But what of the Mormon people? How can such leaders, directing the
Church to purposes that have become so cruel, so selfish, so dangerous
and so disloyal--how can they maintain their power over followers who
are themselves neither criminal nor degraded? That is a question which
has given the pause of doubt to many criticisms of the Mormon communism
of our day. That is the consideration which has obtained from the nation
the protection of tolerance under which the Prophets flourish. For not
only are the Mormon men and women obviously as worthy as any in the
United States: there is plainly much of community value in their social
life; there is manifestly a great deal of efficiency for human good in
their system and in the leadership by which it is directed; and this
good is so apparent that it appeals easily to the sympathetic conscience
and uninformed mind of the country at large.
Let me try, then, to exhibit and to analyze the causes that keep such a
virtuous and sturdy people loyally supporting the leadership of men so
unworthy of them that if the people were as bad as the ends to which
they are being now directed, modern Mormonism would be destroyed by its
own evils.
In the first place, the average Mormon chief is sincere in his
pretensions and self-justified in his aims. Usually, he has been born,
in the Church, to a family that sees itself set apart, in holiness, from
the rest of humanity, as the direct heirs of the ancient prophets or
even as the lineal descendants of Christ. From his earliest age of
understanding, he is taught the divine splendor of his birth and
impressed with the high duties of his family privilege in being
permitted to bear a part in preparing the earth for the second coming
of the Savior. He is taught that, though all the world may be saved and
nearly all the people of this sphere will in some eternity work out
a measure of salvation, he and 143,999 others are to be a band of the
elect who shall stand about the Savior, on Mount Zion, in the final day.
He is taught that, next to Christ, Joseph Smith, the founder of the
faith, has performed the largest mission for the salvation of the world;
that in the councils of the Gods, when the Creator measured off the
ages of the human race on this earth, to the Savior was apportioned "the
meridian of time," and to Joseph Smith, the Prophet, was given the
"last dispensation," which is "the fullness of times," in order that the
world, having apostatized from the atonement and the redemption, might
be saved to heaven by Joseph, "the Choice Seer."
He is taught that the disciples of the Mormon Prophet are literally the
disciples of Jesus Christ; that the laws of right and wrong are within
the direction and subject to the authority of the Prophet, to be
changed, enlarged or even revoked by his commandment; that all human
laws are equally subject to his will, to be made or unmade at his order;
that he can condemn, by his excommunication, any man or any nation
to the vengeance of the Almighty here and hereafter; and that he can
pronounce a blessing upon the head of any man, or the career of any
people, by virtue of which blessing power shall be held in this world
righteously and the man elevated to sit at the right hand of God in
the world to come. He is taught that the greatest sin which can be
committed--next to the denial of Christ--is to raise hand or voice
against "the Lord's anointed," the Mormon prophets. And, for morality,
he is taught from his infancy, that he must scrupulously practice those
special virtues of his cult, industry, thrift, purity (except as in
later life he shall be inducted into the practice of the new polygamy)
honesty in business, and charity toward his needy fellow-men.
Formed in character by this teaching, as a steady inculcation throughout
his youth, he comes to manhood strong of body, determined of mind,
practicing rigidly and intolerantly his petty virtues of abstinence from
the use of tobacco, tea and coffee, proclaiming with fanatical zeal the
gospel as it has been proclaimed to him, and self-justified in all that
he says or does by the large measure of sincerity in his delusions.
And that is, in some degree, the common training of all Mormons. Every
Mormon boy attends Sunday School as soon as he is old enough to lisp his
song of adoration to Joseph, the Kingly Prophet, and to the Savior with
whom Joseph is early associated in his childish mind. At six years of
age, he enters the Primary Association; at twelve he is in the Young
Men's Mutual Improvement Association; at fourteen or even earlier, he
stands in the fast-day meeting and repeats like a creed: "Brethren and
Sisters, I feel called upon to say a few words. I am not able to edify
you, but I can say that I know this is the Church and Kingdom of God,
and I bear my testimony that Joseph Smith was a Prophet and that Brigham
Young was his lawful successor, and that the Prophet Joseph F. Smith is
heir to all the authority which the Lord has conferred in these days
for the salvation of men. And I feel that if I live my religion and do
nothing to offend the Holy Spirit I will be saved in the presence of my
Father and His Son, Jesus Christ. With these few words I will give way.
Praying the Lord to bless each and every one of us is my prayer in the
name of Jesus Christ. Amen."
