The American Zion

Leaving Idaho Falls, we saw the falls that give this city its name. They are much longer and well developed than I thought they would be. It was a great experience. The Driftwood Inn, where we spent the night is very amenable to families with a kitchen, free bikes, big pool, all over looking the falls. I wished that we had one more day to just goof off and enjoy the large rooms and the newer sections of Idaho Falls. Across from the falls was the first of many Mormon temples that I would see that day.

We needed a few supplies so we went to Target on the outskirts of town. There were only a few shoppers, only about 30 carts total at the entrance and there were about 50 employees working and 20 shoppers. It was so funny! It was huge and there were more employees than people shopping there. It was so unlike the Targets at home! Another interesting aspect of Idaho I thought was the fact that the women were all so PRETTY! By this I mean that they wore great clothes, have the most talented hairdressers, and were so fit and well put together! Who knew? Idaho Falls has some of the prettiest women in the country that I have seen so far and they all shop at Target (all 20 of them!).

We drove south toward Salt Lake City and passed by a lava field. It was so unexpected! The field is 50 square miles, is only a couple of thousand years old, and is an excellent example of rope lava. We walked along the educational path and learned a lot about the field. It was covered in sweet smelling sage.

We were driving along the most beautiful and scenic road through Idaho and I couldn’t believe my eyes every time we turned a corner and passed a mountain. It was glorious! Idaho is stunning, as is the northeast corner of Iowa. It was prettier than Los Angeles but had about the same climate. Pocatello was the most interesting town along the route, nestled on a hillside. It was bathed in sunlight, green and happy looking.

I turned off the main road without the kids knowing and headed toward Soda Springs. There was a sign that said “Lava Hot Springs” and I thought it would be interesting to do something unplanned and completely spontaneous. They had no idea. I brought them to a picnic area and we ate by a stream. I told them I had a surprise. There was a big waterpark and they thought perhaps it was this, but I told them, “Not on your life, I suffered an amusement park already this trip”. I brought them to an inn a few blocks in the town of Lava Springs and we paid a few dollars to use the many lava fed hot springs all around the grounds and each varied in temperature. It was glorious. We swam in the medium hot mineral pool and enjoyed the relaxation. It was so nourishing and revitalizing. We were also alone at the inn and the kids were thrilled. It was fun to just “be” and enjoying the large grounds.

We went through the back roads to Logan, Utah. It was one of the prettiest drives I have ever taken during the trip. There was a surprising view around every corner, raised black lava beds, wild flowers, and enormous white cumulus clouds everywhere. It was glorious. I could understand what the early Mormon pioneers saw in the land of Utah. It was incredibly fertile country.

The next leg of our journey would be so interesting for me because we were about to enter Mormon country. I am fascinated by Mormonism and have read so many critical books on the subject. I am a Jewish high school teacher (I went to a religious school throughout my entire education including my Master’s Degree) and I am drawn to all religions: beliefs in God, religious lifestyle choices, and cultish behaviors. Mormonism is the fastest growing American religion. One reason is because it blends two different “all-American” concepts: being a patriot (Pioneer Day is almost religious to Mormons as are all American holidays) and the fact that there is an American Jesus Christ (He appears in America to an American who gives him his final and unalterable gospel and a new “promised land” which means that their “Zion” is the state of Utah and not someplace on the other side of the world). Jesus has "chosen people" and they are Americans.

Here is a little Mormon background in a nutshell (it’s very convoluted so it would be hard to explain the whole premise of the religion): Joseph Smith claimed he found and translated ancient gold tablets in his upstate New York meadow in the early 1800’s. He said that the angel “Moroni” came to him and told him that he was a prophet of the "true religion" (all others are completely wrong) and that he must share his revelation with the world. He got a group of followers, got kicked out of New York, was booted from Missouri, and was killed in Illinois. Along the way he had many “revelations”; one being that he was supposed to take more than one wife because he needed to protect the widows with him (and the virgins too) and at the time of his death he had 34 known wives. The next leader, his friend Brigham Young (who settled Utah) also took multiple wives. Polygamy was a common practice among followers and receiving personal revelations is still an important part of the religion among the Fundamentalist Mormon Church. Here is a picture of a statue of Smith receiving the Aaronic priesthood from Jesus.

Recently, Joseph Smith’s family bible went up for auction. The Mormon Church wants nothing to do with it. Maybe it’s all those wives listed that is problematic? The Latter Day Saints as they are also called, now claim that polygamy is “no longer what God requires of them to build up his kingdom”. This revelation came after the United States government outlawed it in Utah in the 1890. They essentially were going to come to Utah and clean house if the men (who considered themselves as holding a priesthood over women) couldn’t stop the practice.

