S313 Paper #2
Urzula Urzua
Mormonism
My task for this paper is to investigate the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (LDS or Mormons as they are commonly named). In particular I am going to discuss the sociological workings of the church and church led institutions that keep members in the faith despite all of the new scientific and historical evidence that shows that their founder, Joseph Smith, was a fraud.
My starting point for this discussion comes from the Los Angeles Times, June 19, 1993. The article talks about a new book, New Approaches to the Book of Mormon: Explorations in Critical Methodology, a book that Mormons have been warned not to read. "What they challenge is perhaps the most cherished and unique Mormon belief: That Smith’s 1830 translation of the Book of Mormon was based on writings he found on gold plates left by Hebrews who migrated to the Americas in 600 BC and were later visited by a resurrected Jesus Christ" (Anderson, LA Times, 6-19-93). One of the major points in this book is that the Book of Mormon "borrows" heavily form the King James version of the bible, mistakes and all. Even some of the faulty translations of the KJV that were later corrected made their way into the Book of Mormon. How can reasonably intelligent people continue to believe that the Book of Mormon was divinely inspired when investigation after investigation points that the Book of Mormon more or less plagiarized the KJV of the Bible?
To investigate the social structure of the Mormons, I went to webpages that are designed for recovering Mormons. In these pages, they recount the stories of how they were brought into the faith, what their thought process was while they were having doubts, how they left the church, and usually the responses for those around them like family and friends. There were literally hundreds of stories to choose from, so I chose a few that talked about the social structures that kept them in the faith and made it hard for them to leave.
The first two stories I would like to discuss deal with the powerful institution called Brigham Young University or BYU. According to these accounts BYU is about 99% Mormon. They speak about being surrounded by Mormons while they themselves were Mormons, but feeling strangely alone. BYU has a standards department that students can go to basically "tell on" another student if they are breaking Mormon rules. "If someone wants to report you for wearing shorts too short, beard stubble, swearing, kissing your girlfriend or being out too late with her, an out of the ordinary hair-style, drinking beer, etc., they do it here and the department has the power to expel you from school for good if they don’t feel you are repentant enough" (Ferris, 1). That is a powerful way to keep people in line.
There are also other pressures for women in particular. Since Mormonism is a patriarchal religion, women serve their purpose in the church by marrying a Mormon man and raising his children. A woman who attended BYU spoke of the Candlepassing that occurs when a girl becomes engaged. Apparently it was a really big deal and if you didn’t have this happen to you, you were missing out. She thought that she was attending the University to get a degree, not engaged. She explains the Candlepassing as follows: After the girls were gathered around, a candle was lit with the engagement ring attached to it. "The lights were turned out, and the candle was passed from girl to girl until, after the suspense supposedly became too much, the girl [who was engaged] blew out the candle and we all descended on her, squeeling [sic] in excitement and congratulations" (Kim, 1). She herself was asked FIVE times to marry someone. She had known these men for less than a month. She talks about going to classes at BYU and the "constant bombardment of religious meetings -- firesides and ward activities and charity performances" (Kim, 2).
"I cracked under the pressure of everything, I think. Of being Mormon 24-hours a day at 17 years old, when: 1)my father was telling me to get a degree in anything I wanted; 2)BYU tradition was telling me that didn’t matter, what mattered was getting to the damned Candlepassing; and, 3) the church had me all of the time" (Kim, 2).
An interesting site on the web I found is run by a man named Eric. He explains a theory of his that makes it difficult for Mormons to leave the organization. He calls it the "Investment Paradigm" (Eric, 1). The basic premise behind this is that the Church makes its members put so much time, effort, and money into the church that it makes it difficult to leave. Even if they were to find that all the writings were faked, they would have a hard time leaving because they have invested so much into that they can’t afford to believe that the faith is false. "The IP explains why Mormon men are coerced into serving missions . . . to increase the investment. . . .Once the investment is sufficiently capitalized, the heavily invested LDS member will work his entire life to protect the investment. . . (Eric, 1). He also talks about falling victim to the "BYU/LDS treadmill", and serving a mission (Eric, 1). It wasn’t until years had passed after the mission that his investment diminished, and he "began to see things clearly (Eric, 2).
"I began to discover that the Patriarchy was guilty of revisionist history. . . Learning more than perhaps I wanted to, I realized that the church’s claims were misguided at best, and downright falsehoods at worst. It felt horrible to have my world view stripped from me so completely. It was one thing to question the church as I had done all my life, it was quite another to come to the conclusion that the church is built on a foundation of lies. Devastating." (Eric ,2)
Another woman speaks of the early years of her Mormonism. Her grandparents were related to the first pioneers that came to Utah. Her whole existence revolved around the church. She speaks of vivid memories at youth conferences were someone gave a talk about chastity, "the first of a million talks I would hear about the subject . . ." (Anon, 1). She became engaged to a man she had known for only 3 weeks. That may seen very fast for most of us, but in the Mormon population, this is the norm. Recall the woman who had been asked to be married five times by men she had known for less than a month. Being around friends and family who saw this as normal made it plausible for this lady to go through with it. Her family went to the church with her for her endowments. She was immediately turned off by the ceremony. But since her mother and sister seemed fine with it, she let it go. "How could a person go through life in an organization and not even know how bizarre it was at the very heart of the thing?" (Anon, 2). Because her family thought it was OK, she also thought it was OK. This is a prime example of the family as a plausibility structure. They made it possible for her to go along with whatever was presented.
Parental involvement is very key to the introduction of small children since they are dependent on them for everything. If they live with parents who live and breath Mormonism, the children will learn to live and breath it as well. Children are also financially dependent on their parents. "At 18, my parents gave some options. I had to move out of the house, and if I went to Brigham Young University, or Rick’s College, they would assist me by paying half the costs" (Ferris, 1).
But most of the stories eventually end with the same type of investigation. A person with doubts starts to think and looks for the answers in the forbidden books.
"I know now why we were constantly reminded to ‘follow the prophet’ or ‘when the prophet speaks, the thinking has been done’. Church leaders know full well that there is a wealth of information available that proves the fallacies behind their doctrines. . . [T]here is enough information within the church’s own books and writings to condemn the religion. New versions of books are revised to reflect the ‘new improved’ look that the church wants to show the world. Heck, I was even put down by a member for letting my 13 yr. old read an early 70's version if Mormon Doctrine . . . because it was written before the 1978 change in doctrine allowing black men to hold the priesthood. I was told that if she had read the new version she wouldn’t have the questions that she did about the church. What are they trying to hide?" (Frances, 4).
Being told that the prophets do all of the thinking makes it plausible to go on with blind faith. Since most members are not prophets, they are not entitled to think. She, like Eric, laments about the enormous amounts of time energy and money devoted to something that was a lie.
These stories on leaving Mormonism are very moving. The anguish that they felt when decided that the church was false comes across clearly. I encourage everyone to read these pages. The starting page for these stories is: