The Mormons, or The Church of Jesus Christ of Ladder Day Saints (LDS), is the sub-culture that I have chosen.
This group has a strong presence in not only in America but also in Mexico, Canada, and many parts of Europe. The Mormon faith/religion has existed since 1830, and has since it’s conception been a group that is on the fringe of society yet exist within our culture with minimal influence, which is what makes them such a extreme example of sub-culture. This contradiction with main stream culture has existed since 1830 when John Smith founded the religion, which directly disproves or questions the original stories and long standing beliefs of the bible that have existed for thousands of years prior to when the book of Mormon was created.Some of the most upsetting aspects of Mormonism from the perspective of Christians are their beliefs about Jesus actually coming to America and bringing Israelites with him, thus stating that Native Americans and in fact the true descendants of Jesus.
Another especially unsettling practice is that of polygamy which is the act of taking plural wives; in Christian eyes committed adultery over and over again. Mormons also believe that it is their duty to reproduce as much as possible to ensure the continuation of the Mormon faith, thus it is stated in Under the Banner of Heaven that Utah, a state where more than 70% of their population is Mormon (Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry), has a higher birthrate than Bangladesh.Mormons have been persecuted for as long as the religion has existed for these and many other reasons. Because of this Mormons have completely isolated themselves from all that is American culture.
Mormons knew soon after they settled in Illinois and Michigan that their loves would never be easy. Their lives were constantly threatened; women and children lived in fear of rape and all feared lynchings and persecution, including attacks from the American government. The way this problem was dealt with was to make a mass exodus to relatively uninhabited areas or areas that were welcoming, predominantly Mexico, Canada, Colorado, and most of all Utah. Each small sect or community separated itself from any state or federal government by virtue of being hundreds of miles away from any other civilization.
In these communities the LDS church, often fundamentalist (LDFS), has total control over the local government and police force.The LDFS church also allows no news source, magazines, or books besides those from or having to do with the LDFS church, TV or radio. This completely separates these communities from the mainstream culture of America, which causes the members of the community to relinquish complete control to the church because it is all they know. I feel that in this respect members of the LDFS choose “marginalization” over being accepted because this allows the church to continue conducting their communities how they deem fit rather than changing their practices to be more accepted by the dominant culture.
Members of these communities grow up in a completely different America. Members of the secretive and isolated sects are not even accepted by mainstream Mormons of the LDS at this point. This has to do with the practice of polygamy as well as the incestuous ways in which under age girls are given to their uncles and grand fathers as essentially sex slaves, a common practice in the fundamentalist church.“Even more than in other fundamentalist Mormon groups, incest is a common practice amongthe Kingstons.
Clan leaders promotes it to ‘purify’ the Kingston bloodline, and birth defectsare rampant as a consequence. Genealogical researcher Linda Walker says Kingston womenhave reported giving birth to ‘blobs of protoplasm’ and ‘having eight or nine pregnancies without ever giving birth to a living infant.’ The leaders of the clan of course blame this on the women, characterizing it as a punishment for their sinful behavior .”( Krakauer p.
19) The cycle of child abuse, rape and incest that dominates many communities of this sub-culture are part of what separates it from mainstream America or Christianity, this validates and legitimizes acts thought to be illegal in existing US law or sins within the more mainstream Christian churches. This sub culture is also one difficult to escape that often leaves tragedy in it’s wake.Therefore, the LDFS Church rejects the dominant hegemony of mainstream American culture simply by not allowing it to exist in their small and secluded communities. These communities know that their Church activities and beliefs are no match for the enticing and raunchy American culture and therefore take the stance of a dictatorship, wherein their subjects never are allowed enough freedom to know what the are missing.
In Under the Banner of Heaven one sentiment echoed by nearly all the Mormon women who have left the church is that they left when they realized for the first time that it was not God who chose for them to be rape and incest victims but merely the will of the self proclaimed prophets and elders within their community. Once the women knew it was not the will of God they left, but this did not take place until after being married numerous times in most cases, predominantly to family members.Mormons are fast becoming one of the Worlds more popular religions every year gaining more media exposure and acceptance. Here is a handful of interesting statistics about the gaining popularity of the Mormon faith :The church distributes over 5 million copies of the Book of Mormon per year.
There are approximately 800 converts to the Mormon church per day, 300,000 per year.There are approximately 60,000 full time missionaries world wide. Most of them are young males in their late teens to early twenties and spend 2 years in the field.In addition the church’s financial income is in excess of 2 million dollars per day.
And its net worth holdings are in the billions of dollars. (Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry)Not only is the Mormon church gaining new converts the church is also gaining some notoriety and fame in the American popular culture. Mormons have been featured on “South park,” a popular cartoon on comedy central, and were mocked, yet they did tell the entire story of the book of Mormon accurately, no press is bad press, right? In addition HBO, a channel that is know for doing ground breaking and innovative programming, just started a new show last year called “Big Love”, that chronicles the life of an LDFS church member and his three wives from the perspective of the husband. It is safe to say that while Mormons are still sub culture they are fast becoming a large community in America and throughout the world.
In the coming months we will see the first Mormon run for president of the United States, Mitt Romney former Governor of Massachusetts who is a practicing Mormon, and who with the power and money the LDS church has at its disposal, may have a head start in the presidential race. Works Cited Krakauer, Jon. Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith. New York: Random House.
2003.Official Information About The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons). Corporation of the President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 2005.
<http://www.mormon.org>.The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Corporation of the President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 2007. <http://www.lds.
org>.“The Mormon Church Statistics.” CARM Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry. Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry.
2006. <http://www.carm.org/lds/ldsstatistics.htm>.
