Unsettling Mormonism
an archive of unsettling histories, mythistories, and mystories
from U.S. & Mormon settler colonialism, white supremacy, and imperialism
from U.S. & Mormon settler colonialism, white supremacy, and imperialism
|
Yesterday (May 13, 2023) was my mom’s funeral. She asked each of her 9 kids to share a memory. She was a lifelong member of this church, so her service was held in Mormon chapel, which, as you all may be able to imagine, was complicated for me. I thought you all would be appreciated this as well on this mother’s day for all those who struggle with their families because of Mormonism. Sending love to all kinds of moms and families today 💙/ nic  My hand under my mom's hand from the last time I we held hands. I decided to write my talk directly to you, as, you may have guessed, talking from the pulpit of your church is complicated for me as a trans apostate & Mormon historian. And since hard conversations are how we came back together, addressing the challenges and beauty of our relationship feels like the truest way for me to honor you.
I didn’t want to talk about Mormonism today. As I’ve been thinking of our shared memories and looking for something to share about your life and death, I really tried not to include this part of our relationship, But our relationship is shaped by it. The main stages of our relationship revolve around my proximity to your religion. — My childhood, when I was still Mormon and we were close. — The time after I left Mormonism when we didn’t really talk for over a decade. — And when I started reconnecting with our shared religious history rooted in our ancestors during which time I intentionally sought to reconnect with you. And now I’m in a Mormon church in a dress and your pearls as you’re maybe settling in to a heaven with a sign that says “transgender freaky people need not apply.” I’m remembering 4 years ago when we sat watching the forever families videos at the temple visitor’s center. I asked you how you tend to the idea that we can’t be together in our deaths, because of the decisions I’ve made — desicions which have improved my life and the lives of my communities. You answered that beyond all the teachings, what you know is that your God knows best and isn’t separating families who love each other, regardless of the rituals. I know it was painful for you when some of your children didn’t follow the path you set out for us. I know it was painful to broaden those paths to include the ones that many of us chose for ourselves. But because you did, because you continued to reached out in love even when it was painful, we were able to walk together hand in hand on a shared path. To have hard conversations that brought us closer together, and now today I can let you go knowing we didn’t leave anything unspoken. I think you knew you didn’t have much time left and you knew that I felt your church made a wedge between us, with their proclamation on the family excluding me from our family. And I felt that because of this you were repeatedly very clear about how much you love me. I love you mom. I hope you’ve found your home in each of our hearts. That you can finally be, as you always wanted in life, with all of your children at the same time all the time.
0 Comments
Imagine a better future for us all. Who is all there?: Perfection and Futurism in Mormon Cosmology6/14/2023  "Joseph Smith's Vision of the Celestial Kingdom," by Robert T. Barrett. When you imagine a better future for us all, in this life or another, who is there? Are there trans people? Are there disabled people? Are there Indigenous Peoples? Are there countries and religion, too? Is there change, conflict, and diversity? Or homogenous endless perfection? Mormons as, Millenarians & Zionists, are utopic, future-thinking people. Leaders teach to live not for this life but to “Endure To The End.” And this future is homogenous endless perfection. Everyone agrees. The Lion lays with the Lamb. Conflict and diversity are abolished from our bodies. But this story never aligned with my embodied experience. The idea that the “natural man is an enemy to God” in need of perfection didn’t make sense with my experience of the complex mess of joys and griefs of a humanimal earth life. And the more I learned of and unlearned the illusory separation of land and human culture the more this divisive ideology made no sense—was counter to my senses. My senses tell me that the conflict born of the diversity contained within ecosystems is not a fallen state of any past utopia to be overcome in hopes of achieving some future utopia. What’s good for the wolf is good for the deer is good for the river is good for the living ecosystem. In other words the idea that “what’s good for the spider is bad for the fly” is not ecologically sound. Colonial utopias tend to be free from conflict and diversity as diversity and conflict go hand in hand. The colonized mind doesn’t know how to separate conflict from abuse (nor abuse from aid, but that’s another story). But conflict is not abuse. Conflict and diversity are central to the ecology of earthlings. My senses tell me this is also true cosmologically. That the big banging, particle colliding, supernova-ing universe was created through conflict, opposition, diversity. That when misunderstood the trough and valleys of the basic shape of the universe would seem as polemically opposed rather than intrinsically interdependent points on a spiral. When you imagine a better future for us all, in this life or another, who is there? Who and what is included in your sense of perfection?  