In this blog series of links below I am going to present the option of basically not "throwing out the baby with the bathwater." In other words, once somebody from the LDS/Restoration tradition chooses not to "sustain the LDS Brethren" or be blindly obedient to the will of the LDS Brethren with a parent-to-child dynamic and codependent mentality (what I call Brethrenism); yet also do not want to go down the road of "Anti-Mormonism" and abandon their Mormon Heritage, a third option is what I'm calling Protestant-Mormonism (or Free-Range Mormonism) which is basically a Nondenominational way to be Mormon: this is first done by distinguishing between the original philosophy of Mormonism which is distinctly different from today's post-1900 development of Brethrenism.
According to Britannica.com, the core doctrines of the Protestant Reformation were:
... justification by grace alone through faith, the priesthood of all believers, and the supremacy of Holy Scripture in matters of faith and order.
The reason for these core doctrines that made up the Protestant Reformation were due to the corruptions that took place in the Catholic Church: such as the sale of indulgences and a priestly hiearchy leading to an infallible Pope and a lack of checks and balances and corruption in the leqdership. Also, the system of pious perfectionism through the confessional led to Catholic Monks like Martin Luther to feel perpetually inadequate and shamed, feeling like he could never live up to perfect piety; while also repressing his biological instincts as a celibate monk. When Luther gained the insight from scripture study, that he was worthy already and saved by grace alone and not through the constant attendance of the confessional, and that he did not need to be celibate; he must have been filled with a profound alleviation of stress and anxiety and an overwhelming feeling of freedom!
I have experienced this same feeling of alleviation and freedom from a Mormon perspective when I have realized that original Mormonism was more like Protestantism in giving members more security in grace alone and more freedom.
A careful study of original Mormonism from 1829 to 1835, reveals that these core Protestant doctrines (grace alone through faith, a priesthood of all believers, and Scripture alone in matters of faith and order) were also taught in the early years of the Mormon Church in the LDS Scriptures.
This is why so many Smith-Rigdon Restoration Movements are pretty much Protestant in the entire structure and theology, when they stick to just the Book of Mormon and the LDS published up to 1835. The Book of Mormon itself is a Protestant text with only a few minor variations in theology from traditional Protestantism. Thus, just as Lutheran Protestantism is one sect in the larger body of Protestantism, the Smith-Rigdon Movement can be seen as another Protestant sect. Things only began to change and move away from the core ideas of Protestantism after 1835.
After 1835, Joseph Smith began introducing a priesthood hierarchy and structure similar to the Catholic Church. Thus, the original Protestant-Mormonism (1829-1835) became "catholicized" you could say after 1835. David Whitmer, one of the Book of Mormon witnesses, criticized this movement away from basically the core doctrines of Protestantism toward a kind of Mormon-Catholicism you could say (with a priesthood hierchy and the LDS prophet as a Pope-like figure), in his pamphlet An Address to All Believers in Christ.
The way I see it, you cannot remove the core LDS Scriptures and their more Protestant doctrines and ideas (which forms the core body of Mormonism). The fact is, most LDS Scripture is in fact completely Protestant in its emphasis on the priesthood of all believers, sola scriptura, and deification through grace through the merits of Christ alone.
This does not mean that I don't find some value in the later post-1835 Nauvoo era changes and the new innovations in theology and practice, that turned Mormonism into something closer to Catholicism in its structure. But the reasons for that appreciation is more a matter of practicalility, in that I see that it provided a practical structure for the formation of the Mormon identity itself. In other words, I think the post-1835 movement toward a Catholic-style Mormonism had a specific practical purpose. I discuss that purpose in my document Toward A Theology of the Body and my blog series here. In these links to my writings, I make the case that in moving towards a more Catholic-like structure with a priesthood hiearchy, the conscious or unconscious intention was to provide a structure that would eventually bolster the practice of polygamy; which in and of itself, I think had a temporary goal and design to it: which was to change the consciousness of Mormons (from 1844 to 1900) toward embracing the idea that God the Father had a physical body of fleshly sensuality and passions; and to mimic the polygamist Abraham of the Old Testament, in order to produce a quasi-ethnic Peoplehood.
Now that polygamy has served its purpose, the Catholic-like structure that was designed to maintain the practice of polygamy up to around the year 1900, means that a post polygamist versions of Mormonism are in my view no longer beholden to that Catholic-style organizatiand structure; and individual Mormons should have the freedom to adopt a more Protestant-style version of Mormonism as supported by most of LDS Scripture itself.
So my case for a Protestant-Mormonism, is that the post 1835 version of what I see as a "Catholic-like Mormonism," while practically useful in organizing the early Mormons in Nauvoo and Utah in the 1800s toward forming a Peoplehood; has since then degenerated into a controlling high demand religion (what I call Brethrenism) that mirrors the errors of "Popeism"; and shows the same signs of leadership corruption as was found in Catholicism that led to the Protestant Reformation. Secondly, D&C 132 was never actually canonized by Joseph Smith himself. In fact, just before Smith died in 1844, he edited and approved of a final canon of LDS Scripture in 1844 and it did not include the Book of Abraham nor D&C 132. This to me is proof that Joseph Smith was simply exploring ideas in the 1840s, and we don't know what he would or would not have done if he had survived after 1844. All we know is that what he decided to canonize as official doctrine was the original Protestant-type theology in the original LDS Scriptures, such as The Lectures on Faith and the original D&C 101 that declared monogamy the official doctrine of the church.
