Swarming Progeny of the Restoration | Steven L. Shields, Divergent Paths of the Restoration: A History of the Latter Day Saint Movement

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Did you know that James Brighouse has been, among others, Adam, Enoch, Michael, George Washington, and Joseph Smith? Did you know that Max E. Powers was in attendance at the grand council in heaven before the world was created, and that David Bruce Longo and the Holy Ghost are one and the same? Have you investigated Moses Gudmundsen’s principle of wife sacrifice? Were you aware that Annalee Skarin has been “translated”? Do you have any idea how many Mormon men have seen themselves reflected in the pages of scripture when they read about the one “mighty and strong”? And did you know that the Perfected Church of Jesus Christ of Immaculate Latter Day Saints, has “abolished menstruation,” allows the practice of plural marriage, and claims that all children in this group are immaculately conceived? 

This is but a small sampling of the fascinating personalities and groups that Mormonism has spawned, which you can read about in this book, a collection of information on 138 Restoration churches, twenty-seven “independents,” six publishers, and five anti-Mormon organizations. It also contains three appendices (a brief summary of eight Restoration churches, the Twelfth Message of Otto Fetting, and a list of fifty churches known to be functioning in 1982), a useful sixteen page bibliography, and an index. 

The author, raised LDS and now RLDS, has tackled a difficult assignment. Let’s face it, it’s hard to keep track of them all, in many cases, difficult to know from the information given, whether a particular expression of dissent constituted a separate organization or just a different view within the parent body. Indeed, what does the author mean by “divergent paths”? If his task was to catalog all “divergent paths” including dissenters who began no new organization, the task would be im possible as long as independent thinkers exist in the church. In the longest part of the book, Section 1 (“Churches and Organizations”), “divergent paths” apparently means separate organizations. But we are not given a clear picture of the criteria for inclusion. 

Section 2 (“Independents”) is more problematic. Twenty-seven individuals are treated, but it is not clear what distinguishes them from the rest of the millions who have adhered to the Mormon movement. Apparently they did not create a church or an organization or they would have been included in Section 1. Some left the faction they were associated with, but others did not. It appears that they were included merely because they published something on their own. On the limited information the author supplies, it appears that some of these publications were anti Mormon, some were divergent Mormon views, and some appear to have been ortho dox within their own factions. For example, several LDS and RLDS individuals are listed simply because they published something independently, but there is no evidence that what they published was in any way unorthodox. Are these “divergent views”? Why not include the founders of DIALOGUE, Sunstone, Exponent II, or Courage? 

Frequently the reader is given no clue as to the nature of the publication. Some times we are simply told about a publication but given no information as to what faction the writer belong to, if any. Here particularly it would have been helpful if Shields had given us some internal analysis of the publication to attempt to locate it within the spectrum of Mormon beliefs. 

The author provides introductory re marks about each organization, which is usually followed by a section on doctrine and a section on the group’s publications. Frequently the doctrine section simply re prints a basic statement of faith that has appeared sometime in the organization’s history. The LDS statement is the Articles of Faith. The RLDS doctrinal representative is the “new creed” published by Herald House in 1970, entitled Exploring the Faith, which is probably at variance with the thought of many rank-and-file RLDS members and leaders. Shields does not attempt to determine whether the reprinted document really reflects the faith of the organization in question, now or in the past. 

Although the book claims to illuminate history and theology, its greatest weakness is its lack of historical or theological analysis. David C. Martin’s introduction inaccurately asserts that the schismatic tendency in Mormonism is as yet “unexplored and unexplained” (p. 15), thus ignoring Leonard Arrington’s “Centrifugal Tendencies in Mormon History,” in Truman Madsen and Charles D. Tate, Jr., eds., To the Glory of God (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1972), which contains a thoughtful analysis about why some key Mormons defected. Some appear to have been bothered by the prophet’s foibles (Ezra Booth), some were enticed by the secular kingdom (John C. Bennett), some were repulsed by the secular kingdom (John Hyde), some were attracted to spiritualism (Amasa Lyman), some placed excessive emphasis on mental health and faith healing (Brigham Bicknell Young), and some were caught up in rationalism (Theodore W. Curtis). But Steven Shields offers no hypothesis to explain the many “divergent paths.” 

The subtitle—”A History of the Latter Day Saint Movement”—is quite an exaggeration. The book is neither a history of the broader movement nor of the in dividual factions. It is a collection of limited information about each group or individual. As to the larger history, there is a two-page “Beginnings of the Latter Day Saint Movement” in which we are taken from the vision in the grove to Nauvoo in one-half of a page. 

Other exaggerations or overstatements occur. The dust jacket informs us: “Never in the history of civilization has a religious movement provided such fertile ground for schismatic tendency as has Mormonism.” Has the author investigated all the Baptist sects? We are also told, “Probably no religious movement in the history of the United States has received as much attention as has the Latter Day Saint Movement” (p. 244), and that the Roman Emperor Constantine declared himself pope (pp. 42-43). 

There are no notes, although occasionally a source is listed in the text. But it is not always clear how far the reference extends, and long quotes are not indented. In many cases a note would be highly desirable, for example, Isaac Sheen’s statement that William Smith “offered me his wife on the same terms that he claimed a partnership with other men’s wives” (p.54). 

The author uses sources too uncritically. For example, he quotes RLDS missionary John Bradley: “The Reorganized Church continues to take very seriously its Zionic stewardship of religiously social re form. This is essential to our mission of individual redemption” (p. 72). That statement probably reflects the view of Bradley far more than the church as a whole. 

William Marks is included in the organizations section, which suggests that Marks led a separate organization after Brigham Young had him excommunicated. But the author writes, “Some sources indicate that Marks attempted a church organization of his own, while others have him wandering from church to church seeking his place among them” (p. 76). We are given no sources, analysis, or conclusion that would justify Marks’s inclusion. 

Important questions are frequently left unanswered. For example, there is a quotation from James Strang’s Book of the Law of the Lord on offering sacrifices on the altar, but we are not told whether the Strangites actually performed the sacrifices the book commands (p. 43). Pauline Han cock’s group, it is reported, abandoned the Book of Mormon in 1973 because they had discovered evidence “which seemed to indicate Joseph Smith, Jr. was a fraud” (p. 155). The author does not tell us whether Pauline Hancock was still alive when this significant change occurred, nor the nature of the evidence that led to the change in position. 

Occasionally the author’s personal opinions come through, as when he praises the work of David C. Martin and Jerald and Sandra Tanner. He also seems to un critically assume that alleged contact with supernatural beings actually occurred, a faith assumption which the historian—lacking methods of verification—cannot make. Joseph Smith is instructed by God and Jesus Christ, and empowered by the angel Moroni. An angel ordains Strang as Smith’s successor. The Lord calls Brother Bickerton with a “marvelous vision.” A messenger repeatedly contacts WA. Draves. Eugene Walton is directed by the Spirit, etc. 

While such flaws suggest the book is a rather amateurish collection of information, it will interest students curious about the many schisms that Mormonism has produced. That is no doubt the author’s main purpose, and in that the book is moderately successful.

Divergent Paths of the Restoration: A History of the Latter Day Saint Movement, 3rd ed., revised and enlarged, by Steven L. Shields (Bountiful, Utah: Restoration Research, 1982), 282 pp., $12.95.