Free The Triple Package by Jed Rubenfeld, Amy Chua Page B

angst.
    Mormons aren’t subtle about claiming the Jewish mantle. Mormon leaders call their community “Israel.” Utah’s Salt Lake Valley is “Zion”; Mormon prophecy calls for the building of a “New Jerusalem.” Mormonshad their Moses in Brigham Young; they had their exodus when, following Young, they made their arduous trek across the American wilderness away from the enemies who persecuted them and who had murdered their prophet, Joseph Smith. Every Mormon child is taught about the “extermination order” issued against them in 1838 by Missouri governor Lilburn Boggs.
    But in terms of its beliefs, origins, and spirit, Mormonism has much less to do with Judaism than with American manifest destiny. Often described as “a religious genius,” Smith essentially made a church out of the idea ofAmerica’s providential place in the world,rewriting Christian scripture to fit that idea. To Smith were revealed previously unsuspected truths: that theGarden of Eden had actually been located in Jackson County, Missouri; that Adam and Eve had lived in America; that a band of Israelites had voyaged to the Western Hemisphere around 600 BC ; that Christ himself, after the Resurrection, came to America; that great wars between Christ’s followers and his enemies had been fought all over the American continent; that the true Christian gospel was preserved in America, recorded on plates of gold buried in upstate New York; and that Christ will return to America in the Second Coming. “The whole of America is Zion,” Smith proclaimed, and he was to be its prophet and leader.
    Thus was Mormonism infused from its inception with American exceptionalism—with America’s belief in itself, with what Mormon scholar Matthew Bowman calls America’s “confident amateurism”—even as Mormons found themselvesrejected, ostracized, and attacked by their fellow Americans. As Mormonscrossed the country in their covered wagons, braving rattlesnakes, fever, hunger, and the mile-wide Mississippi, they added a pioneer spirit to their already “quintessentially American religion.” On their westward trek they fed not on manna or matzo, but on hardtack and salted bacon.
    Finding deliverance in the isolated Salt Lake Valleyonly strengthened Mormons’ belief in their divine election. America had turned its back on true religion; all Christendom had fallen into a “Great Apostasy.” Theirs alone was Christ’s true church on earth. To them alone had God entrusted hispriesthood, his truth, and the task of redeeming mankind in anticipation of the imminent Second Coming. This self-understanding—as God’send-of-days special emissaries—has remained central to Mormon identity.
    Mormons believe they can and do receive directdivine communications and revelations. Every Mormon male above the age of twelve can receive the “priesthood,” enabling him to “access thepower ofGod: to heal, cast out demons, bless, and dedicate.” Mormons go on “missions,” to spread the word to the rest of mankind. And they’re good at it. All over the world Mormontemples are rising up—which, once dedicated, non-Mormons may not enter.
    Although some Christians argue that Mormonism is not a Christian faith, Mormons firmly believe they are followers of Christ, praying to him, hallowing his name, and believing in the Atonement and Resurrection. But in addition to supplementing the Bible with its own scripture,Mormonism departs on key theological points from most Christian denominations (as many Christian denominations do from one another).
    In particular, Mormons reject the doctrine of original sin. “Unlike other Christians,” writes Columbia Professor (and Mormon) Claudia Bushman, “they consider themselvesfree from the original sin that degraded mankind.” Indeed, Mormon theology disavows Christianity’s usually categorical dualism between the human and the divine, holding rather thatGod is a corporeal, essentially man-like person, and that man in turn