Image of "premortal life" from LDS.org In Mormonism (and so many others) life on earth begins in stasis, in the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve were born into abled, eternal bodies which experienced neither sickness nor hunger. The Lion laid with the Lamb. It was perfect. Pure. A Utopia. The Mormon “plan” also ends in Utopic deathless perfection. Those who strive to be go(o)d enough enter into the perfectest heaven–the Celestial Kingdom. In this imagined future every body is perfected as God is–heterosexual, abled, cisgender, pure, white The second “great purpose” of this church is the project of “the perfecting of the Saints.” The Family Proclamation states that God’s children became earthlings to “obtain a physical body and gain earthly experience to progress toward perfection...” Interlude: Mormon Cosmology says “God created man in his own image” is literal. Mormon God is physically embodied—a corporeal, heterosexual, abled, cisgender, white man. Their origin story is pre-Genesis in a pre-mortal life. Mormon God made many spirit children through physical intercourse with many polygynous wives. For us, the spirit children, to become like our God Dad and Moms we had to get and perfect human bodies on earth. A war broke out. Jesus vs. Lucifer. The body we each are born into on earth is a result of our actions in this war. Perfection is frequently used in talks by Prophets and Apostles as an antithesis of disability. Apostle Holland told followers in 2013 that in Heaven their disabled loved ones, “will stand before us glorified and grand, breathtakingly perfect in body and mind.” The year before Pres Nelson reassured his followers that “A perfect body is not required to achieve one's divine destiny. In fact, some of the sweetest spirits are housed in frail or imperfect bodies." In Mormonism, the disabled body is rendered the polar opposite of the Edenic body. The most fallen of us all. Well, more accurately, the Black / African, queer, disabled, and apostate body. As, liike many other US eugenic hierarchies, literal disability is metaphorized into a white-supremacist and anti-queer construct. This church’s 1949 anti-Black manifesto describes the “failure of the right to enjoy in mortality the blessings one the priesthood (anyone of African descent was denied this “right”) is a handicap which spirits willing assume (for the privilege of being born on earth.)” Apostle M. E. Peterson said in 1954: “In spite of whatever they might have done in the pre-existence to justify being born over there as Chinamen…with all the handicaps of that race…if they now, in this life (become a good Mormon) that means they can have exaltation. Isn't the mercy of God marvelous?” In 2016 Apostle Bednar shared, “Some people have physical limitations, they may be born with a body that is not fully functional,” and compared this embodied experience to that of being “attracted to someone of the same sex”. In this Church’s 2007 anti-queer manifesto Mormons are taught that, like disability, queerness will also be relieved from the Celestial body. “As we follow Heavenly Father’s plan, our bodies, feelings, and desires will be perfected in the next life.” When you imagine a better future for us all, in this life or another, who is there? Are there trans people? Are there disabled people? Are there Indigenous Peoples? Are there countries and religion, too? Is there change, conflict, and diversity? Or homogenous endless perfection?  Mormon temple interior This is my testimony of the Corporation of the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, of which my entire family have been followers of since 1884.  Mormon Mythistries I’d like to bear my testimony: I know this church is an overtly white-settler-Christian-imperial-capitalist-hetero-supremacist corporation which refuses to apologize, acknowledge, or be accountable to the ongoing harms they’ve enacted. I know Joseph Smith was a pedophile, (attempted) murderer, & con-man who stole millions in contemporary dollars from his members and constantly ran from being held accountable for any of his crimes. I know Brigham Young was an imperial genocidal terrorist who also controlled his own people (my ancestors) through blood-atonements (divine murder) & other abuses of power. I know The Book of Mormon, Pearl of Great Price, and D&C were made up by Joseph Smith as part of his financial con in the form of a religious corporation and they are each book teaches that white-supremacy, heteropatriarchy, settler-colonialism, classism, Christian-supremacy, & antisemitism are divine. I know the Mormon doctrine of eternal families is rooted in anti/philosemitism, misogynistic polygamy, and classist pedophilic eugenics—that Joseph threatened to murder his own wife in the same revelation in Joseph describes the doctrine of eternal families & polygamy. I know Mormon temples, priesthood, and Israeli-identity are examples of anti/philosemitic, hetero-patriarchal, and white-Christian-settler-supremacist practices. I know Mormon end-times beliefs are far-right, Christian-Nationalist/supremacist, anti-queer, and contribute to the destruction of the livability of our planet (the