History of Mormonism: a quest for identity

In this introductory sketch of Mormon history, intended for those unfamiliar with it, I take a sociological perspective rather than simply chronological, following insights from Bushman (2006), Mauss (1994; 2001; 2008; 2011), and Phillips and Cragun (2020). It discerns five periods. The origins are situated in American religious revivalism and millenarism in the period between 1820 and 1846 (1.2.1). The second half of the nineteenth century is characterized by the Mormon pioneer era in the isolated West, with its theocracy, communal life, and polygamy (1.2.2). With Utah becoming an American state in 1896, Mormonism entered six decades of internal institutionalization and of accommodation to American mainstream life (1.2.3). The second half of the twentieth century, however, saw growing conservatism and strictness amid internationalization (1.2.4). Since the end of the twentieth century, church leaders seem to balance between margins in their efforts to define an appropriate Mormon identity amid internal and external pressures (1.2.5).

The subchapter ends with a brief look at the history of the church in Flanders.

The historical position of women in Mormonism is presented in chapter 3.

1.2.1. Origins: restorationism and millenarism

Mormonism originated in 1820 in the Northeastern US, in the wake of a Protestant religious revival known as the Second Great Awakening. A 15-year old farm-boy, Joseph Smith, claimed to have received a vision of God the Father and Jesus Christ. The event is now celebrated in the church as “the First Vision.” By the end of the decade, Joseph Smith produced The Book of Mormon, which he said was given to him and translated through revelation. The book describes itself as a chronicle of ancient inhabitants of the Americas, descendants of Israelites who had fled Jerusalem around 600 BC. The book tells of a visit to them by the resurrected Christ. Internal strife brought their civilization to an end around 400 AD. Joseph Smith also claimed to have received visitations of biblical apostles and prophets who gave him priesthood authority. With his earliest followers who considered him a modern-day prophet, he formally organized “the Church of Christ” in 1830, as a “restoration” of the primitive New Testament church (Hughes 2005). It was invigorated by a visionary atmosphere of exclusivism and millenarism (Underwood 1999).

The followers were nicknamed “Mormons.”

For the next sixteen years the fledgling movement grew through missionary efforts, expanding to England, from where new converts emigrated to the US. Renamed “The Church of Jesus-Christ of Latter-day Saints” in 1838, the church experimented with forms of communal cooperation by gathering its members in one location in order to establish a “New Jerusalem” or “City of Zion” in preparation of Christ’s imminent return. But internal discord and conflicts with non-Mormon neighbors led to conflicts and persecutions. It obliged the members to move their center several times, from New York to Ohio, then to Missouri, and next to Illinois where they founded the city of Nauvoo in

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1839. The thriving city grew to a population of some 12,000 Mormons. But conflicts with apostates and non-Mormons escalated again. In 1844 Joseph Smith was killed by a mob, which led to a succession crisis for leadership. The largest group of church members sustained Brigham Young as the new leader.

1.2.2. The pioneer era: theocracy, community, and polygamy

In view of the persistent conflicts with non-Mormons, Brigham Young led the emigration of the Mormon population to the still unexploited West. Beginning in 1847, and lasting several years, the emigration brought thousands of Mormon pioneers to the “Utah Territory.” In their appropriation of the Latter-day church as a “remnant of Israel,” early Mormon leaders saw in their founding history a recurrence of Israel’s exodus from Egypt.

They saw it in their persecution in the 1830s and 40s, their exodus to the West, and their establishment in a promised land, all expressed in Zionist terms (Cohen 2006; Jackson 1992). Past and current books, lessons, films, and commemorations frequently remind church members of that epos. The epic trek is still celebrated yearly as constitutional Mormon history.

Brigham Young became both the secular governor and the new prophet—a formula for theocracy. Under his direction church members began to practice “plural marriage”

openly. The pioneering circumstances and the colonization through settlements in a territory as large as France forged social cohesion and mutual dependency, characterized by cooperative and communal experiments (Arrington 2005). Missionary work to Europe and subsequent emigration of converts to the Utah Territory continued. By the end of the nineteenth century, some 90,000 European converts, mainly British and Scandinavian, had settled there. However, Mormon polygamy led to scandalized reactions and lurid stories in the American and European press and to growing opposition by the US Congress. Laws were enacted to eradicate polygamy. Polygamous church leaders were arrested and incarcerated. Under severe legal and political pressure, church leadership was compelled to abolish polygamy in 1890.

