Mormonism and censorship

DEFINITION: Religion of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a Utah-based church founded in the nineteenth century

SIGNIFICANCE: The Mormon church has tried to control controversies over its history and doctrines through censorship, secrecy, and restriction of access to historical documents

The Mormon church is a unique religious institution of wholly American origin. It was founded in Palmyra, New York, by Joseph Smith, a young man of limited education and means. In 1830, Smith published the Book of Mormon, which purports to be a history of certain tribes of Israel who fled to North America after leaving Palestine around 600 BCE. Smith claimed to have been given the book by an angel, who helped him to translate it and to reestablish the true, original church of Jesus Christ. As a modern-day prophet, Smith promulgated new Christian doctrines in revelations that he published. His followers, known as Mormons, accept his prophecies, as well as those issued by his successors, as divinely inspired.

The modern Mormon church has tried to control controversies over its history and unusual doctrines by censorship, secrecy, and restricting access to historical documents. Church doctrines conflicting with societal viewpoints have included polygamy, subordination of women, and partial exclusion of Black and Indigenous Americans. Mormons may be admonished, disfellowshipped, or excommunicated for opposing church authority. Disfellowshipped Mormons retain church membership, but are excluded from some church activities, such as participating in temple functions, until they reestablish their faith. Excommunicated Mormons are expelled from the church and must be rebaptized. Such disciplining in predominantly Mormon communities may cause job loss, social ostracism, or business boycotts. In addition, the church has censored, or attempted to censor, repugnant political and social opinions expressed by individuals and organizations within and without the church.

An early example of church censorship occurred when the central body of church members was living in Nauvoo, Illinois, under Joseph Smith’s leadership. In 1844, William Law published an independent newspaper in Nauvoo calling for separating church and state, freeing the press, ending Smith’s use of the church for private profit, and abandoning polygamy. Smith retaliated by destroying Law’s press and burning his newspapers. Smith himself was arrested for this act and was killed by an anti-Mormon mob while awaiting trial.

Controlling Church History

The church has a long tradition of attempting to control its own history. Lucy Mack Smith’s Biographical Sketches of Joseph Smith, the Prophet, and his Progenitors for Many Generations, was published by Apostle Orson Pratt in 1853. The book, by Joseph Smith’s mother, was condemned by the church’s new president, Brigham Young, and the council in 1865. They judged it inaccurate: “a tissue of lies from beginning to end.” At that time, the Smith family asserted that Smith had considered the church’s presidency a hereditary office. Young, however, took control, but doctrinal conflict led to the establishment of a separate church, the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, under the Smith family.

Publication of Fawn Brodie’s “No Man Knows My History”: The Life of Joseph Smith, the Mormon Prophet (1945) was followed by her excommunication for apostasy in 1946. A member of a prominent Mormon family and a professional academic historian, Brodie based her book on critical evaluation of a multitude of documents, letters, and newspapers.

In 1945, Mormon historian Dale Morgan won a Guggenheim Foundation grant to support a year’s research to complete his Mormon history. In 1947, he activated the grant and embarked on a national search of libraries and archives. The following year, however, renewal of his grant was denied. Shortly thereafter, he was denied access to manuscripts in the custody of the church historian’s office because “people writing . . . books are rarely qualified to appraise accurately what they read and . . . misrepresent what they find.” Finally, in 1949, J. Reuben Clark, first counselor and president of the church, urged the Guggenheim Foundation not to fund Morgan’s research.

In 1972, Leonard J. Arrington, a Mormon and a respected professional historian, was appointed church historian and began preparing a sixteen-volume church history. After his first two volumes, The Story of the Latter-day Saints and Building the City of God, appeared, the project was attacked by high church leaders Ezra Taft Benson and Boyd K. Packer as “faith destroying” for, among other things, excessive emphasis on human frailties of church founders. The church then ended the history project. Arrington was removed as church historian in 1980, access to church archives was narrowly restricted, and the historian’s office was removed from Salt Lake City to the Brigham Young University campus.

Silencing Critics

Feminists have been censored and disciplined for advocating female priesthood, praying to “Mother in Heaven,” and supporting the Equal Rights Amendment. Only members of the priesthood—to which all adult male members of the church may be admitted—can become leaders of congregations, or administrative officers of the church. In 1979, Sonia Johnson became famous following her confrontation with Utah Senator Orrin Hatch in a Senate hearing on the Equal Rights Amendment and for her lecturing and media interviews. She was tried on a charge of apostasy in late 1979 and excommunicated. Circulation of an issue of MS. magazine carrying an article by Johnson purportedly was restricted in Utah by an unofficial boycott.

