Today's
New York Times Book Review has a review by Benjamin Moser of Alex Beam's
book American Crucifixion: The Murder of Joseph Smith and the Fate of
the Mormon Church (published by something called PublicAffairs and selling
for $26.99).
I doubt I'll ever read the book, but I was taken with a few facts I hadn't known about crazy Joseph Smith and the spiritual phenomenon known as Mormonism, which he invented. First, Mormonism is a religion “whose followers believe that the Earth was created somewhere in the neighborhood of the planet Kolob, and that the Garden of Eden was created somewhere in the neighborhood of Kansas City." That sort of thing has made Mormonism such an inviting target for mockery that “there's no sport in scorning it," according to the review—and attacking Smith himself is so easy that it amounts to "a distasteful piling on."
But the reviewer piles on anyway: Smith in the 1820s "began to 'translate' from tablets he kept wrapped in a tablecloth, a series of visions that became the Book of Mormon, a turgid sci-fi novel that nonetheless managed to sway a nucleus of converts." But so many people hated Smith that he was murdered by a lynch mob when he was 38 in 1844.
I doubt I'll ever read the book, but I was taken with a few facts I hadn't known about crazy Joseph Smith and the spiritual phenomenon known as Mormonism, which he invented. First, Mormonism is a religion “whose followers believe that the Earth was created somewhere in the neighborhood of the planet Kolob, and that the Garden of Eden was created somewhere in the neighborhood of Kansas City." That sort of thing has made Mormonism such an inviting target for mockery that “there's no sport in scorning it," according to the review—and attacking Smith himself is so easy that it amounts to "a distasteful piling on."
But the reviewer piles on anyway: Smith in the 1820s "began to 'translate' from tablets he kept wrapped in a tablecloth, a series of visions that became the Book of Mormon, a turgid sci-fi novel that nonetheless managed to sway a nucleus of converts." But so many people hated Smith that he was murdered by a lynch mob when he was 38 in 1844.
His “crucifixion” changed everything. Silly and infuriating as Smith may have been in life, in death he was elevated beyond sainthood into godhood itself. He became "a flamboyant frontier L. Ron Hubbard." That is, for his followers Smith was much greater in death than he had ever been in life, for in death he joined all the other "miracle"-making saviors throughout history. And it’s also true that by any logical standard, it is no more difficult to believe in him and Mormonism than "than it is to believe that Moses parted the Red Sea, or that Muhammad ascended to heaven on a winged horse, or that Jesus was born of a virgin."
Take it all together, and you have a story worth
retelling, as Alex Beam has done
by taking familiar materials and refashioning them into an irreverent new book.
That sort of work gets my attention and
applause--which is as far as I'll go in the way of a secular genuflection—to Beam,
that is, not Smith. I might even read the damn book.
Addendum: According to a front-page story in the New
York Times on November 10, 2014, Smith had a “loyal partner” in his “loving
spouse Emma,” but nevertheless “took as many as 40 wives,” including one who
was only 14. He even married women
already married, sometimes to his friends and followers. Polygamy, in Smith's self-serving theology,
was the restoration of a practice "commanded by God" and followed by
Abraham and other Old Testament patriarchs—which thus enabled him to claim full
biblical immunity for a super-charged sex life. American
Crucifixion is now officially elevated to “on my nightstand” status. I’ve got to know more about this guy.
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