At fourteen he becomes a Deacon of the Church. Between that age and
twenty, he becomes an Elder. Very soon thereafter he becomes "a Seventy"
and perhaps a high priest. He takes upon himself "covenants in holy
places." He becomes "a priest unto the Most High God"--frequently before
his eighteenth year. Usually before he is twenty he is sent on a mission
to proclaim his gospel--the only one he has ever heard in his life--to
"an unenlightened nation" and "a wicked world." For, in addition
to being taught that the Mormons are the best, most virtuous, most
temperate, most industrious, and most God-fearing of all peoples--a
thing that is dinned into his ears from the pulpit every Sunday in the
year--he has been convinced by equal iteration that the rest of the
world is a festering mass of corruption.
Often he goes abroad, to some country whose language and customs he
must learn and upon the charity of whose toilers he must depend for his
maintenance. He goes with an implicit reliance upon God, strong in the
small virtues that have been taught him from the time he knelt at his
mother's knee. He sees, probably for the first time, the afflictions
and the sins among mankind; and he keeps himself unspotted from them,
congratulating himself that these grossnesses are unknown to his
sheltered home-life and to the religion which he holds as the ideal of
his soul. He proclaims his belief that God has spoken from the Heavens,
through the Mormon Prophet, in this last day, to restore the gospel
of Christ from which the peoples of the earth have wandered. He "bears
testimony" to the whole world, and he binds himself to the authority of
his Church by proclaiming his belief in it.
When he returns home, after years of service, he is called to the stand
in the tabernacle to give a report of his work. He finds waiting for him
a ready advancement in the offices of the Church, according as he may
show himself worthy of advancement or as the power of family or the
favor of ecclesiastical authority may obtain it for him. He marries a
girl who has had a training almost identical with his own. She, too, has
borne her testimony before she reached years of responsibility. She has
taken her vows as a priestess at the age when he was dedicating himself
a priest. She may even have performed a foreign mission. They have both
been promised that they shall become kings and queens in the eternal
world. They are bound by their covenants to obey their superior priests.
They cannot disregard their Church affiliations without recanting
their vows. The only way they can adhere to their covenants with their
Almighty Father--the only way they can demonstrate their acceptance
of the atoning power of the Redeemer's sacrifice--is by yielding such
obedience to the Prophet as they would pay to the Father and the Son
if They were on earth in Their proper persons. To deviate from this
faithfulness is to be marked as a Judas Iscariot by all the Latter-Day
Saints.
As soon as the Mormon becomes the head of a family--in addition to all
the testimonies and performances which he must give as proof of his
continued adherence--he must submit himself and his household to the
examination and espionage of the ward teachers, who invade his home
at least once a month. They enter absolutely as the proprietors of the
house. If the husband is there, they ask him whether he performs
his duties in the Church; whether he holds family prayer morning and
evening; whether he "keeps the word of wisdom"--that is, does he abstain
from the use of alcohol, tobacco, tea and coffee--whether he pays a full
tithe and all the prescribed donations to the Church; whether he has any
hard feelings against any of his brethren and sisters; and finally,
does he devoutly sustain the Prophet as the ruler of God's Kingdom upon
earth. These questions, so far as they apply, are put to each member of
the family above the age of eight years. Should the husband be away, all
the inquiries concerning him are made of the wife. If both parents are
absent, the questions concerning them are put to their children!
This one branch of the ecclesiastical service is sufficient of itself
to mark the Mormon Church as the most perfectly disciplined institution
among mankind. The teachers' quorum in any neighborhood consists of some
tried elders, usually of considerable ability and experience. With these
are associated numerous young men, many of them returned missionaries.
The fact that they have countless other duties in the Church and many
other and weightier responsibilities, is not permitted to excuse them
from performing strictly this important labor. Perhaps a dozen or twenty
families are assigned to a couple of teachers. They are required to
visit each of these families once every month. And if they discover any
lapse of fidelity, they report at once to the Bishop.
No one who has not seen them on their rounds will believe with what an
air of divinely privileged authority they enter a home and force its
secrets of conscience--with what an imposing and arrogant zeal--with
what a calm assumption of spiritual over-lordship and inquisitorial
right. Some few years ago after my public criticisms of Joseph F. Smith
had been followed by my excommunication, two teachers, on their monthly
rounds, came to my home in the evening and made their way calmly to the
library where I was sitting with some members of my family. I had just
returned from a long absence abroad, and the visit was an untimely
intrusion at its best; but we observed the obligations of hospitality
with what courtesy we could, and merely evaded the familiar questions
which they began to put to us. Finally, the elder of the two teachers,
a man of some local prominence in the Church, undertook to "bear
testimony" to the wickedness of anyone who opposed the divine rule of
Joseph F. Smith; and when I cut him short with a request that he leave
the house, he was as shocked and surprised as if he had been Milton's
Archangel Michael, after "the fall," and I, a defiant Adam, showing him
the door.
