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Mormons struggle to overcome obstacles
Introduction
Mormons have had numerous struggles throughout their history towards their current growth level. Their journey has been full of obstacles and challenges which they have had to contend with. In fact, they have had to bear the brunt of persecution and oppression from various quarters such as the government, cultural barriers in the fast growing modern America, opposition from other religious groups and many more challenges. Nevertheless, they have had to struggle to retain their unique identity- something that has won them the current respect and unfathomable growth currently experienced. Their rigidity from bending to the external pressures all directed towards discouraging them has made them part of the social fabric of America. Mormonism is one of the fastest growing religions in the world. Now named the church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints, it has a following of about 11 million members. The fascinating fact is that more than half of the members come from outside the United States (Arrington et al, 1992).
The birth of the Mormon religion
The church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints is thought to be as a result of revelations which were experienced in Manchester, NY, by Joseph Smith (1805-44) during the 1820s. Through the revelations, he is said to have been able to translate The Book of Mormon (1827). The translation was written on gold tablets signifying reformed Egyptian and also deciphered sacred crystals which Smith returned to the Angel Moroni after he was done with the interpretation. After the interpretation, seventeen years of sectarian vagabondage followed. The sectarian vagabondage was founded in 1830. As a result of the drastic growth, the sect quickly spread to the Great Salt Lake Valley, Utah by 1847. Smith being the founder was made the president. While the president, he received the revelation about plural marriages (1843). He was later killed in prison.
Following the death of Smith, Brigham Young (1801-77) took over as his successor. The myriad of successes that Mormonism has had are attributed to the contributions of Brigham. He took the mantle and steered the religion towards survival and expansion. As a president, Brigham shaped Utah as a model State. The pluralistic nature of marriage was later to be eradicated in 1890 making Mormonism gain even better publicity and recognition as a religion. Nevertheless, the growth of the Mormonism was as a result of extreme commitment to spreading the gospel to all people and setting rigid strategies aimed at winning more and more people into the religion. There were several missionaries commissioned to reach people in various locations of the world and convert them into the religion. For instance, many missionaries were sent to various parts of the world such as England, Africa, Asia and many more. The experiences of the missionaries tell of the austerity and rejection that they faced from their hosts during their missions.
The struggles faced by the Mormons
The woes of the Mormons are as old as the religion itself. Right from its inception, the religion faced utmost opposition from different quarters. The political, cultural and religious aspects within the American society have posed as great threats to the establishment and growth of the religion. The members have had to bear the brunt of these challenges while still remaining focused on their religion and spearheading the spread of the religion across different locations of the world. The missionaries who have played a crucial role in the growth of the religion have faced immense opposition and rejection. However, the challenges and the threats have acted to encourage them to press on the more. Total loyalty and obedience to the requirements of The Book of Mormon has made them not to despair.
The story of the Mormons in America reveals a horde of sinister experiences in the hands of all the members of the society. The adventurous journey of the Mormons to their present celebrated level reveals that they have had to contend with multifarious oppositions and tribulations. The humble and poor beginnings of Mormonism are apparently the major factors that have contributed to its woes. The founders and subsequent successors went through unpalatable experiences. Their journeys can be described as full of handles and stumbling blocks. For instance, the presidents have had to face deplorable hatred and open attack from both the government and other rival religions. Their experiences of these charismatic leaders include their adventurous brush with the authorities, their trail into the West which arouses the significant construction of the Salt Lake City in the desert, the widespread scuffles, verbal accusations as well as unending court battles involving the Mormons and their neighbors, other religions, the government and the media.
Several instances about the development of the Mormon religion have had several challenges. The different stages of the development of the religion have gone through oppositions and myriad challenges. For instance, during the Mormon settlement and territorial status advancement, various forces tried to discourage it from advancing. The history of the settlement begun at around 1847, the time the first hosts of the persecuted Mormons arrived in Utah. The main aim of the new arrivals was to obtain a serene settlement area with a gathering place for Israel. Thus they wanted to find a place that was undesired and isolated by their rivals. A vast number of Mormon saints fled their original place of settlement due to the pressures that they experienced from their opponents.
In spite of the challenges that were experienced by the Mormons in their settlement, their leaders did their best towards promoting the religion. Some of the basic activities that they engaged themselves into include organizing on the best area of settlement for the Mormons. Such is the case when Brigham Young as the leader surmounted the Wasatch Range where he peeped through Great Salt Lake valley when he confirmed the success that had been realized in the search. The successful sighting of a place to construct the settlement on July, 24, 1847 came to be celebrated later as a great achievement making the day Mormons Pioneer day. The manner in which Young led the early Mormons gave him the credit of being one of the best American administrators of the 19th Century. In fact, through his mobilization, lands were ploughed and cultivated on; the foundation of the temple was laid as well as the platting of the Salt Lake City on the compass lines directly.