Today there are approximately 200,000 children living in polygamy with the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints Church. Girls are given away by their fathers at about age 14 to marry old “pious” men, young boys are constantly thrown out of the cult to become homeless as a matter of simple math. Women are often locked up, abused, and uneducated at the hands of their “husbands”. Blood atonement (murder) is often how rival prophets gain power and exercise revenge. Child molestation, racism (African descended peoples have “the mark of Cain” and are not the equals of whites), and the subjugation of women by forcing them to “keep sweet” regardless of their lack of personal rights is appalling. The FDLS is the American version of the Taliban. (Note: The Mormon Church of Jesus Christ and the Latter Day Saints has NO affiliation with the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints although their new members come from LDS who want to be more "observant").

The injustices flourish and yet there are no arrests made, the government still has to fund the declared “unwed” mothers of ten or more children, and children are being routinely abused. It defies the logic of the law in the United States. If it were happening in say, Rhode Island, it would be a case for CNN’s investigative reporting and we’d all be outraged! Warren Jeffs, "Prophet, Seer and Revelator" of Yearning For Zion Ranch in Texas was arrested in 2006 for marrying underage girls and his immediate female relatives. He was convicted also for transporting Elissa Wall over the Utah state line to have a forced marriage at 14 to her first cousin. He was caught fleeing with hundreds of thousands of dollars in a limo dressed as a woman because of an issue with the car's license plate.

His polygamous compound was raided in 2008 much to the shock and horror of Americans at seeing children ripped from the arms of their brain-baked "keeping sweet" mothers. Secular mothers who didn't understand the polygamy issue were protesting what the FBI were doing to protect the children and they were returned eventually. I wondered if these same protesters would let 65 year old men have sexual relations with their 13 year old daughters?

Warren Jeffs was only arrested because he transported a minor, Elissa Wall, over the state line. How does Utah get away with modern polygamy? This is not just a matter of religious freedom. On the evening news in my hotel room this evening, Salt Lake City reporters were filming the FLDS in Hildale, Utah not far from here and said that the government was going to start taxing them. What??? They weren’t being taxed! This is after the FLDS Council of Brethren squandered the compound's money on a bad investment of some sort (perhaps they were trying to buy Joseph Smith's family bible?).

Driving along the highway toward Salt Lake City was a real education for me. There were literally thousands of neighborhoods and in the center of each was a Mormon Temple. All the houses looked the same and all the temples were the same size. Not one was better than the other. Each temple is a “parish” to the community and you must attend the church in your parish. These parishes went on for a hundred miles. It was staggering how many Mormons live around Salt Lake City. Not all people living here are Mormons of course, but I would expect that if you were not Mormon that you might feel either quite exotic or excluded. Mormons are smiling, accommodating, and pleasant to a fault so it might not be so bad.

Arriving at the boutique hotel with the 'Wizard of Oz' theme (I had NO idea!), we checked in and the lobby attendant handed me a map of Salt Lake City and told me how to get to the Temple. It was fascinating. He didn’t ask if I wanted to see it or if I had any questions about other aspects of the city. It was awfully presumptuous! But more importantly it could speak to the issue that very few people who are NOT Mormons are tourists here.

Cole and I walked the six enormous blocks to the Temple Square where the Mormon Temple, the Tabernacle Choir, and the visitor’s center were at nine o’clock in the evening while Marley elected to stay in and read. It was hot and dry outside. I was simply awed by what I saw. The Temple is beautiful! Many years ago, there was not the same kind of uber-security that there is today. Many young polygamists would come to the garden outside of the Temple and marry one another discreetly with a witness. Today, that would be impossible.

The security guards around the Temple are everywhere. They wear the typical black jackets, white shirts and dark ties. It’s standard for young Mormons in their mission years. I was impressed with how they move around the square in the dark talking to potential Mormons and making sure that other Mormons behave in the square. Since this is the religious epi-center for Mormons, I saw many people holding hands, weeping, and feeling the moment of being in the presence of the Temple. It was touching.

The Temple itself is off limits to anyone who is not Mormon and only open to Mormons in perfect standing with the church. There is a series of rituals one must perform, costumes that must be worn, and questions one must answer to enter into the simulated afterlife. Again, it’s very complicated. The Temple is not just a church. It is lavishly decorated rooms where you can sit and contemplate the afterlife with others while sitting in your costumes. Here are some pictures of the miniature versions of rooms in Temple on display in the museum:

The Visitor’s Center is also impressive with a white marble statue of Jesus hovering above an enormous diorama of the Celestial Kingdom. There is a “free” tour…of course. There is also a Genealogy Center, which it must be said, contains records of almost every living (and dead) American. If that doesn’t interest you, perhaps this will…they believe that they have the power to convert you even if you are unwilling to convert or if you die. They came under a great deal of controversy recently from families of people who died in the Holocaust as they were collecting names and converting them. I am not sure what the hullabaloo is about because this would be predicated on the belief that they have the power to really do this. It may be insulting but it’s about the same as having a witch put a curse on you. It’s only real if you believe it.

