Maxine Hanks with Jean Williams: Mormon Faith in America

Since early explorers and settlers have graced its shores, America has been powerfully influenced by the Catholic and Christian religions. According to Maxine Hanks and Jean Williams, Mormonism is the first true American born religion. Distant cousins to Christians, Mormons have always had a completely different way of life and like many people who have come to America in the pursuit of happiness, they've strived for acceptance.

The Mormon faith was founded in the 1820's by a young teenager named Joseph Smith. He was visited by God and his angels and was given new scriptures. His message was very simply and at the same time extremely different than other views early Americans had: any one could talk to God. Like the new country he was living in, Joseph Smith found inspiration in America itself. The Puritan New England Church, parishioners of a form of Protestant Christianity, was Smith's greatest influence and as that faith began to decline in the late 1700's, Mormonism had a stronger foothold.

After The Revolutionary War, American's yearned for freedom of religion, freedom from a singular or state church. A large number of Americans were not even active church goers. It was this lack of spirituality that inspire a country wide spread of evangelism. The Great Awakening and the Second Awakening brought about change and focused on personal relationship with the Lord.

Smith was born into a family of Restorationists. Understandably, when Joseph professed to having had received the new gospel on golden plates, criticism ensued. Undereducated and illiterate, Smith alone possessed the power to translate the complex and poetic plates.(1) But people who felt the need for change, the need for restoration, embraced him, founding the Mormon Church.

As the Church grew and as Smith received more prophesies, controversy rose even higher. According The Book of Mormon, Smith's original collection of prophesies, America was the place of Jesus Christ's next coming. This philosophy contradicted drastically from The Bible, which placed the next coming in the Middle East. Smith also denounced the Trinity, stating that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit were all separate entities.(3)

Another belief Smith preached and was greatly criticized for was the belief that American Indians were descendents of Babel and Jerusalem. According to almost all other settlers, Indians were little more than savages.

Similarly to early American Christian Churches though, women were not allowed into the priesthood.

They also recognized Sunday, the Sabbath, as the Lords Day of Rest. Communion, or 'Sacrament Meeting', was also recognized but instead of wine, Mormons used water.

After the Church was formed, the largest community of Mormons communed in Kirtland, Ohio. Their neighbors were not happy and after being attacked on numerous occasions, Smith still led his people to construct their first temple. But under financial duress, the church moved on, continuing in their pilgrimage to find a land of their own.

Before moving to Utah, which today is the center of the Mormon faith, Smith and his followers settled in Nauvoo, Illinois. It is here that Joseph Smith's church began to split. Rivalries and accusations pushed Smith out of the settlement and while in captivity, he was murdered. His death signified great change in the Mormon faith, spawning other churches.

Led by Brigham Young, devout follower's of Smith continued on to Utah, which is where they believed they were meant to be. With thanks to the gold rush and expanding railroads in the 1870's, they prospered financially and grew to great numbers. These advances though brought in more settlers and suspicions rose among Young's followers. In a reversal of roles, Mormons were suspected of influencing local Indian tribes to murder 100 non-Mormon settlers in the Mountain Meadows Massacre. Still unsolved and misleading, the events of that day might still hold resentment towards the new faith.

Young's settlement became known as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. After being chastised for promoting the custom of polygamy, the U.S Army was sent in to uphold what local non-Mormon government couldn't. The action came to be known as the 'Utah War,' which began a long battle over the multiple wife scandal. New laws put a halt to the churches practices and only after a new 'Manifesto' did the Mormon church agree to abide by governed laws.

With a growing congregation, leaders in the church also grew to greater numbers. Customs changed. Ways of life evolved. Mormons also adopted the philosophy of Manifest Destiny and, like the rest of America, wanted to expand westward. They moved into land that was previously non-American, a group larger in scale than any other in the nation.(2)

Despite its many hurdles and low points, the Mormon faith has remained strong. It has had a great impact on modern literature, education and over time has no longer been seen as bizarre or peculiar. Like other faiths, Mormons strive for family values, prosperity and clean living.(2)

Today Mormons are seen in every faucet of modern life. Politicians, entertainers, athletes and activists all participating in a society made from a cornucopia of culture.

But unlike other faiths, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has a very progressive missionary philosophy. From its earlier roots on their own soil to the world, Mormons start spreading the word of their beliefs at a young age. Joseph Smith himself lead his followers from one coast to the other, inspiring millions along the way.

The extreme missionary practices lead to trouble in 1992 when it was revealed that to save the souls of the deceased, the LDS church would baptize the deceased: including Marilyn Monroe, Walt Disney and thousands of Jews who had been killed in the Holocaust.

Like all other religions, Mormonism had to start somewhere. Criticism, persecution, hardship and suffrage must be a right of passage. A new religion born from the way of life of a burgeoning country, Joseph Smith was truly a visionary. Inspired by the need for revision and the correction of faith, he started a belief system that was as new and invigorating as the newly formed United States of America.

Bibliography

1 Bushman, Richard L. Joseph Smith and The Beginnings of Mormonism Urbana

and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1984

2 Hanks, Maxine & Williams, Jean Kinney Mormon Faith in America Ed.

Melton, J. Gordon , Faith in America Series, New York: Shoreline

Publishing Group LLC, 2003

3 The Encyclopedia Americana, International Edition, Vol. 19

Danbury: Grolier Incorporated, 2001

457-460