In this tale, people scattered throughout the world are woven together in the valleys of the Rocky Mountains. Forty years after Napoleon’s defeat, the development of modern warfare on the Crimean Peninsula sends reverberations across the globe, alerting all of the growth in technology, the precursor of the US Civil War in weapons and tactics, as well as the needs of multitudes of dispossessed and underrepresented. The shrinking planet is growing crowded. The bumping into one another becomes increasingly violent. Women and men stand to be counted, molded of numerous talents and abilities, striving for relief and equality, demanding rights and opportunity. Slavery, reservations, women’s suffrage, polygamy, and Manifest Destiny are swirled into the murky vat of the United States. Protesting members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, known derisively as Mormons, are challenged over religious freedom. Despite the continued criticism heaped upon them for their unique doctrines, missionary work and its effects spread throughout the nation and the earth. The 1850s see the homeland of Deseret plowing against Bloody Kansas, Buchannan’s Blunder, Mountain Meadows, the Sevastopol Policy, the Pony Express, and the Transcontinental Telegraph. These ventures combine with similar troubles and shove the nation into the red-hot furnace of civil war.
In this tale, people scattered throughout the world are woven together in the valleys of the Rocky Mountains. Forty years after Napoleon's defeat, the development of modern warfare on the Crimean Peninsula sends reverberations across the globe, alerting all of the growth in technology, the precursor of the US Civil War in weapons and tactics, as well as the needs of multitudes of dispossessed and underrepresented. The shrinking planet is growing crowded. The bumping into one another becomes increasingly violent. Women and men stand to be counted, molded of numerous talents and abilities, striving for relief and equality, demanding rights and opportunity. Slavery, reservations, women's suffrage, polygamy, and Manifest Destiny are swirled into the murky vat of the United States. Protesting members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, known derisively as Mormons, are challenged over religious freedom. Despite the continued criticism heaped upon them for their unique doctrines, missionary work and its effects spread throughout the nation and the earth. The 1850s see the homeland of Deseret plowing against Bloody Kansas, Buchannan's Blunder, Mountain Meadows, the Sevastopol Policy, the Pony Express, and the Transcontinental Telegraph. These ventures combine with similar troubles and shove the nation into the red-hot furnace of civil war.
On the four corner lots formed by the intersecting of Main and Church Streets in Palmyra, NY, one finds four large Protestant churches today. Two centuries ago on the Smith family farm a few blocks to the south, a teenage Joseph Jr. found himself caught in the rivalry between such churches contentiously competing to claim the allegiance of repentant converts from the most recent revival. He wrote that, while praying in a grove of trees a short walk from his log cabin home, “I was answered that I must join none of them, for they were all wrong.” He would go on to organize a new church, which—ironically—would soon claim to be “the only true and living church upon the face of the whole earth.” Over the years Protestant denominational loyalties and exclusivity claims have faded and expressions of mutual embrace are not uncommon. However, the lines between these churches and the one founded by Joseph Smith Jr.—The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints—have remained stark and at times harsh. How does Jesus Christ, himself, perceive this excluding of one another? In the Lord’s prayer recorded in John 17, Jesus appears to anticipate these divisions arising among his would-be followers. So he prays repetitively and passionately that they be protected from these. At stake is the validity of their witness to the world of his own exclusive claims. To be sure, differing beliefs as to what those claims are should not be superficially dismissed. But, in the light of how Jesus prayed, should they not be honestly and prayerfully discussed in a mutually respectful way? To stimulate and facilitate this discussion is the intent of this book, using as our guide the simple but profound petitions Jesus taught us in the more well-known Lord’s Prayer. “I came to know and admire Bill Heersink in a formal theological dialogue between Evangelical Christians and Latter-day Saints. Bill has chosen to look carefully at the beliefs of Evangelicals and Latter-day Saints through the lens of a scriptural passage beloved by both groups—the Lord’s Prayer. And how better could we hope to achieve unity of purpose and ‘convicted civility’ than through Jesus Christ?” —Robert L. Millet is Professor Emeritus of Ancient Scripture at Brigham Young University, where he served as Dean of Religious Education. “Bill Heersink, seminary professor and participant in many dialogues, brings his most irenic and upbeat spirit to this gem of a book. Fully abreast of the most important academic questions, the book nevertheless wears its learning lightly and at times reads more like a devotional. Warmly to be commended to all readers of any or no faith communities.” —Craig L. Blomberg is Distinguished Professor of New Testament at Denver Seminary and co-author of the groundbreaking book How Wide the Divide? A Mormon and an Evangelical in Conversation. “Having lived in Utah among the Latter-day Saints for many years, the author affirms his own deeply Christian beliefs while respectfully seeking to reconcile differences between Mormon and Protestant theology and beliefs.” —Richard E. Bennett is Professor of Church History and Doctrine at Brigham Young University and former President of the Mormon History Association. “Bill has brought all of that experience to the writing of a book that expresses a pastor’s heart, a love of Mormon neighbors, theological savvy, and a Christ-centered spirituality ... a book that evangelical pastors and Mormon bishops can recommend with confidence.” —Richard J. Mouw was President of Fuller Theological Seminary,1993-2012.
"The past few decades have witnessed an increasing reaction of the Mormons against their own successful assimilation", Armand Mauss writes in The Angel and the Beehive, "as though trying to recover some of the cultural tension and special identity associated with their earlier 'sect-like' history". This retrenchment among Mormons is the main theme of Mauss's book, which analyzes the last forty years of Mormon history from a sociological perspective. At the official ecclesiastical level, Mauss finds, the retrenchment can be seen in the greatly increased centralization of bureaucratic control and in renewed emphases on obedience to modern prophets, on genealogy and vicarious temple work, and on traditional family life; retrenchment is also apparent in extensive formal religious indoctrination by full-time professionals and in an increased sophistication and intensity of proselytizing. At what he refers to as "the folk or grassroots level", Mauss finds that Mormons have generally been compliant with the retrenchment effort and are today at least as "religious" on most measures as they were in the 1960s. A sizable segment of the Mormon membership, Mauss asserts, has gone beyond "Mormon" retrenchment to express itself in a growing resort to Protestant fundamentalism, both in scriptural understanding and in intellectual style. The author calls on a wide array of sources in sociology and history to show that Mormons, who by mid-century had come a long way from their position as disreputable "outsiders" in a society dominated by the mainline religions, seem now to be adopting more conservative ways and seeking a return to a more sectarian posture.
