With all the talk of Mitt and Mormonism in the air, I thought it would be a good idea to read up on this strange religion. So I bought a copy of
One Nation Under Gods: A History Of the Mormon Church by Richard Abanes, which has been well-reviewed and is generally considered "fair and balanced" (although not by Mormons, who do not brook criticism in any form).
The book is really good, and I recommend it highly. One passage that caught my eye dealt with community reaction to the new Mormon church back in its early days in the 1830s.
Mindless devotion to {Mormonism founder Joseph} Smith's teachings also raised the ire of non-Mormons attempting to reason with the Saints {i.e., believers} about the folly of their beliefs. Reason and logical thinking meant little to Mormons, who commonly rejected analytical thought in favor of supernatural experience. Most claimed to have received "actual knowledge" of their faith's validity from God himself through revelations, visions, or angelic visitations. No amount of argumentation could dissuade them, as one non-Mormon explained in a letter to the Painesville Telegraph (Ohio):
The great mass of the {Mormon} disciples are men of perverted intelligence and disordered piety, with no sound principles of religion, with minds unbalanced and unfurnished, but active and devout; inclined to the mystical and dreary, and ready to believe any extraordinary announcement as a revelation from God. None of them appear to be within reach of argument on the subject of religion.
Boy, that sure sounds familiar.
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