The growth of the Latter-Day Saints was majorly promoted by the assembly and settlement of the streams of emigrants from the United States and other nations. In particular, the emigrants from the Great Britain and the Scandinavian countries led to the growth of the Mormon family. All the emigrants were escaping the opposition that they were facing from the people in their original homes. Their settlement in the desert was not without challenges. In fact, the challenges were so much that survival at some point seemed impossible. Nevertheless, the fifty years that followed had to be full of experiences. For example, they had to learn how to eke a life in the desert, handle the challenge of the concurrent invasions by grasshoppers and the confrontations from the Native Americans.
The persecutions of the Mormons
The 1800s saw widespread hatred and the persecutions directed to the Mormons. Perhaps the beginning of their woes has to do with the rate with which the religion spread and obtained more and more following, a fact that was not liked by the American Christian movements such as the Protestants. In spite of the rate with which Mormons attracted a large number of new converts, the religion had beliefs that contrasted with the beliefs of the Protestants in America. The immense ability of the Mormons to effectively perform several difficult things in great unity and harmony was also one of the factors that attracted many of the new converts. This reason made the non-Mormon members to be suspicious, fearful, and violent as well as show hostility towards their expanded settlements and establishments. The belief by the Mormons whenever they sought to expand was that they were building the Kingdom of God (CRF, 2000).
The fear and suspicion that non-Mormon members had developed towards the religion became the basis for their perpetuation of persecution towards the Mormons. The disadvantage faced by the Mormons was the fact that they lacked any popular representation in the federal government. The fact that the federal government composed of American Protestants members means that any force would be used to frustrate the spread of Mormons religion. Nevertheless, Mormons struggled through the challenges and persecutions to remain afloat. The persecution of the religion was also fueled by the fact that it advocated for polygamy; a practice that was a taboo in the American Protestants christens as well as the Catholics.
The succession of Joseph Smith by Brigham Young was perhaps the period that opened the historical sufferings and persecutions that the Mormons were to go through in the subsequent years. Brigham Young got an opportunity to read The Book of Mormons a short while after Smith published it and he immediately fell in love with the religion. From then henceforth, he came to be a staunch supporter of the Mormon. His enthusiastic membership in the Mormon family and subsequent movement into the new Mormon Church gave him the chance to have first hand experiences with Joseph Smith. The pursuit of God’s Kingdom establishment made Smith gather several hundreds of the Mormon faithful in 1833. He assembled them in Kirtland, Ohio. The intense and deep believe portrayed by Young impressed Smith and the other church leaders. As a result, Young was later named one of the twelve Apostles of the Mormon Church. Soon after the conversion of Young as a disciple, he had to heed the Christian beliefs about the original twelve disciples of Jesus by becoming a missionary together with the other Apostles.
Having evangelized and ready to returning home in 1836, Young was bewildered by the looming separation of the Mormon Church. Apparently, Joseph Smith had insisted on taking the leadership of the community’s political, religious and financial affairs, all by himself. The continued argument and extended conflicts made a vast group of the Mormon membership follow Joseph Smith to Missouri in the winter of 1837-38. Smith had earlier on organized a second Mormon settlement and colony. Brigham Young was part of the members went alongside Joseph Smith to Missouri (Bushman et al, 2001). Nevertheless, Missouri did not turn out as the best place to establish a Mormon colony. This is due the fact that four years earlier, Missouri mobs had attacked Mormon businesses. The attacks were as a result of the fear that was in existence among many of the Missouri residents about the fast growing political and economic power (CRF, 2000).
Soon after Smith and his group joined the Missouri colonists, there was widespread fear in Missouri of an impending Mormon voting bloc. In fact, this is what created the beginning of the woes experienced by the Mormons. It was also feared that a Mormons bloc voting would make them take over Missouri. To prevent a Mormon take over, mob violence against Mormons begun. The magnitude of the new mob violence was worse than ever experienced. The escalating violence and wrangles between the Mormons and the non-Mormons prompted the governor to intervene. However, as anticipated, the governor would always side with the non-Mormons. The intervention of the governor brought more woes to the Mormons than could be anticipated. He issued an order that the Mormons were to be treated as enemies. Thus they were to be exterminated or be driven out of the State by any available means. The governor’s argument in supporting the order was that public interests had to be protected. Nevertheless, the governor was also acting under the fear for the threat of Mormons bloc vote and eventual takeover of the affairs of the colony (Gaustad & Edwin, 2003).
