positive force in the world, doing good deeds. Others just want to be left alone. But sometimes even the benevolent ones face such discrimination and violence that the need to defend themselves produces an extremism of their own.

What the Mormons Believe

The early 19th century was a period of great religious fervor in America. A lot of people were searching for the understanding and security religious belief could give them. There was also a general feeling that the religions of the Old World weren’t good enough for them and that the established churches were “corrupted”, such that a return to a more basic and personal sort of faith was needed. The Mormon faith was the most successful of the new ideas in gaining converts.

Mormons believe that faith in Jesus Christ is the only way to salvation. They believe that traditional religions had suffered a “great apostasy” during which “the original teachings and practices of the primitive or original Christian church were greatly altered” and that “the Catholic-Anglican-Orthodox tradition is to some important degree corrupted and apostate in the sense that it will not or cannot be reformed”. They felt that “even as early as the Apostles a natural process of corruption began, and reached a crucial point of development when the Christian church was made the official religion of the Roman Empire by Theodosius I. From this point on, compromise of the truth deepened over time until the church became thoroughly worldly and corrupt, so that the true faith was first no longer openly taught, and instead suppressed, and at times persecuted, and cast out. “ In their view, the desire of Roman emperors to control the church gave is a hierarchy that was inappropriate to true religious faith. They also felt that the church had incorporated some aspects of the religions they replaced in order to gain converts, (this is historically true), including hero-worshiping, which led to the veneration of the saints.

They also believe that what survives of the early scriptures is just a remnant of what originally existed and that the missing texts were restored by the visions and revelations of Joseph Smith, the founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, including an ancient text which he translated into modern English. They argue that to be the true word of God, church doctrine must be a product of divine revelation, not the various councils of human bishops that dominated the history of the Catholic Church. They feel that subsequent reformers have a portion of the truth, but not all of it. “They also maintain that many other religions, Christian and otherwise, advance many good causes and do much good among the people insofar as they are led by the light of Christ, "which lighteth every man that cometh into the world."

But the “Restoration” of the early Christian church was necessary to prepare the human race for the Second Coming of Christ. Joseph Smith wrote: “It is my meditation all the day, and more than my meat and drink, to know how I shall make the Saints of God comprehend the visions that roll like an overflowing surge before my mind.” The term “Saints” derives from Smith's teaching that adherents of the religion God established were "Saints" in the same sense that Paul of Tarsus used the term, meaning that they were followers of Christ, not martyrs to the church.

Joseph Smith said that mankind had always existed in various states and had to progress through these states according to God’s plan. But he felt that God had once been a man and that men were made of the same stuff as God: "The soul—the mind of man—the immortal spirit. Where did it come from? All learned men and doctors of divinity say that God created it in the beginning; but it is not so: the very idea lessens man in my estimation.... We say that God himself is a self-existent being.... Man does exist upon the same principles.... [The Bible] does not say in the Hebrew that God created the spirit of man. It says 'God made man out of the earth and put into him Adam's spirit, and so became a living body.' The mind or the intelligence which man possesses is co-equal with God himself.... Is it logical to say that the intelligence of spirits is immortal, and yet that it had a beginning? The intelligence of spirits had not beginning, neither will it have an end. That is good logic. That which has a beginning may have an end. There never was a time when there were not spirits; for they are co-equal [co-eternal] with our Father in Heaven."

Exaltation or eternal life is premised on the doctrine that "The Father has [an immortal, glorified] body of flesh and bones, as tangible as man's; the Son also." Latter-day Saints believe that ”all human beings are children of God, and have, therefore, as children of God the Father the divine potential to become as their Heavenly Father is, and to be exalted to godhood, in the same way that God the Father 'exalted' His Only Begotten Son Jesus Christ. Exaltation is to become, through the Atonement of Christ, a 'joint-heir' with Jesus Christ, in all that the Father possesses; meaning that, God the Father makes each man a being like himself, perfect in power, authority, dominion, glory, attributes, knowledge, wisdom, might, &c, yet eternally subordinate to and worshipping God the Father.”

Smith said : “Once a man or woman has obeyed the first principles of the gospel, the milk of the kingdom, he or she must press forward, feasting on the words of Christ, going on unto perfection, or seeking the meat of the kingdom, much of which has to do with the temple and a comprehensive understanding of the life God leads….The purpose of an earth life was to give men the opportunity to demonstrate obedience to the commandments of God while outside of His presence….Those in the Celestial Kingdom will be allowed to continue to progress and become joint heirs with Jesus Christ; but only individuals that are in the highest degree of the Celestial Kingdom will eventually be enabled in eternity to become gods and goddesses and participate in the eternal creative process of having spirit children.”

“The church also teaches that each person's gender is eternal and that each gender has roles and duties in the family that are ordained by God. The church teaches that "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 LDS Church has been characterized by its members as a family-centered religion….The church teaches that on earth, families may be "sealed"—meaning that they are eternally bound as husband–wife, parents–child—and that these bonds will continue after death.”

