The Pew Forum released the transcripts from their biannual Faith Angle Conference on “religion, politics and public life.”
From their web site:
Richard Bushman, an emeritus professor at Columbia University and author of several books about Mormon history, discussed the relationship between The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and American politics over the past two centuries. He addressed Mormonism’s shift from 19th-century radicalism to 20th-century conservatism and the significance of this religious heritage for presidential candidate Mitt Romney. A lively question-and-answer session with journalists followed his presentation.
Other Forum resources on The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints include an interview with two general authorities of the church and an analysis of public opinion on presidential politics and the Mormon faith.
There is a great deal to read and digest, so I will leave this as an open thread for you to discuss the transcripts.
One quick note, Bushman discusses LDS blogs at the end of the forum and names Times and Seasons as the only LDS blog he can remember. It will be interesting to see if any of the reporters follow-up with the bloggers at Times and Seasons, or any of the other LDS blogs.
Very interesting stuff.
One of Bushman’s statements that caught my attention was:
“He gave no hint that he was going to give up his religious offices if he were to become president of the United States.”
I actually disagree with this. I think if Joseph had lived much longer he would have become an emeritus general authority. There are indications he was angeling towards retirement and training Hyrum and the Twelve to take over the day to day management. The Twelve later attributed some of the key transfer to Joseph’s premonitions of his own death, but I wonder if there were political considerations as well. In all probability, there were. I think Joseph was counting on staying on as leader of the Kingdom of God (a shadow government that included non-Mormons) while turning over the reigns of the Church. But that organization wasn’t a total separation of church and state either.
I would tend to disagree with you, Keller. Given Bushman’s exhaustive research of Joseph Smith, if there were hints or indications that he would give up religious offices to be president of the United States, I think he [Bushman] would have found them.
My take is that he bestowed keys on others simply for the sake of succession after his death so that the authority would not disappear.
“We now have a fine-grained study of polygamy in one community where we know every family in the community and all of the details about them.”
This is an obvious reference to Kathryn Daynes book More Wives than One who looked in Manti marriages with a great deal of detail. I think her book is on a short list of must reads in Mormon studies.
Brian #3,
I may have posted too hastily given Bushman’s clarification in the paragraph after his statement.
Bushman bases his statement on what Joseph Smith said in his platform in Feb. 1844. I think Bushman correctly captures Joseph’s state of mind then. I defer to Bushman on most things. Given his recognized expertise, I realize a burden of proof is on me to be persuasive where I might disagree.
I think Joseph’s thoughts developed as he got closer to his death in June. His presidential platform indicated he would be a priest to the people as Bushman shows:
Joseph did contemplate retiring as prophet, but a political motive for doing so is harder to establish. perhaps enough for a “hint” though, IMO.
On July 16, 1843 Joseph “Said he would not prophecy any more.’Hyrum should be the prophet'(did not tell them he was going to be a priest now, nor a King by and by)”
See Don Bradley’s ( http://tinyurl.com/29gloq ) article in Sunstone for more details, and some of his thoughts on why the 1843 stuff was a practice run for March and April 1844 council of Fifty business.
I think Bushman is being circumspect about the Kingdom of God, which almost certainly would take a much longer explanation and I doubt most of the press guys would be able to get it, and would be needlessly alarmed. In practical terms, the Kingdom was really just glorified campaign machinery with visions of pride of place during Christ’s millennial reign. Until then it would be just a shadow government.
I finally got through reading the whole transcript. I think Bushman did a remarkable job and I can’t think of a better person who could answer all those tough questions. He turned some questions around to the media that I would have been interested in saying more. But I think his selectiveness kept him out of trouble. It was like he was waiting for the right questions that he could knock out of the ballpark with his insight.
It is interesting that On Faith is looking for more Mormon bloggers than just Otterson. The On Faith guy thought Mormons were scared of talking. I think it might be more correct to say that Mormons hesitate to communicate in such hostile forums. I think On Faith should have a moderating queue for politer discussions, if they really want more high profile Mormons to participate.
I agree that On Faith could use a more civil forum. But considering the essential amount of egotism that usually accompanies serious blogging, I think a lot of the bloggernacle permas would be thrilled at the opportunity.
I’m pretty happy with Bushman’s performance. There was very little BS going on in his responses. Media types tend to be very sensitive to that kind of thing, so I think that was helpful.
The one gripe I had was that he didn’t really challenge the unspoken assumption most of the reporters seemed to share that Romney’s religion problem is primarily an Evangelical problem.
It really isn’t, at least not exclusively. It’s very much a problem with liberals too. In fact Linker and other leftist attacks were mentioned explicitly, but the reporters seemed to glide right over them.
I think if Joseph had lived much longer he would have become an emeritus general authority. There are indications he was angeling towards retirement…
I think Moroni is the only person I can think of who successfully angeled towards retirement…
😉
I finally read the entire transcript. It really is a fascinating document for several reasons. First of all, Bushman does a fantastic job as coming across as a smart and articulate defender of Mormonism. Secondly, I was amazed at the kinds of questions that were asked. Quinn asking about the Martha Beck book and truly thinking that is an accurate portrayal of Mormonism is really extraordinary. It shows the insular world of many journalists today, and keep in mind this is a forum for religious journalists. Have they never met a Mormon? That really blew my mind. (In fairness, it is worth pointing out that other journalists kind of corrected Quinn on that perception, but still….)
I’m really glad that forum was held. It has to be a good thing to have a bunch of newspaper writers like E.J. Dionne listen to a knowledgeable believer field their questions in some detail.
I thought it was an excellent forum and very positive.
The exception is Quinn. Her comments blows my mind as well. Sadly, there’s nothing in the transcript to suggest she was prepared to let anyone alter her impression.