Dissent Without Definition | John Sillito and Susan Staker, eds., Mormon Mavericks: Essays on Dissenters

All good history is as much about the present as it is about the past. Sillito and Staker’s volume, which includes biographical sketches of dissenters ranging widely across the 180-year history of the LDS church, is firmly grounded in the polarized pre sent. In compiling the volume, the editors sought to find out “What. . .the lives and beliefs of these independent spirits tell us about Mormonism, our selves, and the larger world around us” (p. x). The “independent spirits” dealt with in the volume include Amasa Lyman, John E. Page, Sarah Pratt, William Smith, T.B.H. and Fanny Stenhouse, James Strang, Moses Thatcher, Fawn Brodie, Juanita Brooks, Thomas Stewart Ferguson, Sterling McMurrin, Samuel W. Taylor, and D. Michael Quinn. Sillito and Staker attempt to make the case for the philosophical and theological diversity of these individuals by noting that some eventually left the church while others did not. All of them, however, sought to promote “truth in the face of false hood” (p. x). In fact, however, the vast majority of the people profiled found themselves outside of the church. The selection process is thus not quite so open as it may appear. The editors seem to have privileged a certain type of dissenter—one for whom dissent becomes the defining element of his or her relationship with the LDS church. It might have been instructive to also include individuals for whom some degree of alienation and dissent was keenly felt, but for whom such impulses were reined in due to their ultimate belief in the metaphysical truth of Mormonism. Richard Poll, Lowell Bennion, and B.H. Roberts come to mind as examples of such dissenters. 

Nevertheless, the profiles are generally engaging and occasionally brilliant. William Russell’s essay on James Strang and Richard and Mary Van Wagoner’s piece on Sarah Pratt are particularly good examples, but for different reasons. Russell points out the difficulty Mormons had in simply dismissing Strang as unbalanced. Be cause he claimed prophetic experiences nearly identical to those of Joseph Smith, Strang forced Mormons to examine more closely charges of irrationality in dealing with other ex pressions of faith—something that Mormons continue to struggle with today. The Van Wagoners offer a moving portrait of the long-suffering and independent Sarah Pratt. Her husband Orson’s frequent church-induced absences and polygamous intrigue finally led her out of the church and her marriage, but this is a story that has been told before. What is most valuable is the timely acknowledgement that even among the elite of Mormon society, martial difficulty, divorce, and general unpleasantness were as much a part of life as they were for those, then and now, of the rank and file. Ed ward Leo Lyman’s look at the difficulties Moses Thatcher faced serves a similar purpose. Lyman provides a compelling look inside the pre-correlation hierarchy and a taste of how strong-willed but religiously dedicated individuals fail to see eye to eye. In a day when the unanimity and brotherhood of the church’s presiding quorums are celebrated (however cosmetically) within official and orthodox LDS culture, it would no doubt come as a surprise to many to learn that “President [Joseph R] Smith felt so strongly at odds with Thatcher that at one point he refused to partake of the sacrament as long as he held such resentment” (p. 170). Loretta Hefner’s look at Amasa Lyman’s spiritual odyssey offers a unique glimpse into how apostles in the early period often fought over central, important doctrinal issues—disagreements which led to Lyman’s excommunication, but not to that of Orson Pratt or Orson Hyde though they continued to share his views for years. All of these serve to il lustrate how the current church’s emphasis on historical continuity and unanimity has distorted the rich tradition of dissent, public and private, within the nineteenth-century church. 

The profiles of more recent mavericks are generally somewhat less compelling. Richard Cracroft’s essay on Samuel W. Taylor and Newell Bringhurst’s piece on Fawn Brodie are the exceptions. Both of these provide fresh insights into the lives of individuals whose relationships with the LDS church were almost obsessive and whose identities were simply incomplete without that tension. Cracroft and Bringhurst offer sensitive and revealing portraits of people who produced literary works of great value from their sense of religious disillusionment. Stan Larson’s essay on Thomas Stewart Ferguson, by contrast, seems somehow out of place. Al though Larson produced a brilliant book on the same subject, Ferguson comes across in this piece as less a maverick than a rather sad, shattered, pathetic man. Unlike that of many others profiled in the volume, Ferguson’s dissent seems to be born of a certain center-less-ness, and as a result he is never able to make sense of his disillusionment enough to qualify as a true maverick. Brigham Madsen’s ode to Sterling McMurrin, while rich in per sonal detail, is simply too personally involved. Madsen and McMurrin’s intimate friendship leads Madsen into a sentimental and even apologetic mode, both of which present an obstacle to a truly insightful interpretation of McMurrin’s complex religious thought. Lavina Fielding Anderson has a similar problem in her discussion of D. Michael Quinn. Quinn, a true maverick and perhaps one of the most polarizing and enigmatic figures in recent Mormon intellectual culture, is paid tribute to in this very moving essay, but one gets the sense that perhaps Quinn’s ordeal is too recent, too raw, to be included in this book. 

But that gets back to my initial quarrel with the editorial style. The editors are not clear about whether this collection is an anecdotal celebration of dissent in the Mormon tradition or a scholarly examination of what it means to be a dissenter within a religious tradition that is averse to such a stance. As is evidenced in the essays, of course, it functions in both capacities. A more methodologically sophisticated introduction, one that explores issues of orthodoxy and dissent, center and margins, and the history of dissent within Mormonism, would have aided the book immensely. As it stands the collection is a useful, if far from groundbreaking, approach to dissent in Mormonism. 

Mormon Mavericks: Essays on Dissenters, edited by John Sillito and Susan Staker (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 2002), 376 pp.