The next morning I was eager to return and have Marley see the Temple Square herself. She was thrilled to go. We parked nearby and entered the impressive gates. She is currently reading a book about Mormonism by a young fomer-FLDS Mormon, Elissa Wall, for an American Cultures high school credit so she knew something about the religion before going. There were many weddings, one after the other, in the Temple. It was super hot in the sun but it didn’t matter as in the shade we sat in the square and enjoyed looking at all the female “sisters” proselytizing the visitors. They were in long skirts and all looked so wholesome. Mormons do not drink alcohol or caffeine, swear, wear too much makeup, overeat, or wear sloppy clothes. Girls do not dress like men and boys do not wear their hair long. They are the squeakiest clean people I have ever seen.

We went to two museums about Mormonism. Marley thought they were well done and loved how pretty it all was. The thing about museums to help with a religious understanding of people who would like to convert you is that they tend to highlight things that you might like to experience, such as an eternity with your loved ones. This is highlighted throughout the museums. Now, the book of Mormon, if you’ve ever perused it in your Marriott hotel (the Marriotts are Mormon) is a very bizarre walk through Joseph Smith’s ability to tell a fantastically confusing and creative story (to say the least - the Brothers Grimm aren't as fantasy based). The museum’s BASEMENT contains a dioramic record of his stories in the Book of Mormon in a small corner. One diorama is of an ancient Mayan (who lived in upstate New York oddly) writing the tablets that Joseph Smith “translated” as shown in the picture above. They were written in pictographs of some sort and only Smith knew what they meant before they were whisked away forever by an angel (Convenience or prophecy? You decide as there is no proof of course). I wondered if there was a whole museum full of dioramas of the Book of Mormon if the visitors would be so confused and repelled or they would leave in fits of laughter if they knew anything about history. (Joseph Smith said that the Native Americans were the lost tribes of Israel for example).

One of the missionaries came up to us and I told her about Jerusalem as she asked questions about why we knew about the Temple Mount diorama.We discussed the similarities between Jerusalem and Salt Lake City. Here there is a desert, a great salty inland lake (just like the Dead Sea!), a large desert just outside of the city, and it is situated on great rolling hills above the sea. The Mormons around us kept smiling at us and looking at Marley.

I told the kids I would like to see the Joseph Smith movie at the Joseph Smith Memorial Center. It was lushly decorated like most of the Temple buildings and a bit Disney-esque in its production style. The auditorium was plushy and there were many Mormon teens there. The movie is a full-length feature film and conveniently omits the more bizarre revelations of Smith, his multiple wives, his thousands of visions that pushed his church further west, and the futile building of the “final” stone temple everywhere they landed. Most of his followers deserted the church in frustration after having lost so many family members in malarial outbreaks where they tried to settle swampland. Many left after perhaps the third or twentieth wife. The film doesn’t even remotely touch on any "unpleasant" topics of the real Joseph Smith which I think adds greatly to the story of a very charismatic man who created the fastest growing American religion.

(The picture to the right is on top of all the temples. It is an angel heralding the "End Times" as related to Joseph Smith...only the world was supposed to end with his life and thus the imperative to join him to be "saved".)

One of the most fascinating aspects of the film is the end where Joseph Smith must face the law in Carthage, Illinois in 1845. A violent mob stormed the house he was staying in and shot his entourage and him as he tried to jump out of a window. The film shows the blonde hunky Smith floating up to heaven which sent the audience into sobs of love and joy (tissues are provided at the exit doors). Of course, the reason why the mob was so angry had nothing to do with his doctrine, but it was the outrage about sexual deviations in their compound in the form of outrageous polygamous practices (this was a gun-toting and sexually repressed time). All the men were practicing polygamy at the time. It was one of the reasons why the religion grew so substantially during the repressed Victorian period. It was the one way that multiple sexual partners was sanctioned...and by a "church"!

All aside, I was genuinely enamored with personalities of the missionaries I met. They were sugary sweet and had such a positive outlook on life. For that reason alone, I believe that the religion must serve an important role in the cynical and sometimes depressed secular world. They are there to sometimes remind us how positive thinking, being genuinely "open" to others, and being faithful (and the Book of Mormon really challenges faith, that’s for sure!) are sometimes good things that we could all benefit from.

I spent the rest of the afternoon with the kids in the Temple gardens, went to see the mind-boggling Imax Hubble movie, and walked amid the flowers of the city. American Zion was spiritually worth the exploration. In the end, the Mormons were gentle and friendly in their shining city on a hill.