J. B. Haws
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199897643
- eISBN:
- 9780199369676
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199897643.003.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
Why was attention to George Romney’s Mormon faith relatively muted when compared to the recent media coverage of Mitt Romney? Why were the theology of the Latter-day Saints and their status as ...
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Why was attention to George Romney’s Mormon faith relatively muted when compared to the recent media coverage of Mitt Romney? Why were the theology of the Latter-day Saints and their status as “Christians” mostly nonissues in 1968, but such hotly-contested matters in 2008—and, in a slightly different way, in 2012 as well? What do these shifts in public perception say about changes in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, its membership, and the various segments of American society with which Mormons interact? This chapter poses these questions, questions that will drive the rest of the book. The question of Mormonism’s public reputation is one that has been hotly contested since Joseph Smith first related the visionary experiences that would launch the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.Less
Why was attention to George Romney’s Mormon faith relatively muted when compared to the recent media coverage of Mitt Romney? Why were the theology of the Latter-day Saints and their status as “Christians” mostly nonissues in 1968, but such hotly-contested matters in 2008—and, in a slightly different way, in 2012 as well? What do these shifts in public perception say about changes in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, its membership, and the various segments of American society with which Mormons interact? This chapter poses these questions, questions that will drive the rest of the book. The question of Mormonism’s public reputation is one that has been hotly contested since Joseph Smith first related the visionary experiences that would launch the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
J.B. Haws
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199897643
- eISBN:
- 9780199369676
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199897643.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
What do Americans think about Mormons—and why do they think what they do? This is a story where the Osmonds, the Olympics, the Tabernacle Choir, Evangelical Christians, the Equal Rights Amendment, ...
More
What do Americans think about Mormons—and why do they think what they do? This is a story where the Osmonds, the Olympics, the Tabernacle Choir, Evangelical Christians, the Equal Rights Amendment, Sports Illustrated, and even Miss America all figure into the equation. The book is punctuated by the presidential campaigns of George and Mitt Romney, four decades apart. When George Romney, former governor of Michigan and a Mormon, ran for president, he was called a political Billy Graham, admired for his personal piety and his teetotaling rectitude. When George’s son Mitt ran for president in 2008, a widely distributed email told hundreds of thousands of Christians that a vote for Mitt Romney was a vote for Satan. What had changed in the intervening forty years? And then what changed again in the four years between Mitt Romney’s two campaigns? These are the questions that drive this book. When the dust settled after the 2012 presidential campaign, Mormons had undoubtedly made gains in terms of name recognition, yet this increased visibility also accentuated a perception paradox. A survey of the past half-century reveals a growing tension inherent in the public’s views of this body of religious people and the public’s views of the religion that inspires that body. This disconnect between admiration for Mormons as individuals—often described as friendly, hard-working, family-oriented—and ambivalence for Mormonism as an institution—secretive, authoritarian, deceptive—is a gap that represents perhaps the most dominant trend in the recent history of the LDS image.Less
What do Americans think about Mormons—and why do they think what they do? This is a story where the Osmonds, the Olympics, the Tabernacle Choir, Evangelical Christians, the Equal Rights Amendment, Sports Illustrated, and even Miss America all figure into the equation. The book is punctuated by the presidential campaigns of George and Mitt Romney, four decades apart. When George Romney, former governor of Michigan and a Mormon, ran for president, he was called a political Billy Graham, admired for his personal piety and his teetotaling rectitude. When George’s son Mitt ran for president in 2008, a widely distributed email told hundreds of thousands of Christians that a vote for Mitt Romney was a vote for Satan. What had changed in the intervening forty years? And then what changed again in the four years between Mitt Romney’s two campaigns? These are the questions that drive this book. When the dust settled after the 2012 presidential campaign, Mormons had undoubtedly made gains in terms of name recognition, yet this increased visibility also accentuated a perception paradox. A survey of the past half-century reveals a growing tension inherent in the public’s views of this body of religious people and the public’s views of the religion that inspires that body. This disconnect between admiration for Mormons as individuals—often described as friendly, hard-working, family-oriented—and ambivalence for Mormonism as an institution—secretive, authoritarian, deceptive—is a gap that represents perhaps the most dominant trend in the recent history of the LDS image.
Terryl L. Givens
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199933808
- eISBN:
- 9780199333011
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199933808.003.0008
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter considers recent developments in the representation of Mormons in popular culture. It is a cliché in Mormon studies that Mormonism successfully adapted itself to mainstream culture by ...
