POLICING THE BORDERS OF IDENTITY AT THE MORMON MIRACLE PAGEANT Kent R. Bean A dissertation Submitted to the Graduate College of Bowling Green State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy December 2005 Jack Santino, Advisor Richard C. Gebhardt, Graduate Faculty Representative John Warren Nathan Richardson William A. Wilson ii ABSTRACT Jack Santino, Advisor While Mormons were once the “black sheep” of Christianity, engaging in communal economic arrangements, polygamy, and other practices, they have, since the turn of the twentieth century, modernized, Americanized, and “Christianized.” While many of their doctrines still cause mainstream Christians to deny them entrance into the Christian fold, Mormons’ performance of Christianity marks them as not only Christian, but as perhaps the best Christians. At the annual Mormon Miracle Pageant in Manti, Utah, held to celebrate the origins of the Mormon founding, Evangelical counter- Mormons gather to distribute literature and attempt to dissuade pageant-goers from their Mormonism. The hugeness of the pageant and the smallness of the town displace Christianity as de facto center and make Mormonism the central religion. Cast to the periphery, counter-Mormons must attempt to reassert the centrality of Christianity. Counter-Mormons and Mormons also wrangle over control of terms. These “turf wars” over issues of doctrine are much more about power than doctrinal “purity”: who gets to authoritatively speak for Mormonism. Meanwhile, as Mormonism moves Christianward, this creates room for Mormon fundamentalism, as small groups of dissidents lay claim to Joseph Smith’s “original” Mormonism. Manti is home of the True and Living Church of Jesus Christ of Saints of the Last Days, a group that broke away from the Mormon Church in 1994 and considers the mainstream church apostate, offering a challenge to its dominance in this time and place. iii Dedicated to Grace Johnson. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS A hearty thanks to my dissertation chair Dr. Jack Santino and my committee members Dr. John Warren and Dr. Nathan Richardson. A special thanks goes out to Dr. William “Bert” Wilson who gave up part of his retirement to serve on my committee. I thank my fellow American Culture Studies peer Tony Avruch for helping me understand esoteric theory during many afternoon conversations. I also thank Dr. Don McQuarie for shepherding me through the ACS program. Of course I couldn’t forget to thank my patient wife Miriam and my four children. My parents have also provided invaluable support in many different ways. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Page INTRODUCTION. “THERE IS SOMETHING ABOUT THIS PAGEANT”: SITUATING THE MORMON MIRACLE PAGEANT……................... 1 Encountering the Pageant …………………………………………………….. 1 The Birth of the Pageant ……………………………………………………… 12 The Mormon Miracle Pageant and Imagined Communities …………………. 22 Outline of Chapters …………………………………………………………… 28 CHAPTER 1. “A PLACE APART, YET IN THE VERY HEART OF THINGS”: THE INTERSECTION OF PLACE, PAGEANTRY, AND PEOPLE IN MANTI, UTAH ……………………………………………….... 32 Manti as Place ……………………………………………………………….. 32 The Settlement of Manti …………………………………………………….. 47 The Building of the Manti Temple ………………………………………….. 51 The True and Living Church of Jesus Christ of Saints of the Last Days ……………………………………………………………... 57 Evangelical Counter-Mormons ………………………………………………. 65 Defining Counter-Mormonism ………………………………………. 65 History of Counter-Mormonism …………………………………….. 69 The Effect of Counter-Mormon Activity ……………………………. 73 The Mormon Miracle Pageant ………………………………………………. 78 The Mormon Miracle Pageant as Spectacle ………………………………… 78 The Ritualization of Mormon History ………………………………………. 81 vi The Mormon Miracle Pageant: An Overview ……………………………… 83 The Purpose of The Mormon Miracle Pageant ……………………………... 90 CHAPTER 2. “[W]HEN IT COMES TO THEIR RELIGION, THEY THROW ALL THE RULES OUT AND LOGIC MEANS NOTHING ANYMORE”: METHODOLOGY ……………………………...……… 92 Mormons, Evangelicals, and Members of the TLC …………………………. 92 How Wide the Divides? ……………………………………………………… 100 Are Mormons Christians? …………………………………………… 100 Additional Mormon Doctrines ……………………………………… 107 Evangelical Doctrines ………………………………………………. 110 Doctrines of the True and Living Church ………………………….. 111 Public Display ……………………………………………………………… 115 Identity Construction and Performativity ………………………………….. 117 Imagined Communities …………………………………………………….. 119 Policing the Boundaries ……………………………………………. 119 Conflating Religion and Nationality ……………………………….. 127 Writing the New Ethnography ……………………………………………… 131 What Is the New Ethnography ……………………………………… 131 Writing the New Ethnography ……………………………………… 139 Gathering Information for the Dissertation ………………………………… 140 Interviews with Latter-day Saints …………………………………. 