American Religion (In Which I Abuse the Italics Button)

[free blog #8]


This is something that I've been thinking about for a little while now, since starting the Book of Mormon, but today's class really brought it home: Why is Mormonism so widespread? I knew that Mormonism was fast-growing, but seeing all of the locations of the Mormon temples was really surprising. 

I want to start off by saying that I understand that one of the most core pieces to a religion, in my understanding and experience, is finding some truth in it. You may not believe or adhere to all parts of it, but it speaks to you in some way that you find strength and comfort in it. From the videos that we watched in class, it seems that it's not uncommon for people to feel like the Book of Mormon is a continuation or completion of the Bible, and helps them feel like God is continuing to speak to His people. There also seems to be a great sense of feeling very spiritually connected to the Holy Ghost through reading the Book of Mormon for a lot of people, something that maybe they didn't feel when reading other holy texts.



But here's what I don't get: The Book of Mormon puts special emphasis on America by making it into the "Holy Land," the "Promised Land," the "Chosen Land," the one place where Jesus makes a special visit to deliver a special message to a specific people. Does that mean that anyone not from the Americas (and in later Mormon history (the time of Joseph Smith), probably only from North America) is not one of the Jesus's chosen people? If so, that leaves out a lot of people. Also, there's quite a bit of racism in the Book of Mormon, and although I know that, as we discussed in class, they've made efforts to change that sentiment so that Mormonism is much more inclusive, I can't help but feel that anyone who was not white and was reading the Book of Mormon would feel a bit... less than his/her fellow Mormons, at the very least. I don't know, I'm not even a person of very diverse ethnic heritage (at least in my recent and known lineage) and certainly don't have very dark skin, but I felt offended by what the Book of Mormon was saying about people becoming darker the more wicked they became. I'm glad, though, that Mormonism is trying to get away from those ideas (or at least some major part of it is).


I think about Rastafari and how they had a similar story: That Ethiopia is the "Chosen Land" and that they are the decedents of those Ethiopian royals. But Rastafari is so much smaller than Mormonism, even though, honestly, I've found more while studying Rastafari that drew me than I have in Mormonism. But maybe that's why Mormonism is so widespread, because people want to feel connected to what they perceive to be the last message of Jesus, even if they aren't American.