Contrary Minds

Posted by rjhmoore at 8:01 PM 0 comments

There are no such things in the Mormon religion, at least for the extremely faithful, not even today, but especially not in the 19th century where everyone was a good and obedient Mormon. If you weren't, you were excommunicated. Poof, gone, simple as that. Ann Eliza Young explains this strange freedomless democracy using the example of the election of the new President of the Mormon Church after Joseph Smith's death.

There were two candidates, Sidney Rigdon and Brigham Young. Now you have to understand that Rigdon, once hearing of the Prophet's death, immediately rushed back to Nauvoo (he had grown "cool in the faith" and was living in Pittsburg, PA.) and claimed the role of Prophet, Seer, and Revelator. Many people of course disapproved of his sudden entrance back into the religion, so he began to create extremely fanciful and contradictory revelations about tremendous battles where "blood was to flow until the horses waded in it up to their very bridles" and so on. By this point Brigham Young had returned from missionary work and was in line for the presidency because he was the senior apostle. Many people had started questioning the sanity of Rigdon and Young encouraged the rumors. A court case was held against Rigdon, without him being present throughout the whole trial, with the intent to remove him as President. Young was largely involved in this trial and motioned to have Rigdon excommunicated.

Here is where the voting comes in. The ten people who ventured to vote in favor of Rigdon were immediately "suspended" from the Church "for their temerity." A.E. Young says, "This is the way in which persons are served even now who venture to disagree with Brigham Young. There is absolutely no such thing known among the Mormons as a free expression of opinion." She goes on to say this (since she explains these things so well): "The manner of voting in public assemblies is never varied. Brigham prefaces all ceremonies of the kind by an address, in which he manages to let the people know exactly how he feels upon the subject under discussion, and they understand that they are to feel exactly the same way; and as there is not question of choice, they make themselves fancy they do believe exactly as he does. If they have any question of doubt, they stifle it very quickly, and, if they are very good Mormons, take themselves to task for their wickedness in entertaining a thought contrary to the opinion of their Prophet." She then adds that at the end of each address, Brigham calls for a vote on the subject. He calls for a vote for the motion or whatever it is, and "receives all the saintly votes." I turn over the next part to A.E. Young: "The 'contrary minds' are then called; but such is the singular unity of this people that there is never a 'contrary' mind among them." If anyone votes "the other" way, "He is looked upon with suspicion, regarded as an enemy of the church and its ruler, and if he escapes serious persecution he may be considered especially fortunate."

Today, I'm sure no one is seriously persecuted, but I myself have witnessed the present-day Mormon voting system. If you view the video of the 178th Semiannual General Conference of the Church of Latter-day Saints, you will see that they include in the session a time for electing Church officials such as the twelve apostles and the Church President. A man comes up in front of this mass of thousands of people and says, "Those in favor of Thomas S. Monson (the President already in office) remaining as Prophet, Seer, and Revelator, please raise you hand," and every single person in that enormous crowd raises their hand. The sound of arms rising into the air sounds like a distant rumble of thunder, but when the man up front calls for those who disapprove of the motion, the whole tabernacle is as silent as the grave. Every motion and every candidate up for a position is voted for in the same way. No one dare vote against anything proposed. If they simply don't agree, they vote in favor due to peer pressure or out of pure fear. I would. It's frightening enough watching it on TV without actually being involved. I'm coming to discover that it's not easy being a latter-day saint, in the past or present.