Mormonism emerged from the religious ferment from families of Puritan descent who lived a long the Erie Canal. The founder of the Mormon church was Joseph Smith wrote a story called, The Book of Mormon, which told how God singled him out to receive a special revelation of divine truth. He began to see himself as a prophet and organized the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He advocated practices that were central to individual success in the age of capitalist markets and factories. His main goal was to have a church-directed society that would inspire moral perfection. His major problem was being able to secure a permanent home for his religious movement, due to a lot of persecution from anti-Mormons. He decided to leave New York and move west where he settled in Nauvoo, Illinois which bloomed and became the largest utopian community with 300,000 inhabitants. However, tensions began to rise and Joseph Smith began to abide or agree to any law he did not approve of, and began to go over board by asking congress to declare himself a candidate for president of the US. Smith began to express to his followers about a revelation he had received that justified polygamy, which was the the practice of a man having more than one wife at one time.which outraged local Christians. Smith was later arrested for treason, and an anti-Mormon mob stormed the prison and murdered Joseph Smith.
A follower Brigham Young, felt the need to leave from these religious tension and leave the United States and settled in Salt Lake City, Utah. When the US acquired Mexico's northern territory, they settled with Brigham Young and gave him a much smaller Utah territory that he asked for in 1850 and named him territorial governor. ***Mormons had finally succeeded where other social experiments and utopian communities had failed. With the idea of private ownership of property and encouraging individualist economic enterprise, they became prosperous contributors to the new market society.***
9 comments:
Joseph Smith was really stubborn with his idea in mormonism. In the end everything worked out in his favor with Smith getting territory in Utah to call his own.
With the Mormans, there were so many anti-mormans because it was something new. Only some brave people are able to go with what they feel and think is right and break away from the traditional and start something new. Thanks to Joe Smith and B. Young, Mormonism is still around today.
It is a different way to view religion, and today the Mormans are the ones who are being exclusive and keeping outsiders out of their community.
But thanks to them sticking with owning your own property, contiuning to have babies and individually contributing to the economy, this movement/lifestyle still exists now.
But was it a utopia? Depending on who you asked in the past and today, you would recieve different answers, of course. I don't think any way of life/community can be a utopia on earth in reality, but it can be to those who are a part of it. Utopias are impossible because human beings are too greedy and self-serving. But it is a nice idea to work towards, living in a utopian society.
The Mormans were one of few utopian societies that peaked during the 1800's and are still present today. I think it is interesting how the religion has transformed over the years from one that promoted and practiced free love to a religion that now says they no longer follow these practices.
I agree with previous posts that utopian society is not very realistic however some people in that society may feel that it is pretty close to perfect. Joseph Smith's idea of Mormonism became pretty popular. Since it attracted so many people and became a big deal, it is not surprising that there were also many people strongly against Mormonism. Mormonism and the idea of polygamy definitely sounds bizarre, especially at that time, and especially to the neighboring Christians.
I think that the reason that the Mormons were the only Utopian group that succeeded was partly due to the fact that Joseph Smith did not claim to be god or the son of god, but just a prophet. I also agree with Jessica that they were different from other Utopian societies in that they actually contributed to the economy: a necessary step to continuing a group's existence in American society as a whole, and the practice of polygamy surely didn't hurt. Even if a group's ideas a very strange, if they can reproduce themselves in great numbers they will continue to exist. P.S. How am I supposed to do two comments if there is only one post up for this last week?
The mormons were the only society of this time to survive to the present day. the main reason they stayed around was due to their incredible farming system in Utah. they supplied the country and kept contributing to the economy.
Oh boy..... it's the MORMONS! no really, the mormons were an insperational group to people in the 19th century. not for one of the more obviouse reasons, but because the took a build a community in some of the hardest environments. This helped prove that a large group of people could live in such conditions and survive. And mormons are awesome anyways!
The idea of Mormonism is an example of society rejecting new ideas. The Christians had their own idea of what was right and the way things should be religiously. The idea of having more than one wife was appalling to Christians.
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