Richard Ostling

We moved to Utah a few years ago, so learning about Mormons is on our agenda. This book did a nice job of sketching out the facets of the religion, the institution, the followers, etc. It's 20+ years old, so certainly somewhat dated, but really the trends it outlines don't seem to have changed much.

There was very little discussion here on the right wing fringe, FLDS etc. Most of the discussion was on the liberal wing and its challenges with the institutional center. Nowadays, though, with folks like the Bundys and the whole shift of the country to the authoritarian right... that'd be some very interesting territory to explore.

I've just learned about #DezNat - Deseret Nationalism as a social networking thing. When we first moved here, I was talking with a political candidate and he brought up Utah Exceptionalism, a very new concept for me. The LDS Church is very big not just in Utah but also Idaho and Arizona. Hard to say what exactly a civil war could look like in the next few decades. But the #DezNat folks, and the huge and highly centralized and organized institution behind them... they seem well prepared to take over a major piece of the country.

Anyway this book doesn't go into great depth in any direction, but it's a great introduction to the LDS scene.… (mehr)

Disappointing

In their preface, the authors express the hope that "insiders will see themselves portrayed fairly while learning some things they would not have known otherwise." For this insider, that hope was not realized.

I guess you could say that there were things I learned from Mormon America, but I suspect that many of these things are false. For example, I learned that on April 7, 1847, the lead company of pioneers at Winter Quarters, Nebraska, set out for . . . Iowa? I learned that (contra D&C 20) teachers can ordain deacons. I learned that Roger Reid resigned from BYU, but Brian Evenson was fired. I learned that the Book of Abraham introduces the doctrine of polygamy. (Where?) I learned that Stan Larson has been excommunicated. (If that's true, it was by far the quietest excommunication of a Mormon intellectual in recent years.) I learned that Thomas S. Monson, one of the most enthusiastic University of Utah supporters among Church leaders, actually did his undergraduate work at archrival BYU.

More irritating than inconsequential inaccuracies were what I perceived as misrepresentations through selective presentation of the truth. Eugene England's Abelardianism is presented as the Mormon theory of the Atonement, despite hundreds of statements by Church leaders to the effect that there was a metaphysical price to be paid for our sins, and Jesus paid it. A seriously-flawed critique of Mormon appreciation of C.S. Lewis that was written by a teenager is presented as authoritative, while opposing viewpoints by seasoned LDS religious and literary scholars are given short shrift. Perceived problems with the historicity of the Book of Mormon are mentioned, but the Ostlings falsely assert that defenders of the Book of Mormon "offer no explanation" to resolve them.

I believe that Mormon America was written without malice on the part of the authors, but their own theological predispositions have prevented them from presenting a fair and even-handed portrait of Mormonism.… (mehr)

3537. Mormon America: The Power and the Promise, by Richard N. Ostling and Joan K. Ostling (read 9 Feb 2002) After reading a bio of Joseph Smith in Feb 1979 and one of Brigham Young in Mar of 1979 I concluded I had read enuf about Mormons, but when this book came out (in 1999) I decided I wanted to read it so I finally did. This is presented as a 'balanced' account of the amazingly fast-growing religion that Mormonism is (a million in 1950, ten million now), and it is that, I think. Some of the claims of Joseph Smith and the religion he founded are hard for me to find people accept, but for anyone interested in a fair-minded account of the Mormon theology this book might fill that bill.… (mehr)