Smith felt that there was an afterlife for everyone but that there were various levels of it based on how a person lived his life and what he believed. There were three “Kingdoms of Glory”: the Celestial, the Terestial and the Telestial Kingdoms. Then there was a state called the ”Outer Darkness” for the “Sons of Perdition” who were not deserving of any “glory”.

The Celestial Kingdom was itself divided into three “degrees”. To get into the highest degree, you had to be married in a temple, which will cause you to become “exhalted”. To achieve this state, it was possible to be married after death. (Later came a revelation that you could be married to someone who was already married to achieve this status- a viewpoint that caused many of the church‘s problems in its early years.)

“Those who will inhabit the Terrestrial Kingdom include those who lived respectably but "were blinded by the craftiness of men" and thus rejected the fullness of the gospel of Jesus Christ when it was presented to them during their mortal lives. It also includes persons who rejected the "testimony of Jesus in the flesh, but afterwards received it" in the spirit world and those who "are not valiant in the testimony of Jesus" after having received it.”

“Those who will inhabit the Telestial Kingdom include those "who received not the gospel of Christ, nor the testimony of Jesus." It also includes "liars, and sorcerers, and adulterers, and whoremongers, and whosoever loves and makes a lie." Because of their refusal to accept Jesus as their Savior, these individuals will suffer in hell for their sins for 1000 years during the millennial reign of Christ. After the 1000 years, the individuals in hell will be resurrected and receive an immortal physical body and be assigned to the Telestial Kingdom.”

The Sons of Perdition were those who committed unpardonable sins. The Outer Darkness contains “The Devil and his angels…who in pre-existence followed Lucifer and never received a mortal body”. You don’t want to wind up spending eternity with them.

The Mormons use four scriptural texts, the Bible being only one of them. The others are the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants and The Pearl of Great Price. The Book of Mormon was published by Joseph A. Smith Jr. in 1830. He said that it was a book given to him by “the angel Moroni”, which was written in an unknown language he called “reformed Eqyptian”, which only he could translate. It was engraved on golden plates he allowed no one to see, (although they were presented to a chosen few, covered in cloth), and which he eventually had to give back to the angle Moroni. The book described the dealings of God with the “ancient Americans”. The title page states that the purpose of the book is "to [show] unto the remnant of the house of Israel what great things the Lord hath done for their fathers;...and also to the convincing of the Jew and Gentile that Jesus is the Christ, the eternal God, manifesting himself unto all nations."

The Book of Mormon is narrated by the Prophet Mormon, who presents a history of his people over the course of a millenium. (The “Mormons” called themselves the Latter-Day Saints, not “Mormons” because they are not claiming to be the authors of the Book of Mormon- but they‘ve accepted being called that since their earliest years.) “As a narrator in the text, Mormon presents himself as a redactor. He quotes and paraphrases other writers, collects and includes whole texts by other authors, contributes running commentary, and also writes his own narrative. He writes about the process of making the book, both in terms of compiling the works of other prophets and also in terms of engraving the words on metal plates. He alludes to content that is left out of the book, and refers to a larger collection of records at his disposal.” It is Mormon who engraved the Golden Plates the book was written on and these were passed on to his son, Moroni.

The book tells the story of how the New World was populated by a series of migrations from the Middle East. The first was of the Jaredites, led by Jared, who, at the time of the Tower of Babel, wished to leave the area so as to not have their language “confounded”. They were guided across the sea by God in “barges” and set up a civilization that eventually numbered two million. But they were governed by Kings and subject to wicked rulers and rivalries over the thrown that eventually destroyed their civilization in a series of Civil Wars.

The last surviving Jaredite, Coriantumr, found a second civilization called Zarahemia, which had been founded by Mulek, the only surviving son of Zedekiah, King of Judah, who had fled to the Americas after his father was captured by the Babylonians. Coriantumr lived out the remainder of his life with the “Mulekites”.

Meanwhile, the family of the Hebrew prophet Lehi and their followers had also emigrated west from Jerusalem and settled in the Americas. Lehi died there and his son Nephi heard his brothers Laman and Lemuel were going to kill him. Nephi led his followers, the Nephites, into the Wilderness. They eventually encountered the Mulekites and merged with them, the combined group becoming known as the Nephites. The murderous brother’s group, called the Lamanites, rejected God and so their skin turned dark. Jesus appeared and converted all parties to Christianity but the Lamanites “fell away” from Christ and became corrupt. They eventually whipped out the Nephites in a great war and went on to populate the Americas- and Polynesia- with their dark-skinned people.

(Non-Mormon archaeologist Michael Cole has said "Mormon archaeologists over the years have almost unanimously accepted the Book of Mormon as an accurate, historical account of the New World peoples.... Let me now state uncategorically that as far as I know there is not one professionally trained archaeologist, who is not a Mormon, who sees any scientific justification for believing the foregoing to be true, and I would like to state that there are quite a few Mormon archaeologists who join this group....The bare facts of the matter are that nothing, absolutely nothing, has even shown up in any New World excavation which would suggest to a dispassionate observer that the Book of Mormon, as claimed by Joseph Smith, is a historical document relating to the history of early migrants to our hemisphere.")

