Richard N. Ostling, who is now a religion editor for the Associated Press, used to be religion editor at Time Magazine. While there, he put together a cover story in 1997 on the Mormon Church. Here he and his wife examine "this growing American subculture's colorful history, unique beliefs, and penchant for secrecy, its lifestyle and finances, its place in the religious and secular world today, and its growth and prospects for the future."
With 10 million members and an estimated $30 billion in assets, this Utah-based faith is one of the world's fastest growing religions. Mormons are very patriotic, believing that the U.S. Constitution and the democracy it undergirds are divinely inspired. Yet the church is rigidly hierarchical, centralized, and authoritarian. The Ostlings devote a chapter to "dissenters and exiles" who have been censured or excommunicated by the Mormon leadership.
"No religion in American history has aroused so much fear and hatred, nor been the object of so much persecution and so much misinformation," write the authors. The Mormon doctrine of polygamy, or their term "plural marriage," runs against the grain of the Judeo-Christian culture. But, like other fundamentalists, these believers are convinced that they have the truth. The Ostlings state that the Mormon Church cannot and probably never will blend into the ecumenical landscape. Various chapters cover important elements of this religion including its aggressive missionary program, its welfare system, the emphasis upon tithing, its strict moralism, its identification with the political agenda of the Religious Right, its lack of professional clergy, and the ritualization of Mormon history.