only one we’ll ever know). I know this church sided with & assisted Nazis during & after WWII—that its leaders (using their religious and US gov authority) actively fought against allowing Jewish refugees (even those converted to Mormonism) from emigrating to the U.S. I know the contemporary church uses their mass fortune (the results of the financial con that their founder started) to defend, enable, and assist child abusers while they abuse survivors of child abuse—and to create deadly anti-queer laws globally. I know they use their missionary program to colonize Indigenous Peoples across the world spreading this white-Christain-supremacy & nationalism comminting genocide through cultural assimilation. I know the Mormon God is openly white-supremacist as he uses whiteness as a mark of his Chosen People and uses “a skin of blackness” as a mark of evil. And openly advocates for segregation and anti-miscegenation (in both scripture and the words of his prophets). I know the current Prophet & other leaders were all grown ass men as this church assisted Nazis, committed genocide through the Lamanite Placement Program, openly practiced anti-Black segregation, fought against civil rights, homosexual marriage rights, and women’s rights. And they do it all with the word love on their lips. I know this church learned everything it knows from the U.S. settler-colonial project in which it was conceived. That the only thing Mormon leaders and the U.S. government have ever fought over is who will dominate the masses, the land, and it’s Peoples. I know that it is our responsibility as heirs & products of these projects to, like Jesus, destroy those which seek to hoard and abuse power and wealth through the subjugation and exploitation of people and that which gives us all life. Amen This essay is also featured in Testimony "Vol. 3" by Related Records
 Collage featuring settler-nativist images like so-called Mount Timpanogos with it's official false Native mythistry, Boy Scouts & the Order of the Arrow patch which are both examples of settler-nativism. “I come from ancestry that are Cherokee Indians so I definitely am sympathetic"
- UT Rep. Birkeland, as she voted to block Utah HB-40, a bill protecting Indigenous families, children, and Nations. “You don't just get to decide you're Cherokee if the community does not recognize you as such. Ancestry is different from tribal membership; Indigenous identity…(is something) that Indigenous communities alone have the right to…define.” - Dakota scholar Kim Tallbear talking about Elizabeth Warren’s claim of Indigeneity. Birkeland’s claim––like the Lamanite identity––is a form of settler-colonial violence called Settler-Nativism. “Settler Nativism...is a Settler Move To Innocence… an effort to mark oneself blameless in the attempted genocides of Indigenous peoples…to deflect a settler identity, while continuing to enjoy settler privilege & occupying stolen land.” - EveTuck & K. Wayne Yang, “Decolonization is not a metaphor” Mormons have been Settler-Nativists from their beginnings. When Joseph Smith claimed to find an ancient record about the ancestors of contemporary Indigenous Peoples–Settler-Nativism. Whenever Mormons weaponize the Lamanite curse to suggest that white Mormons are the true heirs of this so-called Promised Land–Settler-Nativism. Everytime a Mormon dresses up as a Book of Mormon character–Meta-Settler-Nativism “Do they need some blood tie with the frontier & its dangers in order to experience what it means to be an American? Or is it an attempt to avoid facing the guilt they bear for the treatment of the Indians?” - Vine Deloria Jr. Settler-Mormons even claim an ancestral relationship with Indigenous Peoples through their philosemitic Israelite identity. My G-Grandma Hale wrote that Euro Mormons & Lehi’s People (Ancient Mormon Patriarch of Indigenous Peoples) are both descendants of the same Tribe of Israel & are destined to be the “leaders of the whole anglo-saxon race.” Mormonism is itself Settler-Nativism. These fabricated blood ties not only perpetuate the “custodian” role that Mormons assigned themselves over Indigenous people & this land, but also nativizes white-settler-Mormons by inventing a blood connection to this land, deflecting their “settler identity while continuing to enjoy” the settler rights & privileges taken with this imagined relationship. Thus, through Settler-Nativism Rep. Birkeland is openly able to harm Indigenous Peoples & justify that harm by claiming Cherokee identity & sympathy with no relationships with Cherokee People. She is able to enact settler-violence & “mark herself blameless” simultaneously. (Like the entire Lamanite Placement Program). In what ways do you internalize this land as your own? – In what ways do you “mark yourself as blameless” for historic and ongoing settler colonial violences. In what ways do you nativize yourself as a (ex)Mormon, American, conservationist, REI shopper, tree hugger? – How have you internalized “what it means to be an American?” In what ways are being accountable to the ongoing genocidal histories that allow you & I to live in this land? Land I imagine you also love.  