A Non-Peculiar People: Latter-Day Saints and the American Family During the Twentieth-Century Amanda Victoria Piazza
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Florida State University Libraries 2016 A Non-Peculiar People: Latter-day Saints and the American Family during the Twentieth-Century Amanda Victoria Piazza Follow this and additional works at the FSU Digital Library. For more information, please contact [email protected] FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF ARTS & SCIENCES A NON-PECULIAR PEOPLE: LATTER-DAY SAINT FAMILIES AND THE AMERICAN FAMILY DURING THE TWENTIETH-CENTURY By AMANDA V. PIAZZA A Thesis submitted to the Department of Religion in partial fulfillment of the requirements for graduation with Honors in the Major Degree Awarded: Spring, 2016 ii TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION .....................................................................................................................1 2. THE STORY OF CULMINATION ........................................................................................8 FAMILY HOME EVENING ......................................................................................................9 HOMEFRONT ..........................................................................................................................13 THE FAMILY: A PROCLAMATION TO THE WORLD ...........................................................21 3. THE LATTER-DAY SAINT EMERGENCE IN AMERICAN POLITICS .....................25 THE LATTER-DAY SAINT CAMPAIGN AGAINST THE EQUAL RIGHTS AMENDMENT..............................................................................................................................26 INTERTWINING THE PROCLAMATION AND SEXUAL POLITICS: LATTER-DAY SAINT INTERVENTION IN SAME-SEX MARRIAGE LEGALITY IN THE 1990S ...............36 4. A TUMULTUOUS RELATIONSHIP ON THE HORIZON...............................................44 Works Cited ...................................................................................................................................52 iii CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION Google: Mormon. The first link directs me to www.mormon.org1, where I am prompted to take a quiz on my knowledge of Jesus Christ and should I not do very well, there is a 90- second video on Jesus Christ. Below, the site previews Lindsey Sterling’s story: Lindsey suffered from an eating disorder and, through a revelatory moment in which she discovered the Church, she overcame her disease.2 The first tab on the website, “People,” directs me to the page “I’m a Mormon.”3 Upon clicking this link, hundreds of faces appear in what seems an infinite scroll filled with the testimonies of a very diverse group of people all professing their unified belief in Jesus Christ through the Mormon Church. The ability to choose specific profiles based on gender, age range, ethnicity, and even previous religious affiliation personalizes the experience of the online browser. Every page offers a chat box in the event the visitor may have questions. Missionaries are readily available and eager to answer any questions from the public, clarify church doctrines, and describe who their members represent. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints introduced the “I’m a Mormon” campaign in 2010. With the initial launch, 2,000 Latter-day Saints (LDS) completed profiles describing their faith and their reasons for being Mormon. Members also addressed commonly 1 See: “What Is the Mormon Church and Religion?,” Mormon.Org last modified 2016, accessed March 8, 2016, https://www.mormon.org. 2 See: “Hi I'm Lindsey Stirling,” Mormon.org, last modified 2016, accessed March 1, 2016, https://www.mormon.org/me/b1nv. 3 See: “Meet Mormons,” Mormon.Org, last modified 2016, accessed March 4, 2016, https://www.mormon.org/people/find. 1 asked questions, “What do Mormons believe about the Bible?”4 and, “Why don’t Mormons drink coffee or alcohol?”5 “I’m a Mormon” is aimed at Christians and other non-Mormons whose only experience with the Church involves the Proposition 8 fight in California throughout the early 2000s, The Book of Mormon musical on Broadway, and fundamentalist practices of polygamy associated with the term “Mormon.” The Church partnered with top advertising agencies, Ogilvy & Mather and Hall & Partners, to deliver the first externally-produced advertisement campaign since the Homefront commercials. Homefront spots proliferated the American home television screen since 1973.6 The Church used the Homefront spots to situate its organization as the embodiment of the American family. Similarly, “I’m a Mormon” positioned the Church as a transparent, welcoming organization with universalizing initiatives. The Church used these campaigns to reaffirm the Latter-day Saint movement as the embodiment of American religion. This paper tells a story