The American Spectator

Reader Mail

Founding Mormonism

12.21.06 @ 12:01AM

EARNED ESTEEM
Re: Shawn Macomber's Self-Help Cries Out for Help:

I read Shawn Macomber's interview with Steve Salerno (author of SHAM) with interest. While I agreed with many of his observations, on Oprah, or self-esteem being granted as a right instead of something to be earned, or the elevation of emotions over logic, I saw one sentence that I could not let pass unchallenged.

Salerno said "The 'diseasing of America,' too, can be traced to AA's successful crusade to de-stigmatize alcoholism."

AA has never undertaken such a campaign. This statement shows a basic lack of familiarity with the fundamental tenets of the "Big Book" and the companion "12 Steps" edition. AA has a single goal and that is to help the alcoholic who wants to stop drinking.

I am an alcoholic and AA has helped me. I never went to formal treatment but rather just started attending meetings and began working the program. It has been many years since I have taken a drink or felt the need to do so.

AA "gives" self-esteem to no one. You earn it by learning what you need to do daily to stay sober. And anyone who has actually been successful in AA knows that self-absorption and self-pity are the mortal enemies of sobriety. You help yourself by getting out of yourself and helping others. Putting yourself first is not an AA mantra. The closest AA comes to that sentiment is to point out that you are no good to anyone when drunk. As such, sobriety comes first but that is not based on selfishness but rather the opposite.

It is sad that others have glommed onto the 12 steps for their own purposes. Many of these are warped, pale imitations of the original and are indeed guilty of the sins Salerno describes.

I realize many people have a distorted view of what Alcoholics Anonymous is and isn't. Prior to finding myself in need of their help, my own view of AA was based on stereotypes that proved to be wildly off base.

Thank you for this opportunity to offer an inside
view.
-- Anonymous

STRICTLY NEUTRAL
Re: The Washington Prowler's Mormonism in the Spotlight and Kim Farah's letter (under "Strictly Neutral") in Reader Mail's Season's Jottings:

Let a fool leap in where Saints fear to tread. Although the Mormon Church (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) is not planning an information campaign, and maintains a strict political neutrality, it is clear that misconceptions about Mormons abound. For example, Mormons are classed in a different category than Protestants, yet Mormonism is a Protestant Christian religion. Yes, George Romney, Mitt's father, lived in Mexico as a child, where a Mormon colony was established (Colonia Juarez) in the 19th century, and Mormons who practiced polygamy went there to escape prosecution in the U.S. Mormons still live there, and run prosperous farms, but no longer officially practice polygamy. Many left Mexico during the time of Pancho Villa. Romney headed American Motors, and was credited with rescuing the company at one point, as Lee Iacocca later did for Chrysler, with his emphasis on the Rambler compact.

Interestingly, another Mormon from the Mexican enclave, a contemporary of George Romney, was Henry Eyring, one of the greatest physical chemists of the 20th century, who got a Ph.D. from Berkley, worked with the great Ferrington Daniels in Wisconsin, did further training at the Kaiser Wilhelm lab (now the Max Planck Institute) between the wars, authored the "green bible" of Quantum physical chemistry and Statistical Thermodynamics, trained a generation of stellar physical chemists as a faculty member and contemporary of Einstein at Princeton, and was the first to show chemical reaction rates could be predicted (a feat that should have earned him the Nobel Prize, but the Nobel committee didn't know what to make of a first rate scientist who was also an extremely devout Mormon -- see his book, Faith of a Scientist).

Philo T. Farnsworth, the inventor of television, was also a Mormon. Jack Anderson, the muckraking Washington journalist, was a Mormon. Bay Buchanan is a Mormon. Of course, J. Willard Marriot is a Mormon. A former Director of the CDC was a Mormon. Mormons, believe it or not, even founded Las Vegas (the 150th anniversary of that founding, led by William A. Bringhurst, under the direction of Brigham Young, along with the 100th anniversary of the incorporation of the city, was celebrated last year).

Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism, is arguably the most creative religious figure since Martin Luther, or perhaps of the last 2,000 years. Even Harold Bloom cannot figure out how this un-tutored early 19th century American frontier farm boy came up with the concepts and writings he did, simultaneously advancing highly original notions of Christianity while appearing to tap into an ancient mystical Judaism. One letter noted the idea of God as a man, and indeed, this is the foundation of the very fundamental Mormon concept of "Eternal Progression." This idea vastly outstrips the notions of current "Progressives." His was a vision that bound, irrevocably, all humans who have ever lived in truly a "Great Chain of Being," with the planet, the biosphere, and the Cosmos. And it placed infinite value on human life and existence, not to mention the rest of the biosphere. No religion or philosopher has valued humans, the planet, or the biosphere more, or given a more powerful reason for their existence. This is Evolution writ large and with an infinite perspective.

Joseph Smith appeared out of the fundamentalist Christian Evangelical fervor of early 19th Century America, and created a quintessentially American religion. One of his contributions was the suggestion to purchase the freedom of slaves with the proceeds of public land sales. This idea was re-iterated a couple of decades later by none other than Ralph Waldo Emerson. Another concept promulgated was the belief that the American founding documents were written by men whom God raised up for the very purpose of the American founding. No religion holds the American founding documents in greater esteem than Mormonism. The religion has all but canonized those founding documents. The only person I know who claims the same religious veneration of those documents is Nat Hentoff, who states that his only religion is the U.S. Constitution.

Letter to the Editor

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