In addition to the visitations of the ward teachers, some members of the
Ladies Relief Society call upon every family usually once a month, not
only to gather donations for the poor, but to have a little quiet talk
with the wife and mother of the household. These women of the Relief
Society are genuine "Sisters of Charity." In most cases they have
themselves plenty of household cares, yet they give much of their time
to visiting the sick, supplying the wants of the needy or ministering
to the miseries of the afflicted; and if it were not for them and their
noblework, the Mormon poor would fare ill in these days of Mormon Church
grandeur. Outside of their monthly visitations, they have definite
preaching to do. At the meetings of their organization, they "bear
testimony" that Joseph was a Prophet--and so on. They have the quarterly
stake conferences to attend. Their traveling missionaries go from Salt
Lake to the four quarters of the globe to institute and maintain the
discipline of the organization and to teach the methods of its practical
work in Nursing Schools, mother's classes and the like. They make up one
of the noblest bodies of women associated with any social movement of
humanity. And in their zeal and submissiveness they are so innocently
meek and "biddable" that they can listen with reverence to young Hyrum
Smith publicly lecturing the grandmothers of the order for occasionally
partaking of a cup of thin tea.
Under such a system of teaching, discipline and espionage, how can
the average Mormon man or woman develop any independence of thought
or action? At what time of life can he assert himself? Before he has
attained the age of reason he has declared his faith in public. If he
shall then, in his teens, express any doubt, the priests are ready for
him. "You have borne your testimony many times in the Church," they
say sternly. "Were you lying then, or have you lost the Spirit of
God through your transgressions?" If he reveals any doubt to the ward
teachers, they will overwhelm him with argument, and either absolutely
reconvert him or silence him with authority. The pressure of family
love and pride will be brought to bear upon him. The ecclesiastical
authorities will move against him. He knows that every one of his
relatives will be humiliated by his unfaithfulness. His "sin" will
become known to the whole community, and he will be looked at askance by
his friends and his companions.
After he has taken his vows as a priest, how shall he dare to violate
them? He knows that if he loses his faith on a mission--in other words,
if he dares to make any inquiry into the authenticity of the mission
which he is performing--he becomes a deserter from God in the very ranks
of battle. He knows that he will be held forever in dishonor among his
people; that he will be looked upon as one worse than dead; that he will
ruin his own life and despoil his parents of all their eternal comfort
and their hope in him.
While I was editing the Salt Lake Tribune, a son of one of the famous
apostles came to me with some anxious inquiries, and said: "Frank, I
have been working in the Church and teaching this gospel so assiduously
for nearly forty years that I have never had time to find out whether
it's true or not!"
If the Mormon, in his later years of manhood, dares to doubt, he must
either reveal his disloyalty to the ward teachers or continue to deny
it, from month to month, and remain a supine servant of authority. If
he reveals it, he knows that the news of his defection will permeate the
entire circle with which he is associated in politics, in business and
in religion. If his superstition does not hold him, his worldly prudence
will. He knows that all the aid of the community will be withdrawn from
him; every voice that has expressed affection for him will speak in
hate; every hand that has clasped his in friendship will be turned
against him. And into this very prudence there enters something of
a moral warning. For he has seen how many a man, deprived of the
association and fraternity of the Church, feeling himself shunned in a
lonely ostracism, has not been strong enough to endure in rectitude and
has fallen into dissipation. Every instance of the sort is rehearsed by
the faithful, with many exultant expressions of mourning, in the hearing
of the doubter. And finally, it is the prediction of the priests that no
apostate can prosper; and though the Mormon people are charitable and
do not intend to be unjust, they inevitably tend to fulfill the prophecy
and devote the apostate to material destruction.
The great doctrine of the Mormon faith is obedience; the one proof of
grace is conformity. So long as a man pays a full tithe, contributes all
the required donations, and yields unquestioningly to the orders of
the priests, he may even depart in a moral sense from any other of
the Church's laws and find himself excused. But any questioning of the
rulership of the Prophets--the rightfulness of their authority or the
justice of its exercise is apostasy, is a denial of the faith, is a sin
against the Holy Ghost. The man who obeys in all things is promised that
he shall come forth in the morning of the first resurrection; the man
who disobeys, and by his disobedience apostatizes, is condemned to work
out, through an eternity of suffering, his offense against the Holy
Spirit. At the first sign of defection--almost inevitably discovered in
its incipiency--the rebel is either disciplined into submission or at
once pushed over "the battlements of Heaven!"
