Advice from an Ex-Mormon: Read the Book of Mormon

I'm mad at Mark Twain for what he said about the Book of Mormon. At least, I'm frustrated that the account of his experience is quoted so often - then again, that proves just how effective a writer he was.

All men have heard of the Mormon Bible, but few except the “elect” have seen it, or, at least, taken the trouble to read it...The book is a curiosity to me, it is such a pretentious affair, and yet so “slow,” so sleepy; such an insipid mess of inspiration. It is chloroform in print. (Roughing It, p.109-110).

While this quote is endlessly humorous (and ironic to hear from mainstream Christians who seem entirely unaware of what Mr. Twain thought of their beliefs), it's also, in my opinion, entirely the wrong lens in which to read the Book of Mormon, as is the lens that believing members of the LDS church invoke.

Mark Twain, by this point in his life, was already cynical of organized religion and frequently mocked what he saw as contradictions in the orthodoxy. Twain wasn't about to read a book purporting to be scripture without bringing all of that to his experience - this was, to Twain, an obvious work of fiction, and so he was going to evaluate it on those merits. Under this lens, the Book of Mormon stood no chance, but most casual readers only see that Twain is throwing shade at the church with as much glib aplomb as they wish they could.

But the Book of Mormon is not merely a work a fiction. (Please don't think I said something I didn't there.)

Believing members, on the other hand, see the Book of Mormon as a prooftext of Joseph Smith's inspiration and legitimate heir to the prophetic priesthood absent in the world since the death of the New Testament apostles. The text confirms for them the divinity of Jesus Christ, expounds and clarifies Biblical teachings for a modern audience, and proclaims the human family to have a unified origin and destiny (so long as they join the LDS church, which you can also do in the afterlife). To them, the Book of Mormon is written for them, and multiple characters in the Book of Mormon even say as much!

But the Book of Mormon is not merely a book about Christianity.

There are other factors that observers, believers, and critics have noted that factor into the Book of Mormon: Joseph's destitute and desperate financial state; his family relationships were worsening in their conflicting religious affiliations; his birth was astrologically significant and his mother believed he would be a seer; his father had, as of yet, refused to be baptized into any denomination; his father-in-law still saw him as nothing more than a treasure-digging con artist; his friends and extended family were concerned about theological questions and the Christian primitivism of American Restorationism; his first wife, Emma, was terrified as to the eternal fate of their late infant son; and so on.

And what we get in the Book of Mormon reflects all of those facets. We have the promise that wealth is a blessing from righteousness (see Jacob 2:18); it lays out the criteria for what Jesus himself needs his church to be (see 3 Nephi 27); it prophesies that Joseph Smith will be a seer born to Joseph Smith, Sr., out of the royal lineage of Joseph of Egypt (see 2 Nephi 3:6-14); it lays out why baptism is personally necessary (see 2 Nephi 31:17-18); it describes seers as greater than prophets (see Mosiah 8:15-16); and it features multiple extensive sermons that boldly declare much of the common wisdom of the day to be divinely inspired; multiple figures in the text assure the reader that infants are immediately redeemed to heaven if they die (see Mosiah 15:25, Moroni 8:8,11-12,22); and so on.

The Book of Mormon is a time capsule of what it meant to be Joseph Smith. It is an amalgamation of so many perspectives but still brewed into a single narrative by a young glass-looker who was ideologically captivated by the manifest destiny he and so many of his frontier contemporaries shared. It's the youthful fantasy of hope and adventure that would define Joseph Smith's life and leave an indelible mark on the church he founded. If we want to understand the origins of the LDS church, we have to understand its founder, and the Book of Mormon includes the earliest worldview we can learn about.

The Book of Mormon deserves to be evaluated on its own merits. Most LDS religious scholarship is based out of Brigham Young University, and institution with an obvious stake in the truth claims of the Book of Mormon. This means that any of their findings will be overshadowed by the clear conflict of interest that will limit their legitimacy. At least organizations like the Mormon History Association and the Joseph Smith Papers have some level of autonomy and are expected to hold to more objective standards of collection and criticism, but the Book of Mormon is still mostly trapped behind a layer of apologetics and flimsy methodology.

The Book of Mormon is considered scripture by people you very likely know. We're biased in the US to hear mostly about the Bible, but Mormons approach the Bible through the lens the Book of Mormon offers them. The rationale for ignoring the Book of Mormon in critical circles is usually because the LDS church is such a small religious minority, but not only does the LDS church gain disproportionate attention to its population, but the very problem with Biblical scholarship is that no one was taking the religion seriously until it was adopted by the largest imperial powers in known human history. In a modern era of so much capacity for analysis, we should absolutely assimilate the Book of Mormon into scholarly circles.

For some media, the story behind their production is more valuable and interesting than the production itself. This is absolutely the case for the Book of Mormon: it is "chloroform in print" only if you expect it to be; and as true as Twain is, you should absolutely consider why some people are obsessed with it - like me!