The issuing of the order by the governor of Missouri was the start of the woes of Joseph Smith and a vast majority of his followers. Subsequently, Smith and other leaders of the Mormon Church were held as hostages in Missouri prisons to enable the evacuation of the Mormons from the State. However, Brigham Young managed to dodge the arrests and arranged for and exodus across the Mississippi River destined to Illinois in the period of 1838-39 winter. Luck was with Smith and the leaders as later they were released from prison. Smith embarked on the leadership of the church after his release from prison. The ironic part of the story is that the Mormon community had now expanded to several thousands. Apparently, after the exodus of the Mormons from Missouri State, they had established a New kingdom of God, which they named Nauvoo, which meant beautiful place (CRF, 2000).
The Mormons had obtained an acceptance by the Illinois State which was seeking to expand its tax base. Thus the State was not against the settlement of the Latter-Day Saints. In fact, the Illinois Legislature granted Nauvoo a liberal charter which permitted the establishment of individual court system and militia by the Nauvoo city. The militia was referred to as the Nauvoo Legion. At around Mid 1840s Nauvoo had become so big a city such that it rivaled Chicago as the biggest city. The growth of Nauvoo attracted many visitors who came to work in Illinois. Thus thousands of immigrants from Britain, where Brigham Young had done missionary work, flocked Nauvoo city (Bushman et al, 2001). Nevertheless, the great economic and political advancements of the Mormon community worried many Illinois residents. For instance, they were not comfortable with the rumors about some Mormon religious rituals as well as their voting habits as a bloc.
The climax of the resentment towards the Mormons habits came in 1844, when Joseph Smith decided to run for the presidency, an issue that attracted inflamed public opinion. Apparently, many of the residents as well as the followers questioned the involvement of Smith in both religious and political issues. This followed heated press coverage that Smith was trying to make himself king, his subsequent arrest led to his death on June, 27, 1844. The death also led to enormous attacks towards the Mormons. Their property was set ablaze by vigilantes who wanted them out of Illinois.
The nature of the insecurity that prevailed in Nauvoo prompted Young and the leaders decide to leave the city to the Great Salt Lake city with about 16000 Mormon followers. In 1847, Young became the leader of the Mormons and governor of Utah in 1850. However, it was denied Statehood by the congress in the same year when it applied for it. After the expiry of Young’s term as governor of Utah, years went by without a replacement. This made relations with the federal government sour. Thus when new President Buchanan took over power in 1857, he sensed the rebellion and sent 2500 federal army force officers to enforce the new governor appointment. After the acceptance of compliance by Young and leaders, Buchanan pardoned Utah’s seditions and treasons, as he called them.
The pardon granted by president Buchanan did not give Utah a mandate to become a State, there followed a great battle about the polygamist nature of the Mormons. The outlawing of multiple marriages by the congress in 1862 posed yet another big challenge to the Mormons and point of disagreement with the congress. As a requirement for the granting of Statehood, t was a requirement that Utah submitted to the requirements. Later in 1882 and 87, congress passed laws forcing Mormons to quit polygamy and also nullified the territorial charter of the Mormon Church. The new law saw over 1000 Mormon men imprisoned for multiple marriages. To prevent further trouble with the federal government, the then president of the Mormon Church who replaced Young after his death in 1879, issued a manifesto which required the Mormons to stop any form of multiple marriages against the law. The manifesto paved the way for Utah’s recognition as the 45th State in 1896. Nevertheless, the Mormons had to face extreme oppositions and challenges before attaining the recognition.
References:
Abanes, G., & Richard, M., One Nation under Gods, New York: Four Walls Eight Windows, 2002
Arrington, K., Leonard, J., & Bitton, D., The Mormon experience: a history of the Latter-Day Saints, University of Illinois Press, 1992
Bushman, D., Claudia, P., Lauper, J., & Richard, L., Bushman Building the Kingdom: A History of Mormons in America, New York: Oxford University Press, 2001
Gaustad, T., & Edwin, S., Proclaim Liberty Throughout All the Land: A History of Church and State in America, New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.
“Mormonism and American Politics”, Center for the study of Religion, Melissa Proctor, Princeton University, 2007. Retrieved on Saturday, September 12, 2009, from http://www.princeton.edu/~csrelig/mormonism&politics
The Constitutional Rights Foundation (CRF), The Persecution of the Mormons, Winter 2000. Retrieved on Saturday, September 12, 2009, from www.twyman-whitney.com/…/Persecution%20of%20the%20Mormons.pdf
