4. “The Woman’s Movement Has Discovered a New Enemy—the Mormon Church”: Church Mobilization against the ERA and the NOW’s Countermobilization in Utah

A spiritual biography, this book chronicles the journey of Margarito Bautista (1878–1961) from Mormonism to the Third Convention, a Latter-day Saint (Mormon) splinter group he fomented in 1935–1936, to Colonia Industrial/Nueva Jerusalén, a polygamist utopia Bautista founded in 1947. It argues that Bautista embraced Mormon belief in indigenous exceptionalism in 1901 and rapidly rose through the ranks of Mormon priesthood until convinced that the Mormon hierarchy was not invested in the development of native American peoples, as promoted in the Church’s canon. This realization resulted in tensions over indigenous self-governance within the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon Church) and Bautista’s 1937 excommunication. The book contextualizes Bautista’s thought with a chapter on the spiritual conquest of Mexico in 1513 and another on the arrival of Mormons in Mexico. In addition to accounts of Bautista’s congregation-building on both sides of the U.S. border, this volume includes an examination of Bautista’s magnum opus, a 564-page tome hybridizing Aztec history and Book of Mormon narratives, and his prophetic plan for the recovery of indigenous authority in the Americas. Bautista’s excommunication catapulted him into his final spiritual career, that of a utopian founder. In the establishment of his colony, Bautista found a religious home, free from Euro-American oversight, where he implemented his prophetic plan for Mexico’s redemption. His plan included obedience to early Mormonism’s most stringent practices, polygamy and communalism. Bautista nonetheless hoped his community would provide a model for Mexicans willing to prepare the world for Christ’s millennial reign.

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Hagiography

10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190466176.013.29 ◽

2016 ◽

Author(s):

Mikael Rothstein

Keyword(s):

Master Teacher ◽

Narrative Construction ◽

Religious Authority ◽

Religious Leaders ◽

Social Strategies ◽

New Religions ◽

Ideal Person ◽

The Status ◽

Mormon Church ◽

The Ideal

This chapter deals with sacred biographies, hagiographies, and their function in the formation of religious leaders and ritually venerated persons. It is argued that the status of any Master, Teacher, Prophet, guru, Seer and Channel is partly based on sacred biographies, and that the narrative construction of religious authority is crucial to our understanding of leadership in new religions, sects etc. Distinctions are made between doctrinal and popular hagiographies; doctrinal narratives promote the exalted leader according to theologically well-defined standards, while popular narratives cover a wider span, as they seek to draw a picture of the perfected human in many different ways. Counter-hagiographies, finally, serve to deconstruct the ideal person and are typically employed by ex-devotees or members of counter-groups. Hagiographies are seen as very ancient social strategies (there are references to old new religions including early Christianity and the cult of Christ), but also a very lively and important mechanisms in the current make of religious leaders. Examples are derived from Catholic cults of saints, the Mormon Church, Scientology, TM and several other groups.

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The Reformed Mormon Church

Cultures In Conflict ◽

10.2307/j.ctt46nwhb.39 ◽

2017 ◽

pp. 131-132

Keyword(s):

Mormon Church

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A Snake in the Sugar

Contingent Citizens ◽

10.7591/cornell/9781501716737.003.0010 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 146-164

Keyword(s):

Jesus Christ ◽

American West ◽

Political Power ◽

Latter Day Saints ◽

Beet Sugar ◽

Political Dominance ◽

Mormon Church ◽

The Church

This chapter talks about the remarkable partnership and political alliance between the Mormon Church and the Sugar Trust that was intended for the domination of the beet sugar business of America. It mentions Judson Welliver, an essayist for Hampton's Magazine, who wrote the most startling revelation of the power of Mormonism and of the business intrigue and political inside workings of the Sugar Trust. The chapter looks into Welliver's article that outlines how the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was a dangerous political power. It describes the Mormon church's influence that forced senators from Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, Oregon, and Nevada to uphold the sugar tariff. It describes the suspicion on how the Latter-day Saints had used beet sugar to gain complete economic and political dominance over the American West through the mechanism of the Utah-Idaho Sugar Company.

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Does Where You Stand Depend on Where You Sit? Tithing Donations and Self-Serving Beliefs

The American Economic Review ◽

10.1257/aer.89.4.703 ◽

1999 ◽

Vol 89 (4) ◽

pp. 703-727 ◽

Cited By ~ 56

Author(s):

Gordon B Dahl ◽

Michael R Ransom

Keyword(s):

Financial Incentives ◽

Personal Beliefs ◽

Financial Situation ◽

Voluntary Contribution ◽

Mormon Church

Economists and psychologists argue that individuals skew personal beliefs to accord with their own interests. To test for the presence of self-serving beliefs, we surveyed 1,200 members of the Mormon Church about tithing. A tithe is a voluntary contribution equal to 10 percent of income. Since respondents must decide privately what income items to tithe, we observe how the income definition depends on an individual's religious and financial incentives. We find surprisingly little evidence that an individual's financial situation influences beliefs about what counts as income for the tithe. However, ambiguity increases the role for self-serving biases. (JEL A12, D63)

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