1.2.3. Accommodation and institutionalization

In 1896, Utah became a US State. This sought-after political inclusion tied in with a process of accommodation to American life. Over the years it turned US Mormons into strong defenders of monogamy and proponents of American patriotism. During the first decades of the twentieth century, church leaders also stimulated a process of internal institutionalization. It corresponds with what Max Weber called the “routinization of charisma” in new religions: an original millenarian and charismatic undertaking, with its inherent creativity, becomes more and more subject to routine and formality. It was

31 exemplified in the Mormon “Priesthood Reform Movement,“ which streamlined hierarchical management and brought the more independent auxiliary organizations into the institution. Bureaucratization expanded and manuals of instruction multiplied, but so did “socializing events” like celebrations, sport competitions, dance festivals, theatrical performances, and pageants. The church had its male youth also fully participate in the American boy scouts programs. It made the church ever less distinctive from standard America. Meanwhile missionary efforts carried on, still mainly to Europe, converting people but also exporting the church’s “American Mormon way of life.”

Though converts were advised to remain in their home countries rather than to emigrate to Utah, many continued to do the latter, in particular in the years after both world wars.

In 1947 the worldwide membership reached one million.

1.2.4. Conservatism, correlation, retrenchment, and internationalization

After the Second World War, a period started which the oldest church members in my research have experienced personally. These experiences have bearing on their present perspectives and assessments (see chapter 7).

Conservatism. In the 1950s some church leaders in the US connected well with conservatism as part of anticommunism and capitalistic principles. Structural racism was reinforced in the continued refusal to ordain Blacks to the priesthood (Brooks 2020). In the 1960s the sexual revolution made the church forcefully take the defense of time-honored values, with an emphasis on morality, modesty, and strong nuclear families with traditional gender roles as safeguarded. These various views moved most church members in the US to membership in the Republican Party. Church leaders became involved in what they considered “moral issues”: they opposed the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment, the easing of liquor laws, and legalized gambling. Though the church claimed to be politically neutral, church leaders encouraged the members to be involved in social and political issues, to participate in elections, where possible to run for public office, and to influence legislation through the democratic process. Over the years it made Utah the “reddest of red states”—with some 90 percent Republican legislators (Petrzelka & Jacobs 2016).

Correlation. By 1970 the constant push for control and coordination, called

“correlation,” brought every aspect of the church under stricter management. It imposed a uniform magazine for the whole church and required identical meeting schedules worldwide—features still found today. The many socializing events as part of church programs were reduced. The uniform magazine and church manuals, translated in dozens of languages, tried to reflect a standard “Mormon culture” of success and happiness, discarding as much as possible typical American cultural items in order to appeal to all.

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Esoteric and peculiar Mormon teachings (see 1.4.1) made room for basic Christian teachings acceptable for the whole world and expressed in simple language.

Retrenchment. In particular in the 1980s, conservative church leaders took a stand against the intellectual analysis of Mormonism, critical church history, and feminist voices. The mantra to “follow the prophet” gave the church president an aura of infallibility. Great emphasis was placed on family, scripture study, missionary work, genealogy and temple work. Mauss (1994) called this push to Mormon distinctiveness, in contrast to accommodation, a process of “retrenchment.”

Internationalization. From the 1960s on, church leaders accelerated the international expansion of Mormonism by intensifying proselytism and by a massive construction program of church buildings and temples in various countries. Latin America saw substantial Mormon growth, in parallel with the upsurge of evangelical and Pentecostal movements. The year 1978 marked a watershed moment when the “priesthood ban” was lifted: since 1852 that restriction had prohibited men of black African descent from being ordained to the priesthood. The change opened the way for missionary work in sub-Saharan Africa. In spite of this internationalization, top church leadership remained strongly in American hands, with the leaders’ multigenerational and interfamilial ties to the “pioneer stock” of the nineteenth century.

In 1997 the worldwide membership reached ten million.

1.2.5. Challenges, changes, and perceptions

From the 1990s on, church leaders have grappled with challenges that have drawn divergent responses pending leaders’ personalities and changing insights.