The Timpanogos Extermination Order, or Special Order No. 2, or "Council meeting for January 31 and Sunday public meeting for February 10. Recorded by Thomas Bullock" from the Church History Catalog. Today (posted Jan 31, 2023) is the 173rd anniversary of the day the entire Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints leadership signed their Timpanogos Extermination Order in a Mormon Fort occupying Timpanogos lands along the so-called Provo River. Myths of Mormon & Indigenous cohabitation are half histories that don’t tell you that Mormons intentionally took advantage of Indigenous care-giving right up until they had a population large enough to attack. Unlike the Mormon extermination order, almost no one knows of this one. They also differ in that the Mormon one was rescinded in the 1970s. The Timpanogos one is still in effect. Their name is all over the state from Nat’l Parks to high schools to Mormon temples, and Timpanogos aren’t even a federally recognized Tribe. We have generational responsibility to unsettle this so-called Zion our ancestors settled.  Artist depiction of "Fort Utah on the Timpanogas (river) __ Valley of the Great Salt Lake." The Timpanogos extermination order was signed at Fort Utah January 31, 1850 Timpanogos Extermination Order
173-years-ago, the Prophet, First Presidency, & Quorum of the Twelve Apostles signed an extermination order against the Timpanogos Nation (Special Order No. 2). It has never been rescinded. Soon after Brigham & co. first arrived in Timpanogos, Goshute, & Eastern Shoshone land now occupied by Salt Lake City he lied to Timpanogos leader Wakara. As Brigham was telling his followers “This is the Place!”, he told Wakara that Mormons were only passing thru to California, but needed to overwinter. So the People helped the Mormons. Taught them to survive in these lands. “I say go [and] kill them… Tell Dimmick Huntington to go & kill them—also Barney Ward—let the women & children live if they behave themselves… We have no peace until the men [are] killed off—never treat the Indian as your equal.” - Brigham Young, January 31, 1850 Mormons received these gifts & were friendly for a short time. But once Mormon populations grew, Brigham & his army turned militant. Just 2 ½ years after entering Timpanogos land, the Mormons were intent on exterminating them. I don’t think I’ve been to a Mormon history museum that doesn’t address the Mormon Extermination Order signed by the Gov. of Missouri. Equally, I’ve never been to a museum that address the Timpanogos Extermination Order, signed just 12 years later. The Mormon one was rescinded in the 1970s. The Timpanogos one is still in effect. My 3rd Great Uncle Hale received 160 acres of Goshute land and a medal for his service in these massacres known by colonial historians as the Wakara Wars. Today, when Timpanogos leaders submit articles & histories to the Salt Lake Tribune, this liberal paper refuses to publish them. The Timpanogos Extermination Order is nearly unknown among Mormon practitioners & Utahns. But it has not been forgotten by the Mormon authorities or Timpanogos People. Timpanogos People continue to live under the thumb of the descendants of these terrorizing genocidal colonists who continue to dominate, desiccate, & destroy Timpanogos lands, waters, & sovereignty. We have a generational responsibility to reckon with this ongoing history & change it in the present for the sake of our futures. "Every day we are reminded of what our ancestors went through. Our families were torn apart. Children murdered, the old, the women, all those who were brutally murdered & made to suffer & die from violence, then disease, then starvation, our ancestors' graves torn up, the land destroyed, it was genocide plain & simple. Why? What did we do? We didn't do anything. We were living in peace. We were happy. Our children were happy. We loved each other. We cared for each other. & when the Mormons came, we tried to help them. Then they tried to take everything away from us. They wanted it all. They wanted to exterminate us, wipe us off the face of the earth. Why? For our land? For our oil? Now we have nothing." - Perry Murdock, Timpanogos Council Member "As Chief Executive of the Timpanogos Nation, I speak for the people when I ask why? We fed you when you were hungry. We helped you when you did not understand our lands. Why then were we forgotten? Historians have never asked us about our history or our ancestors." - Mary Murdock Meyer Learn more from TimpanogosTribe.com & Phillip Gottfredson’s website: BlackHawkProductions.com & book "My Journey to Understand - Black Hawk's Mission of Peace" & from Jared Farmer’s book “On Zion’s Mount” |
AuthorI am nicholas b jacobsen, an artist, researcher, historian, educator, and organizer. I am a trans-non binary Euro-settler raised in the Nuwu lands of so-called Utah. My family has been Mormon and Utahn for as long as either of those concepts have existed. My ancestors sacrificed everything--their identities, homelands, jobs, health, & safety to become Mormon, Utahn, U.S. American, & white--to settler their Zion. They also sacrificed their humanities as they committed genocide against Kuttuhsippeh (Goshute), Timpanogos Shoshone, Shoshone-Bannock, Eastern Shoshone, Ute, Nuwu (Southern Paiute), and Diné (Navajo). Because my ancestors made my home through Indigenous genocide in their home/lands––I take it as my personal responsibility to unsettle what my ancestors settled, while helping my fellow settlers do the same through reading, writing, art, and community building. Archives
June 2023
Categories
All
|
RSS Feed