After the narrative, the Book of Mormon provides some doctrinal teachings on various subjects.

The book described how the Nephite government evolved from a monarchy to being ruled by judges to being government by civil laws, thus avoiding the fate of the Jaredites, whose society was destroyed by wicked kings and battles over their throne, before being overwhelmed by the Lamanites who had deserted Christ.

America is portrayed as a “land of promise” and “the world’s most exceptional land”. The book states that “any righteous society possessing the land would be protected, whereas if they became wicked they would be destroyed and replaced with a more righteous civilization“. On the issue of war and violence, the book teaches that war is justified for people to "defend themselves against their enemies". However they were never to "give an offense," or to "raise their sword...except it were to preserve their lives." The book supports notions of economic justice, achieved through voluntary donation of "substance, every man according to that which he had, to the poor". In one case, (the Nephites), all the citizens held their property in common. Concern for the poor is portrayed as leading to collective wealth. (I have always thought that Communism made a mistake in opposing religion, rather that incorporating it, even if they viewed it as the “opiate of the people“. Their ideas of economic justice and collective wealth might have appealed to both the poor and their simple faith and solidified their hold over the masses. Instead they went in a very different direction and they are gone while the icons the poor held onto over the years are now being freely displayed again.)

Despite the view that people who accepted Christ were more righteous than those who still followed Judeaism and that people who had dark skin had “fallen from Christ”, the Book of Mormon teaches that skin color is not a bar to salvation: God "denieth none that come unto him, black and white, bond and free, male and female; and he remembereth the heathen; and all are alike unto God, both Jew and Gentile". In fact, prejudice against people of dark skin was condemned: "O my brethren, I fear that unless ye shall repent of your sins that their skins will be whiter than yours, when ye shall be brought with them before the throne of God. Wherefore, a commandment I give unto you, which is the word of God, that ye revile no more against them because of the darkness of their skins; neither shall ye revile against them because of their filthiness". Several Book of Mormon passages have been interpreted by some Latter Day Saints as indicating that Lamanites would revert to a lighter skin tone upon accepting the gospel. For example, early editions of the Book of Mormon contained the passage: "[T]heir scales of darkness shall begin to fall from their eyes; and many generations shall not pass away among them, save they shall be a white and a delightsome people" (They would have loved Michael Jackson!)

Doctrines and Covenants was published in 1835. It contained a series of lectures on church doctrine and then a series of revelations or “covenants” of the church. The “doctrine” part was removed from modern versions of the book in 1921 because they "were never presented to nor accepted by the Church as being otherwise than theological lectures or lessons". Some revelations have been added in the years since, including, 1876, "Inasmuch as this Church of Christ has been reproached with the crime of fornication and polygamy, we declare that we believe that one man should have one wife, and one woman but one husband, except in the case of death, when either is at liberty to marry again."[

The Pearl of Great Price was published in England in 1851, seven years after Joseph Smith’s death and contains further writings by Smith, including a biography of his early days and his translation of a a papyri he said he had bought. It also included his own translation of the Book of Genesis, which he called the Book of Moses, and also the Book of Matthew.

Church members believe that the Book of Mormon is the “the most perfect” of the four primary scriptural books. They rate it over the Bible because they felt that “the Bible was the result of a multiple-step translation process and the Book of Mormon was not.”

Mormons believe that Jesus reveals his will to the president of the Church, who is a modern-day prophet. “The LDS faithful observe a health code called the Word of Wisdom in which they abstain from the consumption of alcoholic beverages, coffee, tea, and tobacco. Their moral code includes a law of chastity that prohibits sexual relations outside of heterosexual marriage. LDS faithful donate a 10 percent tithe on their increase annually. They also perform volunteer service in their local church. Moreover, all single young men between 19–25 years old who are sufficiently healthy and many retired couples are encouraged to volunteer up to two years as a missionary to proselytize and/or provide humanitarian service. Unmarried women 21 years and older also may serve as missionaries for 18 months, but it is not considered their duty to do so as it is with the young men who are ordained elders. Members are further instructed to set aside one night a week, typically Monday, for a Family Home Evening, where they gather together as a family to study gospel principles and participate in non-religious activities.”

It’s easy to see what the appeal of this new religion would be to early Americans. Here was a religion that said that important events had happened here- not just in a place they’d never been half way around the world. It was a religion for America. It also was an anti-establishment religion where adherents could start over again and “rethink” their theology, through the revelations of a leader they themselves had chosen to follow, as opposed to what they’d been taught. It was an anti-monarchist religion as America was an anti-monarchist nation. The church also had an appeal for poor people of all nations. It was a religion that sought to combat poverty through a communal economy and yet one which valued industriousness and achievement. It had no aristocracy: nobody had status because of their birth. What counted was the way you lived your life.

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