Mormonism

You know what I found interesting about Montreal. It felt more French than American. Not just the language, but like the cuisine, the atmosphere, other stuffs. To me, that’s interesting. That in many ways, language plays a more important role in culture than geographical proximity.

As Henry mentioned, on the trip we happened across Joseph Smith’s birthplace. There was no sign on the highway; we just happened to exit to get gas or food (I forget) and we happened to see a sign there on the offroad. Amazing timing, because I had just the week prior finished reading Jon Krakauer’s Under The Banner Of Heaven, which deals with Mormon Fundamentalism, so I was extremely interested in seeing the founder’s birthplace.

I’ve said many times how it makes no sense to teach Western history without including religion, in particular Christianity, because it was such a driving factor in so many historical events. It’s talking about what occurred in the past without providing any framework or motivation for those events at all. The parallel would be teaching evolution without explaining natural selection. It’s intellectually dishonest.

Well now that I’ve read about it, I believe that, for similar reasons, American history should include at least something about the Mormons. It is the quintessential American religion. Not just founded in the U.S; it has many qualities that are fundamentally American. And it’s hugely influential. Did you know there are more Mormons in America than Presbyterians or Episcopalians? That there are more Mormons worldwide than there are Jews? Madness.

It’s also absurd. You really have to read about the founding stories of Mormonism sometime. Completely ridiculous. So are the actual tenets of the religion, for that matter. The thing is, the author of that book makes the claim that they are no more ridiculous than the founding stories of any other big religion – they just have the advantage of being founded a long time ago.

I’ve been thinking about that a ton. Is that true? Are the founding stories of Christianity really as absurd as those of Mormonism? I obviously think not, but it’s interesting what agnostics think.

Anyway, the book also brings up a fascinating legal issue. So a primary focus of the book is this trial involving these two brothers who, convinced that they’re heard the voice of God, murder a woman and her infant child. Actually, that’s a fascinating issue in itself, the hearing God’s voice thing. One fundamental (I think) problem with Mormonism is that Joseph Smith built his religion on the claim that he received new, unique revelations from God, and that others could also. That just opens up a can of worms, with people constantly splitting from the LDS church claiming they’ve heard new unique revelations from God. Actually, that book I borrowed from Eddie a while ago, the History of Christian Theology said it’s a problem in Christianity also. In history, Christianity has constantly had to deal with people who claim they’ve received words from God that usually say the old rules don’t apply to them. It’s a constantly recurring theme. But anyway.

So yeah, these brothers kill the mother and child in a truly gruesome way. Their defense lawyer argues that they are clearly insane, because they claim to hear the voice of God. A higher court agrees with them, arguing essentially that claiming to communicate with God is, in itself, proof of insanity.

The prosecution argues that that can’t be right. The majority of people in the U.S. claim to be Christians, and Christianity tells us that we can communicate with God. By that legal logic, the majority of people in the U.S. are insane. Which is legally absurd.

The interesting question for me is, where should the legal line be drawn between a crazy person who says they’re hearing from God, and a “normal” person who hears from God? I have my own Christian standards, foremost among them conformity to Scripture, but I can’t figure out a good legal one. Those brothers actually had consistent, clear worldviews. The only thing out of whack (and it’s a biggie) was their conviction that God told them to murder those 2 people. I think they’re crazy, but I can’t come up with a good legal basis for it.

Anyway, it’s a fascinating and disturbing read, fairly recommended. Although it makes you just want to ask every Mormon you know about all the odd strange things about their religion. I haven’t even gotten to the secret handshakes and special underwear. Or why they use “thee” and “thou” when they pray. Some other time.