1995–2018: leaning to accommodation. Under the presidencies of Gordon B. Hinckley (1995–2008) and Thomas S. Monson (2008–2018) the main thrust was again leaning to accommodation (Mauss 2011). Church leaders allowed more critical historical research and opened up the archives. Doctrines offensive to others, such as Christian apostasy or God’s human origin, were downplayed. Establishing friendly relations with other denominations, even with Islam, and joint humanitarian projects catered to rapprochement with outsiders. The “I’m a Mormon” media campaign portrayed thousands of Mormons as mainstream people, constructively engaged in the modern world. Church public relations skillfully used the Winter Olympics of 2002 in Salt Lake City and the nomination of Mitt Romney as the Republican candidate for the US presidency in 2011 to bring positive visibility to the Mormon church. Some church authorities pleaded for a worldwide “gospel culture,” a “distinctive way of life, a set of values and expectations and practices common to all members,” but which allow local traditions that “are consistent with the gospel culture and help our members keep the

33 commandments of God.”¹ The rhetoric dealing with gender issues also shifted, though slowly and with controversies (see Chapter 3). Meanwhile the church struggled to keep its Millennial generation active in the faith (Riess 2019). In spite of the fact that church members in Utah continue to choose Republican legislators that are predominantly ultraconservative, the church itself has pushed for moderation, compassion, and compromise in matters of immigration and LGBT-rights (Brown 2017). The call for tolerance towards gays was also spurred by the high suicide numbers of gay teens in Utah (Barker, Parkinson, and Knoll 2016; Knoll 2016; Ryan and Rees 2012).

Contrariwise, some senior church leaders had the church lead intensive campaigns, for more than two decades between 1993 and 2015, against same-sex marriage. They cooperated with the Catholic church and other conservative Christian denominations to defeat legislation. They supported international organizations defending the traditional family. When same-sex marriage became legal in the US in 2015, a church policy labeled such couples as “apostates” and prohibited their children to be baptized—a decision that caused much consternation among many members. It was rescinded in 2019.

Since 2018: renewed exceptionalism? Under the presidency of Russell M. Nelson, who became church president in 2018, one of his first decisions signaled a significant change from the previous period: the names “Mormon” and “Mormonism” were banned, even the abbreviation “LDS” in order to compel to the use of the name of Jesus Christ as part of the official church name. It obliged an overhaul of all the church’s websites and internal references. Since Nelson claimed divine revelation for the change, it was interpreted as a strong signal of prophetic authority. In April 2020, at the occasion of the bicentennial of Joseph Smith’s First Vision, a powerfully worded “proclamation” about the unique mission of the church affirmed its divine exceptionality.² The new official church logo features a statue of Christ, which means abandoning the uniquely Mormon “angel Moroni,” a figure from the Book of Mormon. The various changes typify a continuing quest on how to best profile the church in the world and give members an identity. The intense focus on Christ sends a mixed message to the rest of the world. On the one hand, church leaders seem to emphasize the Christian character of the church in order to be part of the family of Christian denominations. On the other hand, for some Christians, the message of exceptionality which accompanies the naming obligation, “accentuates that the rest of us are not the church of Jesus Christ” (cited in Stack 2019c).

Pew and Gallup surveys identify Mormons in the US as the highest family-centered group with traditional gender roles, the highest involved in their congregations, the most politically and socially conservative religious group, and, together with Jews, enjoying the highest life satisfaction and overall well-being. At the same time the surveys reveal

1 Dallin H. Oaks, “The Gospel Culture,” Ensign (March 2012).

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/ensign/2012/03/the-gospel-culture. Accessed May 23, 2019.

2 See https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/restoration-proclamation. Accessed May 30, 2020.

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Americans feel coolest toward Muslims, atheists, and Mormons. About half of Americans consider Mormonism a cult. Most admit ignorance about it. Prejudices still abound, even in the US. The same remains valid in other parts of the world.

At the end of 2019 the membership reached sixteen and a half million, of which more than half reside outside the US.

1.2.6. Mormonism in Flanders

Mormonism has been present in Belgium since the end of the nineteenth century (Burvenich 1999; Tuffin 2012). The first efforts of missionaries in Antwerp around 1890 did not yield lasting success. Branches were first established in the French-speaking part of the country where the church now has multigenerational families of over a century.

From 1947 on the Netherlands Mission conducted missionary efforts in Flanders which led to the establishment of small branches in Antwerp, Brussels, Ghent, and Mechelen.

