In a week and a half in Utah, including six days in Salt Lake City I could not avoid reflecting on the phenomenon of the Mormons, "The Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints. Their culture and influence is powerful in that territory. Although I can't find a lot about their current expression to agree with, and think it was a desolate place for them to settle just to get away from critics, I still admire the spirit of Joseph Smith's willingness to critique the Christianity of his time and to take the risk to believe that God could still speak to humanity with some new insights.
The Mormons emerged during the time and spirit of the 19th Century Great Awakenings that also produced the Campbellites, the Shakers, and the Harmonists of New Harmony, Indiana. My wife's family are descendants of another of those spiritual/social experimental groups, the Icarians, who settled in Nauvou, Illinois after the Mormons left.
What hits me now is that old-line protestant groups like my own Presbyterian Church are currently in conflict that may just be a resistance to any new inspiration from God on social and spiritual issues. We are so caught up in that fight that we are missing the opportunity to stretch and grow and be transformed by discernment of God's moving in the world. The United Church of Christ has it right with their motto "God is still speaking."
I'm wishing for more zeal and enthusiasm and risk-taking to move us into new possibilities to become a spiritually awakened and attuned church for the 21st century. If we don't, the zeal and enthusiasm of the Mormons and the evangelicals and the emerging churches will simply move on and leave us in the desert!
2 comments:
Your point here is a good one but I must correct one thing you said. It may seem minor to you but I assure you it isn't a minor issue to mormons.
You said, "[I] think it was a desolate place for them to settle just to get away from critics"
Critics?? Are you serious? Mormon pioneers didn’t trek out across the great planes just to avoid some critics. Mormons were murdered and had their property stolen everywhere they tried to settle; first in Ohio, then in Missouri and later in Illinois. In fact, the governor of Missouri issued an extermination order declaring that Mormons could be legally shot on site. In Illinois the Mormon's prophet and leader was murdered by an angry mob with painted faces while sitting in prison on false charges after the governor promised to protect him with his troops and then pulled his troops away allowing it all to happen. All this persecution and bigotry came at the hands of supposed Christian Protestants and when church leaders petitioned congress and the President of the United States for redress and to reclaim their land they received absolutely no help. THAT is the reason the Mormons left what was the United State at the time and moved to a place they were sure nobody would want… the Salt Lake valley.
All that is in the past and times have changed (in some ways), but it did happen.
Google the words “mormon”, “pioneer”, and “persecution” to learn more.
You may also want to google "Missouri Extermination Order"
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