Mormonism and the Virtues

A bravura performance in The Atlantic by Hal Boyd, of the Deseret News (called to my notice by Ralph Hancock):

“The Ignorance of Mocking Mormonism: It’s precisely the beliefs of Latter-day Saints that critics dismiss as strange which produce the behaviors those same critics often applaud.”

He’s exactly right.  More than once, I’ve heard non-Mormons who’ve come to work in Utah praise the unique social virtues of the state, and so forth, just before launching into energetic mockery of the Mormons — who are to a very considerable degree responsible for precisely those social virtues.

Fawn Brodie was given to lamenting the stupidity of Mormon beliefs, while at the same time expressing confidence that those beliefs could be painlessly jettisoned while leaving the Church intact as a vehicle to convey values, motivate charitable service, and foster feelings of community and belonging.  To put it mildly, I’m not as confident as Ms. Brodie was that such good things or even the Church itself would survive throwing belief in the founding events of Mormonism overboard.  Fortunately, I’m unconvinced that such self-mutilation is even remotely necessary.

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And now I’ll pursue the theme of religion and virtue a bit.

From two prominent evangelical writers:

“Evangelicals and Roy Moore: UPDATED: Giving candidates we like a moral pass debases our culture”

“The Enduring Appeal of Creepy Christianity”

From a social conservative:

“Social Conservatives, Raise the Ethical Standard”

And another commentary, from a Jewish conservative writer:

“To Defend Their Candidate, Roy Moore Supporters Cry ‘Conspiracy’”

Finally, something from, er . . . “Donald Trump” himself:

“Trump Warns That Dumping Roy Moore Could Start a Dangerous Trend of Believing Women”

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I’ve already posted an item on the entirely expected attempt by some to link Roy Moore with Joseph Smith.

Here are two more helpful articles on Joseph Smith and the case of Helen Mar Kimball:

“‘A Subject That Can Bear Investigation’: Anguish, Faith, and Joseph Smith’s Youngest Plural Wife”

“Discussing Difficult Topics: Plural Marriage”

I thank my friend Keith Lane, of BYU-Hawaii, for reminding me of them.

And, of course, there is the Church’s official Gospel Topics Essay, “Plural Marriage in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.”

I think that the origins of plural marriage are, by a considerable distance, the most difficult historical issue for Latter-day Saints.  Or, to put it perhaps more accurately, the element in Latter-day Saint history that can most easily be wielded as a weapon against the credibility of Joseph Smith and his claims.  But I believe that the issue can be handled faithfully — and particularly so when it’s viewed in a broader context.

I appreciate a comment posted in response to my previous entry by Craig Foster, which I will quote here:

[I]t is a mistake to try to judge Joseph Smith with a 21st century or even a 20th century view. While marrying teens is certainly and understandably frowned upon today, it was not in Joseph Smith’s time, particularly in frontier settings. Nauvoo was a frontier setting given its location on the Mississippi River and directly across from Iowa Territory. There is an in-depth discussion of average and accepted age of marriage in Joseph Smith’s time in Craig L. Foster, David Keller, and Gregory L. Smith, “The Age of Joseph Smith’s Plural Wives in Social and Demographic Context,” in Newell G. Bringhurst and Craig L. Foster, eds., The Persistence of Polygamy: Joseph Smith and the Origins of Mormon Polygamy (Independence, Missouri: John Whitmer Books, 2010), 152-183.