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After spending all day writing about the Reed Smoot congressional hearings (1904-1907), it was a bit of a whiplash to read this @DeseretNews editorial that pushes back on @mckaycoppins's essay. Let me explain why in a #MormonAmerica thread. /1 https://www.deseret.com/opinion/2020/12/18/22189276/coppins-most-american-religion-church-of-jesus-christ-global-faith
When Smoot, a Mormon apostle, was elected to the senate in 1902, it caused a national firestorm. Could a leader in the LDS church, which many (rightly) assumed still practiced polygamy, serve as a senator? Could he serve two masters? Hearings lasted 3 years. /2
To win the contest, Mormons had to prove 1) they were going to stop polygamy, and 2) that they were willing to fit the American model of a denomination. For more on this, check out @kathleen_flake's phenomenal @uncpressblog book. /3 https://uncpress.org/book/9780807855010/the-politics-of-american-religious-identity/
(I'll talk about the polygamy component in another tweet thread. Just trust me when I say it was the biggest existential crisis the church faced for decades.) /3.5
In the end, Smoot was vindicated, for reasons both ideological and pragmatic. (Smoot successfully distanced himself from the church, and Republicans prioritized their relationship with Utah.) But in the process, the church had a new identity: American through & through. /4
Shortly after the hearings concluded, Joseph F. Smith, church president at the time, issued "An Address to the World," proclaiming that Mormonism was not just a "Christian church," but "the most distinctively American church." They wrapped themselves in the red, white, & blue. /5
The proclamation's paradox--addressed to the world, centered on America--set the stage for the next century. Mormonism spread throughout the world, but taking their American flavor with them. Mormon missionary efforts were an extension of American imperialism. /6
Take, for instance, David O. McKay, then an apostle but later the president, when he went on a global tour in the 1920s: "America and the Church of Christ will truly make all nations one blood," he declared. "May God hasten the day when this is accomplished.” /7
These tensions persisted through the rest of the century. For another example, Philip Jenkins outlined how the church's attachment to American culture has slowed their growth in Africa in this @MormonHistAssoc Tanner Lecture. /8 https://www.jstor.org/stable/23290495?refreqid=excelsior%3A9fe6537b51cdc981684c4caf954c0f6f
So when @mckaycoppins wrote about Mormonism as a quintessential American religion, he was tapping into a long, and justified, narrative, one trumpeted from Leo Tolstoy (allegedly) to Harold Bloom. /9 https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2021/01/the-most-american-religion/617263/
And yet, as @BoydMatheson argues, perhaps too defensively, Mormonism is now a "global" religion, as more than half of its members our outside the country of its birth. This has been true for a while, in fact. And yet... /10 https://www.deseret.com/opinion/2020/12/18/22189276/coppins-most-american-religion-church-of-jesus-christ-global-faith
As scholars have noted, Mormonism is more an "international" church, in that it is found throughout the world, and not yet "global," as much of its culture and governance is predicated both on its historical (American) roots & cultural (American) context. /11
If anything, the knee-jerk reaction from church leaders & spokesmen that it's a global faith is rooted in an anxiety of how *American* the faith remains--tangled in national politics, priorities, and principles. That's slowly changing, sure, but it's still very much the case. /12
As I noted when the Mormon Tabernacle Choir sang at Trump's inauguration, the faith has become embedded within a particular political culture that it will be nearly impossible to separate. /13 https://religiondispatches.org/mormon-tabernacle-choir-will-usher-in-the-trump-era/
So yes, Mormonism is becoming more global. And that's good! & yes, Mormon studies should reflect that. (Quincy Newell & I have made it a priority with #MormonStudiesReview.) But that doesn't mean we should overlook the faith's significance to American history, & vice versa. /fin
(By the way, have your library get a (digital) copy of this new Palgrave Handbook on Global Mormonism.) https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9783030526153
