Hyphen-Mormonism.
It’s Christmastime, when thoughts turn to trimming trees, singing carols, kissing under the mistletoe and syncretizing eclectic religious practices. The comparative religions scholar in me finds much to rejoice in the ancient solstice celebration we know and love as Christ’s Mass. I imagine the struggling, emerging Christian sect, competing against the popular Roman cult of the sun god Mithras, and see echoes in the growing importance of Hanukkah in Judaism as western Jews strive to stay afloat in a sea of Christian identity. Few religions are strangers to syncretism–the strongest balance assimilation and exclusion in careful measures, co-opting successful elements from greater society with one hand while asserting a separate, unique identity with the other.
Mormons play this game with the best of them. It’s easy for secular scholars to see the birth, rise and maturation of Mormonism in these terms. In this light, Joseph Smith could be seen a genius syncretist, incorporating (among many things) elements of Christian primitivism, ideas about the Hebraic ancestry of the Native Americans, theology borrowed from the Universalists, Anabaptists and Swedenborg, and practices taken from Masonry, Judaism, frontier folk magic, and the environment of sexual and marital experimentation of 1830s America (consider the Shakers and the Oneida community).
I see many modern Mormons incorporating religious syncretism on an individual basis. One Czech Saint spread the gospel through Soviet dominated Eastern Europe through her yoga classes. There are Sunstone articles and presentations that dwell on how Mormons fill gaps in their spiritual experience with pagan emphasis on the divine feminine, Buddhist meditation practice and teachings of non-violence, Catholic prayers, and much more. In the (greater) bloggernaccle, I find hyphen-Mormons of the Jewish, Buddhist, Quaker, Catholic, Pagan, and Evangelical variety popping up in unexpected places.
Are you one of these hyphen-Mormons (or perhaps even a Mormon-hyphen)? If so, what teachings and practices do you find to complement or to fill voids left in your LDS experience?
November 28th, 2006 at 2:43 am
I consider myself an Agnostic-Mormon. I don’t know if that makes sense but I equally identify myself with the two separate groups. If someone asked me what I believe or with whom I affiliate myself, I would be torn between the two. I have so much respect, empathy and understanding for the Atheist/Agnostic community, but at the same time i have family, heritage and experiences in the LDS faith. Hopefully I’ll be a “hyphen-Mormon” ’till I die- I want to always have bridges between other faiths/beliefs and never “get off of the fence and decide.” The day I do that is the day I become less tolerant of others around me.
November 28th, 2006 at 10:18 am
My favorite is Ex-Mormon, as in Existential Mormon. It’s a nice pun, plus it accurately summarizes where I’m at. I have to consider myself a Mormon, just because that’s the culture I was raised in and the religious affiliation I know the most about. But every second of every day, I’m in an existential crisis about it. I doubt and I question and I ponder the implications of being Mormon on a continual basis. My existence is defined by the Mormon religion, and yet for the most part, I don’t “believe” in it enough to let it change my daily behavior (i.e. I rarely even GO to church).
The irony of it all.
November 28th, 2006 at 1:14 pm
I have always held an appreciation for the anabaptists sects from long before my mo days. My hyphen? mormonish-atheish-metaphysical-agnostic maybe lol Not really sure.
November 28th, 2006 at 11:20 pm
How about non-Mormon Mormon?
November 29th, 2006 at 4:27 pm
I have described myself before as a Latter-day-Seventh-day-Jewish-Jehovah’s-Quaker-Pagan-Gnostic Mason. Now, keep in mind that which parts of each tradition I identify with is something I didn’t specify. I’m baptized Mormon and initiated passed and raised as a Master Mason; the rest of it is “unofficial” — either by like-minded thought, agreement on certain points, or by occasional visitation only.
~Jeff
November 29th, 2006 at 10:05 pm
I think of myself as a Liberal-Christian-Mormon, due to my recent enchantment with liberal Christianity. I love to go to the United Church of Christ every once in a while to buoy up my flagging spirit. Those inclusive hymns rock!
But even more strongly, I self-identify as a Mormon-feminist, and I try to fill the feminist void by reading Sunstone, Exponent II, and commenting on feminist blogs.
November 30th, 2006 at 12:42 pm
I am a Reform Mormon–which is actually a religoous denomination completely separate from the LDDS Church (registered in the state of Washington.)
As I see it, the LDS Church has pretty much rejected most of the theological innovations of Joseph Smith. Though the LDS insitution sponsor websites, historical restorations and spend millions each year in printing “Joseph Smith’s Testimony,” commissioning paintings, visitor center films, etc. “extolling” Jospeh Smith as a “prophet”–it is actually embarrassed by the historical Joseph Smith.The image they sell the public, is what I call “The Sunday School Version” of Joseph.
In the past two decades, LDS theology has become more like that of Evangelicla Christianity.
All the Church can offer is a claim to divine authority.
The worlds needs ideas.