The Mormon Worker - Issue 1

►

INDEX

FULL SCREEN

An Introduction to Mormon Anarchism

By William Van Wagenen

Introduction

In this paper I wish to show that the consistent application

of the principles expounded in Mormon scripture, should

lead a person to become an anarchist. In other words, every

Mormon should look forward to the abolition of govern-

ment and the building of a socialist society based on free

association and mutual cooperation. Attempting to ar-

gue such a case may seem perplexing, given the generally

pro-capitalist, pro-government, pro-war stance of many

American Mormons today.

By arguing that every Mormon should be an anarchist, I

am not attempting to imply that the Church of Jesus Christ

of Latter-day Saints is currently in a state of “apostasy”

because its membership does not openly strive for the

establishment of an anarchist society. Governments and

THE

Mor mon

Worker

“I Teach Them Correct Principles and They Govern Themselves”–Joseph Smith

Issue 1

September 2007

•An Introduction to Mormon Anarchism

William Vanwagenen

•The Mormon WorkerCory Bushman

•Mitt Romney: A Mormon Presidential Candidate?

William Vanwagenen

•The Force of War and the Force of Peace? The Same

Force Moving in the Opposite Direction?

Tom Fox

• Book Review: Milton Meltzer’s Bread-and Roses:

The Struggle of American Labor 1865-1915

Kristen Kinjo-Bushman

•The Things Refuseniks AcceptTovah Ben David
•War and the StateWilliam Vanwagenen
• Stewardship of the Creation: According to The Book

of Moses in the Pearl of Great Price

Kristen Kinjo Bushman

•“Providing For A Family”; or, Why Engels Was Right

Peter McMurray

•Noam Chomsky’s “Star System” and the Modern

Neoconservative EliteAsh Bledsoe

•Revolutionary CharityTyler Bushman

►Click on the name of an article to go there

►

INDEX

FULL SCREEN

►

INDEX

FULL SCREEN

2

The Mormon Worker

capitalist economies constitute the reality in which Mor- mons must live, making some degree o cooperation with government necessary or the Mormon Church to simply exist and evangelize. In the decades ollowing the ound- ing o the Mormon religion in 1830, the ederal and state

authorities directly threatened the Church’s existence vari-

ous times, in the orm o imprisonments, expulsions, land conscations, and so orth. The most notorious example o this came in 1838 when the then Governor o Missouri,

Lilburn Boggs, issued an executive decree stating, “the

Mormons must be treated as enemies, and must be exter-

minated or driven rom the State i necessary or the public

peace.”1 Even ater the Mormons nally ound a sae haven

in the deserts o Utah, the US government threatened the

existence o the Church several times. In 1856, President

Buchanan sent 2,500 soldiers to Utah to put down the “Mor-

mon Rebellion,” while the entire leadership o the church

was at one time either imprisoned or orced into hiding

by ederal authorities due to the Mormon practice o po- lygamy. As a result o such persecution, it was necessary or Mormons to come to some kind o an accommodation

with the State. Further, it is the responsibility o Mormons

to care and provide or their amilies, making participation

in capitalist economies largely unavoidable.

What is necessary to criticize regarding the current

state o aairs however, is that many Mormons do not

consider support or government and capitalism as neces-

sary evils, demanded by current conditions, but rather see

capitalism and government as divinely inspired institutions,

A Note to Our Readers

The Mormon Worker is an independent newspaper/jour- nal devoted to Mormonism and radical politics. It is pub- lished by members o the LDS Church. The paper is mod- eled ater the legendary Catholic Worker which has been in publication or over seventy years.

The primary objective o The Mormon Worker is to mean- ingully connect core ideas o Mormon theology with a host o political, economic, ecological, philosophical, and social topics.

Although most contributors o The Mormon Worker are members o the LDS church, some are not, and we accept submissions rom people o varying secular and religious backgrounds.

The opinions in The Mormon Worker are not the ocial

view o The Church o Jesus Christ o Latter-day Saints.

In solidarity,

The Mormon Worker

THE MORMON WORKER

140 West Oak Circle

Woodland Hills, UT 84653

Subscribe to our print edition:

www.themormonworker.org

themormonworker@gmail.com

http://themormonworker.wordpress.com

An Introduction to Mormon Anarchism

►

INDEX

FULL SCREEN

3

The Mormon Worker

which Mormons are obligated to enthusiastically support

and unquestioningly obey. Mormons thus nd themselves

supporting capitalism and government, and thereore ex-

ploitation, imperialism, jingoism, and militarism, consider-

ing these things inherent to their religion, despite the many

resources within Mormon scripture advocating the con-

trary. It is important that Mormons not see establishment

o capitalism and its above-mentioned ospring as the “end

o history,” but rather look orward to the establishment o a society and economic system in accordance with the principles contained in their own sacred writings.

The Political Dominion of the State

Insight into the reason Mormonism (as well as Christian-

ity generally) is inimical to the State and Capitalism is

revealed in Mathew 20:25. Jesus, speaking to his disciples

about authority, says:

Ye know that the princes o the gentiles exercise domin-

ion over them, and they that are great exercise authority

upon them; but it shall not be so among you; but whosoever

will be great among you, let him be your minister, and who-

soever will be chie among you, let him be your servant.

Note that there are two types o authority acknowl-

edged here. One is characteristic o the Gentiles, while

the other is characteristic o those who ollow Jesus. The

authority o the Gentiles is such that some men or women

“exercise dominion over” others. This, ostensibly, is a reer-

ence to the authority o the Roman Empire which ruled in

Jesus’ day. In other words, the authority o the Gentiles is

the authority o the State. John Howard Yoder denes the State as “the phenomenon that society is organized by the appeal to orce as ultimate authority.”2 As the sociologist Max Weber explained,

I no social institutions existed which knew the use o

violence, then the concept o ‘state’ would be eliminated,

and a condition would emerge that could be designated

as ‘anarchy,’ in the specic sense o this word. O course, orce is certainly not the normal or the only means o the state – nobody says that – but orce is a means specic to

the state. Today the relation between the state and vio-

lence is an especially intimate one. In the past, the most

varied institutions. . . have known the use o physical orce

as quite normal. Today, however, we have to say that a

state is a human community that (successully) claims the

monopoly o the legitimate use o physical orce within a

given territory (emphasis in the original).3

Those who challenge the sovereignty o the State, or

who do not ollow its laws, will be orced to submit by vio-

lence. This may take the orm o imprisonment, execution,

or in the case o rebellions, counterinsurgency warare.

Because the State has an overwhelming advantage over its