140 Interviews with Evangelicals ……………………………………… 141 Interviews with Members of the True and vii Living Church ……………………………………………………... 142 Other Information …………………………………………………. 143 CHAPTER 3. JOSEPH LIED.COM / JOSEPH WAS A TRUE PROPHET: THE POLITICS OF PUBLIC DISPLAY AT THE MORMON MIRACLE PAGEANT ………………………………………….………. 144 Introduction …………………………………………………………………. 144 The Public in the Pageant: The Pageant in the Public ……………………… 146 The Hugeness of the Pageant ……………………………………….. 146 Transposing Public and Private …………………………………….. 150 How the Pageant Works ……………………………………………. 158 Public Display and the Creation of Reality ………………………… 164 Can the Absence of Public Display Be Public Display? …………………… 184 The Move from Visible to Less Visible ……………………………. 184 Absent Presence ……………………………………………………. 188 Conclusion …………………………………………………………………. 192 CHAPTER 4. CHRISTIANITY RE-DEFINED BY MORMONISM: THE POLITICS OF NAMING AT THE MORMON MIRACLE PAGEANT …….......................................................................................................... 196 Introduction ………………………………………………………………… 196 Questions of Identity at The Mormon Miracle Pageant …………………… 198 A Contest over Truth? ……………………………………………… 198 The Power to Speak ………………………………………………… 202 Boundary Maintenance: Evangelicals and Mormons ……………………… 207 viii Who Is a Christian? ………………………………………………… 207 How the Christian Boundary Is Policed ……………………………. 212 Jesus vs. Jesus ………………………………………………………. 214 What Is Truth? Or, “Feelings, Nothing More Than . .” …………………………………………………………… 216 Impossible Mormon Gospel versus Christ’s Saving Grace ……….......................................................................... 223 Conclusions …………………………………………………….…… 228 Boundary Maintenance: Mormons and . Other Mormons? ………….….. 231 Can There Be a Mormon Fundamentalist? ……………………….… 231 The True and Living Church of Jesus Christ of Saints of the Last Days …………………………………………….………. 235 The Terms of Control ………………………………………….……. 238 The TLC’s Doctrinal Innovation ………………………………….… 243 Conclusions ……………………………………………………….… 244 Nationalism, Ethnicity, and Identity ……………………………………..…. 246 Mormonism as Ethnicity ……………………………………..….….. 246 The Counter-Mormon Case against Mormon American-ness ……………………………………………………... 249 Mormonism as Cult : Cult as Un-American ………………….……. 252 The History of the Mormon Mind-Control Trope …………….…… 256 Mormonism as Beyond the Pale of American-ness …………….…. 260 Ambivalence of the Pageant ………………………………………. 262 ix Ambivalence of Manti …………………………………………….. 266 Conclusion …………………………………………………………………. 268 CONCLUSION. WRITING THEM, WRITING ME: THE SELF AS RESEARCH SITE ……………………………………...………… 269 NOTES …………………………………………………………………………….. 285 BIBLIOGRAPHY A ………………………………………………………………. 334 BIBLIOGRAPHY B ………………………………………………………………. 365 BIBLIOGRAPHY C ………………………………………………………………. 395 x LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page IA Manti Temple as a “Sentinel” ………………………………………………. 13 1A Map of Manti in Center of Sanpete County ………………………………… 36 1B Map of Manti in Center of Utah ……………………………………………. 36 3A Hugeness of Pageant ………………………………………………………... 147 3B Large Numbers of Evangelicals on Streets of Manti ………………………. 149 3C Ceaseless Traffic Coming into Manti ………………………………………. 151 3D Streets Filled to Capacity with Cars ……………………………………….. 151 3E Counter-Mormons Engaging Pageant-Goers in Discussion ………………. 152 3F Actors in Costume Talking to Pageant-Goers …………………………….. 153 3G Temple Intensifying Public Space ………………………………………… 156 3H Evangelical with Wooden Cross ………………………………………….. 167 3I Evangelicals “Consecrating” Area with Prayer …………………………… 167 3J Evangelicals in Matching T-Shirts ………………………………………… 169 3K Signs Used by Counter-Mormons at Pageant ……………………………… 172 3L “Homemade” Signs Made by Counter-Mormons …………………………. 174 3M Mormon Youth with “Joseph Was a True Prophet” Sign ………………….. 176 3N Example of Sign Adding to One’s Size ……………………………………. 178 3O Abortion Protester at Pageant ……………………………………………… 185 3P Ex-Communicated Mormon Teasing the Counter-Mormons ……………… 185 3Q True and Living Church Buildings ………………………………………… 189 xi 3R Pro-LDS Free Book ………………………………………………………… 194 4A Fake Rock Walls That Hide Rooms ………………………………………… 265 1 Introduction “There Is Something about This Pageant”:1 Situating The Mormon Miracle Pageant A major American poet, perhaps one called a Gentile by Latter-day Saints, some time in the future will write their early story as the epic it was. Nothing else in all of American history strikes me as materia poetica equal to the early Mormons, to Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, Parley and Orson Pratt, and the men and women who were their followers and friends. —Harold Bloom The American Religion (1992) I. Encountering the Pageant I first encountered The Mormon Miracle Pageant when my family moved to Manti,