By such perfect means, the leaders, chosen under a pretense of
revelation from God, maintain an unassailable sanctity in the eyes of
the people, who are themselves priests. These people implicitly believe
that the voice of the leader is the voice of God. They follow with a
passionate devotion that is made up of a fanatical priestly faith and
of a sympathy that sees their Prophets "persecuted" by an ungenerous,
impure and vindictive world. We love that for which we suffer; and it
has become the inheritance of the Mormons to love the priesthood, for
whose protection their parents and grandparents suffered, and under
whose oppressions they now suffer themselves.
Joseph Smith, the original Prophet, was slain in the Carthage jail; to
the Mormon mind this is proof that he was the anointed of God and that
he sealed his testimony with his blood, as did the Savior. John Taylor,
afterwards President of the Church, was not slain at Carthage, but only
wounded; and this to the Mormons is proof that he was of the eternal
kindred of the Prophets, because, under God's direction, he gave his
blood to their defense. But Willard Richards, a companion of Smith and
Taylor, was not even injured at Carthage; and this is accepted as proof
that God had charge of his holy ones, and would not permit wicked men
to do them harm. When the people left Nauvoo and journeyed through Iowa,
some of the citizens of that state would not harbor them; and this is
argued as evidence that the Mormon movement was God's work, since the
hand of the wicked was against it; but in some localities of Iowa the
emigrants were aided, and this also is proof that the Mormon movement
was God's work, since the hearts of the people were melted to assist
it. When Johnston's army was sent to Utah, it was proof that the Mormon
Church was the true Church, hated and persecuted by a wicked nation;
when Johnston's army withdrew without a battle, it was a new guarantee
of the divinity of the work; and it is even believed among the Mormons
that the Civil War was ordained from the heavens, at the sudden command
of God, to compel Johnston's withdrawal and save God's people.
In the same way the persecutions of "the raid," and the cessation
of those persecutions--the early trials of poverty and the present
abundance of prosperity--the threat of the Smoot investigation and the
abortive conclusion of that exposure--are all argued as proofs of the
divinity of a persecuted Church or given as instances of the miraculous
"overruling" of God to prosper his chosen people. No matter what occurs,
the Prophets, by applying either one of these formulae, can translate
the incident into a new proof of grace; and their followers submissively
accept the interpretation.
On the night of April 18, 1905, Joseph F. Smith and some eight of his
sons sat in his official box at the Salt Lake theatre to watch a
prize fight that lasted for twenty gory rounds. The Salt Lake Tribune
published the fact that the Prophet of God, and vicegerent of Christ,
had given the approval of his "holy presence" to this clumsy barbarity.
A devout old lady, who had been with the Church since the days of
Nauvoo, rebuked us bitterly for publishing such a falsehood about
President Smith. "How dare you tell such wicked lies about God's
servants?" she scolded. "President Smith wouldn't do such a wicked thing
as attend a prize fight. And you know that no man with any sense of
decency would take his young sons to look at such a dreadful thing!"
Some time later, when the facts in the case had come to her, in her
retirement, from her friends, the editor called upon her to quiz her
about the incident. She said: "I'm sure I don't see what business it is
of the outside world anyhow what President Smith does. He has a right
to go to the theatre if he wants to. I don't believe they would have
anything but what's good in the Salt Lake theatre. It was built by our
people and they own it. And if it wasn't good, President Smith wouldn't
have taken his boys there."
And this was not merely the absurdity of an old woman. It is the logic
of all the faithful. The leaders cannot do wrong--because it is not
wrong, if they do it. No criticism of them can be effective. No act of
theirs can be proven an error. If they do not do a thing, it was right
not to do it; and it would have been a sin if it had been done. But if
they do that thing, then it was right to do it; and it would have been a
sin if it had not been done.
This reliance upon the almighty power and prophetic infallibility of the
leaders prevents the Mormon people from truly appreciating the dangers
that threaten them. It keeps them ignorant of outside sentiment. It
makes them despise even a national hostility. And it has left them
without gratitude, too, for a national grace. Before these people can be
roused to any independence of responsible thought, it will be necessary
to break their trust in the ability of their leaders to make bargains of
protection with the world; and then it will still be necessary to
force the eyes of their self-complacency to turn from the satisfied
contemplation of their own virtues. "You will never be able to reach the
conscience of the Mormons," a man who knows them has declared. "I
have had my experiences with both leaders and people. If you tell them
'You're ninety-nine-and-one-half per cent. pure gold,' they will ask,
surprised and indignant: 'What? Why, what's the matter with the other
half per cent?'"