Mormon neighbors have taken Shipps on a real trip

LOGAN, Utah — Jan Shipps met her first Mormon in 1961 when she and her husband moved to Cache Valley, Utah. And "it's been a real trip since," she said as she spoke to a full auditorium at Utah State University on Tuesday.

Shipps, a non-Mormon who has been described as one of the most trusted scholars of Mormons, shared insights about the Mormon faith and the "spine"
 of her latest book, "From Peoplehood to Church Membership: The Mormon Trajectory since World War II," which analyzes metaphors within Christianity, and specifically, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She was hosted by USU's Religious Studies Program.

"I'm fascinated by how the church allows me to see how religion changes across time," Shipps, a Methodist and USU graduate, said.

And her book will analyze this change as well as delve into questions dealing with issues like the impact of the "universalization" of the church. Shipps said these questions need to be answered.

"There is, among scholars and among the general public, a kind of notion that Mormonism is still what it was at the end of the 19th century. And, every time you have the polygamists on TV, people don't make the distinction, and they just think they're Mormons. And so I see as my task now to explain to the world that many changes have occurred.

"Of concern is not a story of the visionary young New York farm boy, who became the leader of a new religious tradition, nor even the story of the tradition itself," Shipps said about the account of the Restoration of the church in 1830 through the Prophet Joseph Smith. "You can't study early or late Mormonism without studying both the New and Old Testaments."

Many feared and ridiculed Smith and the "new ecclesiastical body" that was built up, Shipps said. The newly organized church appealed to others, though. This means, that, at the very first, the Mormon faith was recognized as "one more competitor in the religious marketplace."

But the church grew — in a short amount of time — to become much more than a competitor, Shipps said. Before the church's first anniversary, followers learned that the "ecclesiastical institution they had joined was very different indeed, from other contemporary (institutions)." There was more involved than just regular worship, and strict adherence to a moral code

Near the end of 1830, another "remarkable" aspect was added: a gathering of the Saints in one place to prepare for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ to the world.

"This (gathering) changed how Mormons thought of themselves ... the Saints' attention was turned toward the Old Testament with a special emphasis on lineage."

In 1833, the Prophet appointed Joseph Smith Sr. as patriarch, and patriarchal blessings  developed a "kinship lineage" among the members. The terms "brother" and "sister," which the Saints used when speaking to each other, took on realistic meanings because of the patriarchal blessings, and the announcing of one of the tribes of Israel given during them.

Opponents became combative as they began to realize that members of the church had "substantial material expectations," Shipps said. "The Saints were certain that as their rightful inheritance, the Lord would give them land, even that land belonged to someone else."

By the end of the 1830s, with a Prophet, the building of a temple and plural marriage, the Saints looked more and more foreign to non-members, Shipps said.

When the rumoring of the introduction of plural marriage happened, "then the distance between the Latter-day Saints and Christian America was stretched to the breaking point. The result was the murder of Joseph Smith and the fragmentation of Mormonism."

By the time World War II had come and gone, the Saints began settling "outside the Mormon culture," creating "many gatherings of Zion," Shipps said. They organized into branches, stakes and wards.

"In 1960 things within Mormonism shifted into an alternative mode. This was the first time since the earliest years of the church's existence that the church grew more through convert baptism than natural increase."

Shipps said that despite the growth of the church, "ex-Mormons" and others formed groups that criticized the Saints for not being Christians. The church answered by adding the subtitle "Another Testament of Jesus Christ" to the Book of Mormon and focusing magazines and other literature on Christ.

"While it is possible to integrate new converts into the church, the world of yesteryear, where every member had Mormon DNA, has practically disappeared," Shipps said.