Defining Brethrenism:
Since a picture is worthless 1000 words, here is an image summarizing what I call Brethrenism or Brethrenite Mormonism:
Note that in the image above the "Doctrine of Christ" is basically defined as obeying the Brethren ("repent and obey"), with repenting meaning: subjecting oneself to "worthiness" interviews where a Brethrenite approved male Priest, a Bishop and/or Stake President acting as judge and jury over you behind closed doors, determines your worthiness (perfect purity) or unworthiness (impurity); as you are labeled as such (essentially pure or stained in their eyes); and if labeled "unworthy," one is subjected to whatever humiliating and punitive ecclesiastical punishments the priesthood holder decides to impose upon you based on his subjective assessment and personality type. Brethrenism is thus linked to Perfectionism and Purity Culture. This is known in Brethrenism as the Covenant Path.
The Brethrenite emphasis on ordinances includes exclusive Temple rites, with the Brethren claiming to be the only ones with the authority to control and change the rituals. They also control what is and what is not considered scripture without regard to the original doctrine of Common Consent. The Brethren also demand large amounts of money (tithing) from members as mandatory before the member is allowed to enter and receive the elite ritual ordinances required to allegedly enter the highest degrees of heaven.
Thus the Brethrenite model of "obey us or else," entails receiving their allegedly necessary ritual ordinances in order to be able to enter through the "pearly gates" (with angels standing guard), before experiencing God the Father. As they claim to have the sole authority to administer these necessary rituals to get into the highest degree of heaven. This Covenant Path in Brethrenism, is just one version of Mormonism. I am arguing that there are other versions of Mormonism that are not high demand (or "pharisaical"), but provide a greater degree of freedom based on the dictates of one's own conscience (rather than blind obedience to the dictates of the will and whims of the Brethren).
Free-Range "Protestant-style Mormonism" vs. Correlated Catholic-like Brethrenism:
A good example of Protestant-Mormonism is the more simplistic Doctrine of Christ in the Book of Mormon as explained by Jacob IsBell in his YouTube video The Doctrine of Christ versus The Covenant Path. Note that I don't agree with every historical or theological position of Jacob IsBell, but on this particular subject I agree with him.
For more details on the concept of the simple Doctrine of Christ and how it relates to Free-Range Protestant-Mormonism, see my two blog series below:
Here is a bullet point summary of how Uncorrelated Free-Range Protestant-Mormonism is different from Brethrenism:
- Free-Range Protestant-Mormonism (or FPM) is more like a Farm-like "Ecclesia" than a caged Zoo.
- FPM is focused more on a respect for LDS Scripture as poetic art as a transformative Ethos. So that it is more about an inside out transformation of character by "feasting on the words of Christ" is Scripture. Rather than following a check list along a "covenant path" dictated by the Brighamite Brethren.
- In Free-Range Protestant-Mormonism (FPM), decisions are based more on the dictates of one's own conscience rather than obeying the will of the Brethren.
- FPM respects the Law of Common Consent. This means that no Mormon sect can declare new doctrine or policy or "Thus saith the Lord" without claiming to have received an actual revelation and having it voted on and passed by common consent and then canonized in Scripture by the body of believers of said sect.
- FPM abides by the actual LDS Scriptures which taught paying tithing on your surpluss and it is voluntary and not mandatory to go the temple and earn access to the celestial heavens.
- Garments are optional and not necessary. For in the Protestant-Mormonism perspective, LDS Garments were designed to be reminders of the Freemasonic rituals (like the penalty oaths that were removed in 1990 from the Brighamite LDS ritual), which in and of themselves were designed to keep polygamy a secret. Now that polygamy has ended after 1900, garments, as a product of polygamy, makes no sense as a requirement by the Brethren.
- The Word of Wisdom in D&C 89 was originally intended as "wise advice" and the text says clearly that it was not a commandment nor a constraint. Thus, when the Brighamite LDS sect decided to reject the original plain meaning of D&C 89 in the year 1921, and turn the advice of the Word of Wisdom into instead a commandment (and something forbidden by the Brethren), and made it into a constraint on LDS members: they began to mimic the corruption in the Catholic Church, which led to the Protestant Reformation. This authoritarian and controlling move also mimicked the Pharisees who Jesus condemned for changing the meaning of the Jewish Scriptures with their added traditions and policies.
- Simply Scriptures (online Restoration Scriptures without the gloss of Brethrenism)
- Nondenominational Edition of the Book of Mormon (see video here)
My own personal version of Protestant-Mormonism is a focus on the original philosophy of Mormonism through primarily the Smith-Pratt Lens.
Note that another option to the person who rejects Brethrenism but doesn't want to be a Nondenominational Mormon is that one can choose to be part of a non-Brighamite Restoration Branch or Church as there are many sects and denominations. I mentioned the main ones in the links above.
The following links below take you to my blog posts explaining further the Free-Range Mormon option:
- The Metaphor of Farmhands vs. Zookeepers: The Farm-like "Ecclesia" versus Zoo-like Brethrenism as a Metaphor for Two Kinds of Mormon Leaders and Ways to be Mormon
- "Scripture Focused Mormon" Resources: Recommended Brighamite and Non-Brighamite Scriptures, Websites and other Restorationist Books, etc.
- "Saving Knowledge" & Educative Ordinances As the Core of The Smith-Pratt Paradigm