of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as it navigated public perceptions of the American family in the twentieth century. Internally, the LDS Church used new practices, such as the Family Home Evening program to instill in average LDS members sentimental family values. Externally, the church used television advertising and other forms of mass media to mold public perceptions of the LDS as a family-centered religious movement. That is to say, the church, under the leadership of the First Presidency and its 4 See: “Frequently Asked Questions - Bible,” Mormon.Org, last modified 2016, accessed March 7, 2016, https://www.mormon.org/faq/topic/bible/question/bible-word-of-god. 5 See: “Frequently Asked Questions - Health,” Mormon.org, last modified 2016, accessed March 6, 2016, https://www.mormon.org/faq/topic/health/question/law-of-health. 6 Laurie Goodstein, “Mormon Ad Campaign Seeks to Improve Perceptions,” Nytimes.Com, last modified 2011, accessed April 6, 2016, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/18/us/mormon-ad-campaign-seeks-to-improve- perceptions.html. 2 auxiliary groups, created thematic interests for members inside the church, while simultaneously managing the public relations of the church to present these themes to non-Mormons. This thesis analyzes the history of images of families in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ during the twentieth-century. Latter-day Saints launched a triad of campaigns to protect the family. Its concerns regarding the family were shared with the mainstream religious ideologies in America, particularly affiliated with conservative proclivities. I argue that this campaign moved from small to large scale; the Church worked internally by revisiting doctrine, publishing new devotional material, and announcing new policies. These internal moves worked on a grassroots level, effecting how members perceive their religion. Concomitantly, the Church developed branches for public relations and parented with communications companies to promote an image to the public. My narrative through which this process unfolds begins within the 1970s, and recounts the inception of Family Home Evening and the Homefront advertisement spot series from Church officials. My project also analyzes LDS-sponsored campaigns against the Equal Rights Amendment and involvement in the Baehr v. Miike lawsuit in Hawaii through the turn of the millennium. I argue that these moments of political involvement are telling testimonies to the ability of the LDS Church to mobilize, not least of all their members, to promote a particular ideal entwined with their own theology. Throughout the work, I directly reference one document driving the force of this thesis: The Proclamation to the World: The Family7. This document represents the culmination of twentieth-century Mormon history and politics within the American context. The Proclamation to the World, a religious text released in 1995, was not a change in policy nor a revelation, rather a reaffirmation of beliefs as stated by the First Presidency. The release of the Proclamation was a 7 “The Family: A Proclamation to The World,” lds.org, last modified 1995, https://www.lds.org/topics/family-proclamation?lang=eng. 3 moment of definitiveness during a storm of chaos for The Church. Within the United States, The Equal Rights Amendment was not ratified. Similarly, The HIV/AIDS scare of the 1980s and 1990s brought homosexual rights to the forefront of the American battlefield for justice, and the Church needed to make a statement in order to align members and to ensure their image was untouched by new developments in their surrounding world. After the release of the Proclamation, the Church consistently used it to reference their beliefs on social issues. I position the Proclamation to the World at the center of this thesis because it represents the Latter-day Saint’s response to the culmination of the long twentieth-century, and creates a foundational document from which they could publicly reference their beliefs—once again, deeply entwining theology and the family. The LDS Church restricted access to its archives for non-members over the course of the twentieth-century. As a result, non-members were unable to publish scholarship well into the millennia. Pioneers who transcended these barriers include the revered scholar Jan Shipps for her work on identification of Mormons including the dynamic transformative nature of nineteenth- century Mormonism.8 Another leader in the discipline is Patrick Mason, the chairman of the Mormon studies program from a secular university outside of Utah.9 Concomitantly, former- Mormon scholars such as Dennis Michael Quinn (D. Michael Quinn) studied the Church during the 1980s and 1990s through a critical lens. This perspective eventually led to Quinn’s excommunication from the Church in 1993 in what is commonly referred to as the September 8 Jan Shipps,