The 1960s saw further slow growth (Tuffin 2018). The turmoil in the Catholic church and the endeavors of Vatican II awakened interest in religion among the more intellectually inclined. Secularization did not still the hunger for religion, but the vested churches were losing their appeal. Married couples divided over religious adherence could find in a totally different church a new haven for them and their children. Such factors explain how Mormon missionaries were able to draw converts from a varied social spectrum. This expansion strengthened the branches with more local leadership potential, while at the same time creating a constructive fusion of social classes, typical for Mormon congregations.

Still, building a more mature congregation remained challenging. Decoo (1996) analyzed the experiences he had as branch president at the end of the 1960s, calling it

“feeding the fleeing flock” when confronted with the many who had joined in previous years and since had left or struggled. A survey conducted in 1981 among 92 Flemish members probed their socio-ideological leanings (Decoo 1984). It included members who joined in the 1950s and 1960s. The results show that although 86 percent of the members were raised religiously (mainly Catholic), most were not practicing anymore by the time they met the Mormon missionaries. However, this disengagement from organized religion did not dispel their receptivity for a new spiritual haven, which they found in Mormonism.

The goal of local church growth is to organize a “stake” (diocese) comprised of wards (congregations or parishes) with only local leadership instead of missionaries. That goal was reached in 1994 when the “Belgium Antwerp Stake” was organized with a total of nine congregations. In 2017, in a major move to consolidate smaller units into larger ones, the Flemish congregations were reduced to four—Antwerp, Brussels, Ghent, and Sint Niklaas. It obliged members from the closed units to travel to the remaining wards for Sunday services and meetings.

35 Though Mormon wards in Europe are already multicultural due to the presence of American missionaries (young adults and some elderly couples) and expats from various countries, since the beginning of the twenty-first century a surge in converts from former Soviet countries and from sub-Saharan countries slowly changed the demographics.

About half of the converts since the 2000s come from outside Europe, but many do not remain active long. The American presence and impact, however, is lasting (Van Beek, Decoo, and Decoo 2020).

Mormon membership in the “Antwerp Belgium stake” stood at 3,310 at the end of 2019.¹ The stake includes the congregations or “wards” in Antwerp, Brussels, Ghent, and Sint Niklaas, but also covers three congregations in the South of the Netherlands—Breda, Eindhoven, and Heerlen. Attendance in the Sunday sacrament meeting—a gauge to be considered “active”—stood at 888 or 27 percent of the total membership. Some Flemish members living close to the Dutch border attend the three congregations in the South of the Netherlands. Attendance in the Sunday sacrament meeting in the four Flemish wards stood at an average of 511, including children and visitors. The quarterly report also identifies the number of adult women attending the Sunday meetings of Relief Society, Primary, and Young Women, which gives a fairly accurate figure for active women in the four Flemish wards: the average at the end of 2019 was 173. Estimating the Flemish adult women who attend the three Dutch congregations, and who in the report could not be identified separately from the Dutch, one comes to a total of about 200 active adult Mormon women in Flanders.

1.3. Organization

The church organization is tightly hierarchical, with priesthood offices as the underlying grid.

General authorities. At the top is the First Presidency: the church president (or “the Prophet”) with two counselors. The second level of leadership is the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. A common way to visualize the structure is to compare this to the Pope with his closest advisors and under them the group of senior cardinals. However, in Mormonism these fifteen leaders are married men who, after a professional career usually in business, law, education, or science, are called to that select group for the rest of their lives. Their average age is now 75 years. Nearly all are Americans or naturalized Americans. All but one are white. They are ranked in seniority of their calling as apostle and advance when one of them dies. The longest serving thus becomes church president.

The current president, Russell M. Nelson, a former cardiac surgeon, is 95 (2020). The term

“church leaders” usually refers to the First Presidency and the Twelve. They are highly

1 Kwartaalrapport Ring Antwerpen, Kwartaal 4, 2019.

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respected and provide a steady source of instructions to the members. A third tier of leadership consists of the First Quorum of the Seventy, known as Seventies. The prophet, apostles, and seventies are called “General Authorities.”

Geographical repartition. From the top, the organization branches off into “areas,”

each divided into “stakes” (comparable to Catholic dioceses), each with up to a dozen

“wards” (comparable to small parishes or congregations of a few hundred people). The

“wards” (comparable to small parishes or congregations of a few hundred people). The