George P. Lee, the only Indigenous American ever appointed to the church’s General Authority was excommunicated in 1989 for “apostasy and other conduct unbecoming a member of the church.” Lee had accused church leaders of distorting doctrine to justify treating Indigenous Americans as second-class members and denying their status in Mormon theology as literal descendants of the House of Israel. He also asserted that nonagenarian Ezra Taft Benson was too feeble to make the decisions required of the leader of the entire church.

According to Ron Priddy, a board member of the independent publisher Signature Books in Salt Lake City, five Mormon authors were excommunicated for views expressed in their Signature publications and in preliminary papers and articles. Maxine Hanks, author of a book on Mormon women, believes that she was excommunicated for challenging church policies regarding women by referring to sacred writings. Other excommunicated and disfellowshipped authors have made similar charges. Although First Counselor Gordon B. Hinckley asserted in 1994 that excommunications and disfellowshipping were local decisions, church spokesman Don LeFevre previously acknowledged that high-ranking Mormon officials provided local leaders with names of members criticizing church positions.

With the rise of the Internet in the twenty-first century, Mormons had more opportunities to research the history of their faith as well as communicate and express their questions and doubts with others. In June 2014, Kate Kelly, the feminist founder of the Mormon group Ordain Women, was excommunicated from the church. By early 2015, John Dehlin, publisher of the podcast Mormon Stories, which features dissidents discussing topics such as women's ordination and same-sex marriage, had been summoned to a disciplinary council meeting and faced possible excommunication for apostasy. He had been told to remove segments that had criticized church teachings and to halt any advocacy. Excommunicated in February, Dehlin began appealing the decision the following month.

Jon Krakauer’s Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith (2003) is a work of historical fiction that explains the history of the Mormon faith through a modern-day religion-motivated double murder. The novel was adapted into a successful Hulu series by the same name in the early 2020s. The Mormon church denounced the book and called it a misunderstanding of their religion. Before the book’s release, the church's assistant historian and managing director of public affairs, Richard Turley, sent a five-page critique to various media outlets to preemptively denounce the book’s claims. The Hulu series received a similarly critical review from Mormon officials.

Bibliography

Brodie, Fawn. No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith the Mormon Prophet. 2nd ed., Vintage, 1995.

Coates, James. In Mormon Circles: Gentiles, Jack Mormons and Latter-Day Saints. Addison, 1991.

Gottlieb, Robert, and Paul Wiley. America’s Saints: The Rise of Mormon Power. Putnam’s, 1984.

Heinerman, John, and Anson Shupe. The Mormon Corporate Empire. Beacon, 1985.

"The History of Transparency and Censorship within the LDS Church." Sunstone, 1 Jan. 2018, sunstone.org/the-history-of-transparency-and-censorship-within-the-lds-church. Accessed 5 Dec. 2024.

Johnson, Sonia. From Housewife to Heretic: One Woman’s Spiritual Awakening and Her Excommunication from the Mormon Church. Wildfire, 1989.

Joyce, Kathryn. "The Coming Crackdown on Mormon Liberals." Daily Beast, 19 Jan. 2015, www.thedailybeast.com/the-coming-crackdown-on-mormon-liberals. Accessed 5 Dec. 2024.

Krakauer, Jon. "The LDS Church Does Not Want You to Watch 'Under the Banner of Heaven' Now Streaming on Hulu." Medium, 27 Apr. 2022, jonkrakauer.medium.com/the-lds-church-does-not-want-you-to-watch-under-the-banner-of-heaven-now-streaming-on-hulu-ba0cdf0d6beb. Accessed 5 Dec. 2024.

Shipp, Jan. Mormonism: The Story of a New Religious Tradition. U of Illinois, 1985.

Stack, Peggy Fletcher. "Mormon Blogger John Dehlin Appeals Excommunication from LDS Church." Huffington Post, 11 Mar. 2015, www.huffpost.com/entry/john-dehlin-excommunication‗n‗6653090. Accessed 5 Dec. 2024.

Walker, John Philip, editor. Dale Morgan on Early Mormonism: Correspondence and a New History. Signature, 1986.