Faith and Betrayal Read Online Free PDF Page A

Adam and Eve began their time in Eden.” Smith’s apocalyptic vision included the fall of all churches and governments, which would leave his own theocracy as the ruling government of the world.
    Early Mormonism held a number of fundamental beliefs, controversial among mainstream Christians at the time, that would find expression in the swelling New Age spiritual movement that began late in the twentieth century. The divine power of crystals, personal transformation, channeling, divination, astrology, holistic health, and the allegiance to a new world order all had credence in Joseph Smith’s religion. “Mormonism is an eclectic religious philosophy, drawn from Brahmin mysticism in the dependence of God, the Platonic and Gnostic notion of Eons, . . . Mahomedan sensualism, and the fanaticism of the sects of the early church . . . with the convenient idea of the transmigration of souls, from the Persian,” concluded a firsthand observer of the new phenomenon.
    Smith’s homegrown American gospel that denied original sin and provided a road to godhood for the individual was a religious version of the American dream that defied the Calvinist vision of a vengeful God. In a culture in which parents and teachers told their boys they could grow up to be president, Smith held out to his flock the promise that they could become gods. Unlike any other creed in the United States, Mormonism, neither Judaic nor traditional Christian, maintained a strong cerebral appeal throughout its early years. “Joseph had convincing answers to the thorniest existential questions,” wrote Jon Krakauer in 2003—answers that were both explicit and comforting. “He offered a crystal-clear notion of right and wrong, an unambiguous definition of good and evil.”
    It would not be until twentieth-century science and scholarship debunked many of Smith’s claims that the theology itself would be widely ridiculed. Even its more controversial doctrine of polygamy found sanction in the Old Testament. By 1832 Smith had sent missionaries to evangelize throughout the eastern states. They preached “the Kingdom is come, glory hallelujah,” and met with unparalleled success. Smith began searching for a locale to build the “Kingdom of God upon Earth.”
    As the numbers of converts grew, Smith moved his new church from New York State to Kirtland, Ohio, where his disciples converted and baptized the entire community. The once-humble Smith transformed himself into a powerful prophet and dictator, coming into increasing conflict with many of his neighbors and followers. Americans passionate about their new democracy found Smith’s theocracy outlandish if not threatening. Nearly all of his high-ranking churchmen fell out with him over his authoritarian rule, and his inner circle began to fade away. Smith said he then received a revelation from God that in order to save his church he must pursue converts in Great Britain who had been cradled with kings.
    His most charismatic apostles were chosen for this foreign mission, including one named Brigham Young, who performed nine missions between 1832 and 1837. Throughout England, Scotland, and Wales, they converted hundreds and then thousands, and they organized what would become a massive emigration system. The missionaries’ teachings centered upon a mixture of Bible texts on “the earth’s final days,” prophesies about the millennium, the return of the Jews to Palestine, the resurrection of the dead, and, especially, the rise of the new prophet Joseph Smith. “There is a strange power with them that fascinates the people and draws them into their meshes in spite of themselves,” wrote a British woman who fell sway to the missionaries during this time. The missionaries found the English manufacturing towns a fertile field, populated as they were with poor, ignorant, and superstitious laborers susceptible to hopeful stories of miracles.
    In London, the missionaries appealed to a wealthy educated class that