I've been tracing my family history and descendants and seeing who my distantly related cousins are.
There's a section of my Dad's family which went over to Utah from Yorkshire in the 1860s. They were initially practicing poligamy. There's an obituary and story of their journey which is fascinating.
I've traced their descendants down. Many of them have obituaries too. And they make for fascinating reading.
I've not come across any since the first wave who were poligamists. They had a LOT of children. Some stayed in Utah and stayed Mormons. Many moved to new areas as Mormons. Many have up Mormonism (but still had obituaries).
There are a LOT of divorces in recent years. Still lots of children but less than there were. And there are many educated women. They tended to marry younger and still do. They have really weird names - many trying to sound slightly french but not french. Lots have had the opportunity to live abroad which a lot of other American cousins who didn't go into Mormonism haven't had (again obituaries are fascinating).
The obituaries of Mormon descendants are often written in a certain style. Even for those who left the faith.
It's given a different angle on my understanding of Mormonism. There are a lot of stereotypes that both the church and people who dislike the church want to put out there - as well as the stereotypes that tabloid TV wants to create to cash in on curiosity about Mormonism.
It's like any other political or religious structure. It's got corruption and abuses of power. Perhaps more than some other ways of life. It's got sexism and homophobia. But again others have it and it's definitely something that changing.
Imagine Dragons are a Mormon band. They have been working to support gay Mormons and non Mormons in Utah and we're part of a big music concert there for this cause. They made a documentary called Believer about it. Which possibly is one of the most reflective media representations of Mormonism currently. This forced the church to put out a statement supporting the effort "to foster a community of inclusion in which no one is mistreated because of who they are or what they believe."
Yes the belief structure and power system is very problematic, but it also has a certain ability to be more pragmatic than other religions too. And because they have so many kids so young, it also means that youth perhaps has a certain amount of influence that isn't necessarily reflected in how we think of Mormonism from the outside too. Purely because of numbers and faster generational turnover.
I think it's worth watching Banner of Heaven too. There is clearly a darker underside. But I don't think that's wildly different to say the Catholic Church either. Mormonism is more vulnerable to cults because of the nature of its beliefs though. I think like all evangelical faiths, it can exploit the vulnerability of people in the way it recruits. But it also clearly gives a massive sense of belonging, structure and community support which a lot of other communities have lost in both the UK and the US and is much needed by many.
I don't think it's inherently bad. I think it's just very very different. That doesn't mean I think it's without problems either.