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This chapter considers recent developments in the representation of Mormons in popular culture. It is a cliché in Mormon studies that Mormonism successfully adapted itself to mainstream culture by the mid-twentieth century. It is argued that just as developments in rhetorical practice facilitated a public campaign against the religion in the nineteenth century, so have more recent developments conspired to restrain and domesticate literature of the hostile imagination in general. Still, the Mormon image in popular fiction was too versatile a tool to abandon once moral indignation became unmasked as bigotry. Recurrent uses to which Mormon characters have been put, in theater, television, and popular fiction, suggest the script may have changed considerably, but the resilient Mormon caricature has found new roles to play.Less
This chapter considers recent developments in the representation of Mormons in popular culture. It is a cliché in Mormon studies that Mormonism successfully adapted itself to mainstream culture by the mid-twentieth century. It is argued that just as developments in rhetorical practice facilitated a public campaign against the religion in the nineteenth century, so have more recent developments conspired to restrain and domesticate literature of the hostile imagination in general. Still, the Mormon image in popular fiction was too versatile a tool to abandon once moral indignation became unmasked as bigotry. Recurrent uses to which Mormon characters have been put, in theater, television, and popular fiction, suggest the script may have changed considerably, but the resilient Mormon caricature has found new roles to play.
Terryl L. Givens
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199933808
- eISBN:
- 9780199333011
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199933808.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
In 1997 this book was praised as a new classic in Mormon studies. In the wake of Mormon-inspired and -created artistic, literary, and political activity—today's “Mormon moment”—this book has now been ...
More
In 1997 this book was praised as a new classic in Mormon studies. In the wake of Mormon-inspired and -created artistic, literary, and political activity—today's “Mormon moment”—this book has now been revised and updated to address the continuing presence and reception of the Mormon image in contemporary culture. It provides a comprehensive study of how Mormons have been constructed in popular culture in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Interdisciplinary research in this book relies on historical and literary sources. The book also provides novel scholarship on religious formation, identity, and persecution.Less
In 1997 this book was praised as a new classic in Mormon studies. In the wake of Mormon-inspired and -created artistic, literary, and political activity—today's “Mormon moment”—this book has now been revised and updated to address the continuing presence and reception of the Mormon image in contemporary culture. It provides a comprehensive study of how Mormons have been constructed in popular culture in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Interdisciplinary research in this book relies on historical and literary sources. The book also provides novel scholarship on religious formation, identity, and persecution.
Terryl L. Givens
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199933808
- eISBN:
- 9780199333011
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199933808.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
Given the fact that newspapers, novelists, preachers, politicians, and humorists united in heaping contempt upon Mormonism—and upon other heterodoxies as well—in the nineteenth century, it is natural ...
More
Given the fact that newspapers, novelists, preachers, politicians, and humorists united in heaping contempt upon Mormonism—and upon other heterodoxies as well—in the nineteenth century, it is natural enough to ask what provoked such opposition. This chapter addresses the following question: what circumstances might have contributed to an atmosphere in which it was possible to galvanize, exacerbate, and express public opinion in a way that created a symphony of censure out of disparate and often unrelated protests? It suggests that while the Mormon image prevalent throughout most of the nineteenth century was largely a response to a perceived Mormon heresy, tensions can be compounded, facilitated, and exaggerated by prevailing norms and mechanisms of rhetorical practice. Construction of the Mormon image was profoundly affected by revolutions in publishing, literacy, and literary form that conditioned an entire generation of literature hostile to religious heterodoxy.Less
Given the fact that newspapers, novelists, preachers, politicians, and humorists united in heaping contempt upon Mormonism—and upon other heterodoxies as well—in the nineteenth century, it is natural enough to ask what provoked such opposition. This chapter addresses the following question: what circumstances might have contributed to an atmosphere in which it was possible to galvanize, exacerbate, and express public opinion in a way that created a symphony of censure out of disparate and often unrelated protests? It suggests that while the Mormon image prevalent throughout most of the nineteenth century was largely a response to a perceived Mormon heresy, tensions can be compounded, facilitated, and exaggerated by prevailing norms and mechanisms of rhetorical practice. Construction of the Mormon image was profoundly affected by revolutions in publishing, literacy, and literary form that conditioned an entire generation of literature hostile to religious heterodoxy.
