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notes preface 1. Bushman (2005, 261–64). 2. Bates and Smith (2003). 3. One exception is Lavina Fielding Anderson’s (2010) assessment of blessings rendered by Joseph Smith Sr., Mormonism’s first patriarch. 4. See Bates (1993). 5. Berger and Luckmann (1967). introduction 1. In 2010 the LDS Church reported a total of 14,131,467 members worldwide. At current growth rates, approximately 1,000,000 new members are added to church rolls every two to three years. Outside the United States, LDS membership growth has been particularly notable throughout Latin America, in selected Asian countries such as the Philippines, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan, and in African countries like Nigeria and Ghana. See Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (2011b). 2. See Bringhurst and Foster (2008) for an in-depth account of Romney’s early presidential aspirations and first attempt to gain the Republican nomination within the context of his Mormon faith. See Kranish and Hellman (2012) for what is generally conceded to be the most objective, thorough, current account of Romney’s life, career, and Mormon influences. 3. Congressional Record, January 12, 1887, 585. 4. Mason (2011). 5. More specifically, we are employing the term ‘‘heretical’’ from a detached, sociological perspective that simply describes (without making a value judgment or implying a technical theological distinction) the way in which particular religious groups are, in fact, judged by majoritarian or establishment religious denominations. Thus, we apply ‘‘heretical’’ to religious doctrines and their corollary practices that are manifestly at variance with the authority of established orthodoxies. In sociology generally, this would be analogous to the way the concept of social ‘‘deviance’’ is used. Sociologists are not condemning or morally evaluating behavior that is categorized as ‘‘deviant.’’ They are simply distinguishing behavior that is socially defined as violating the established norms of a given group from behavior that conforms with the norms of that group. Another closely parallel example would be the way that sociologists of religion employ the term ‘‘cult’’ in a morally neutral way, i.e., simply as a religious innovation (typically generated by the claims of a charismatic founder) that deviates markedly from already existing and socially approved religious faiths, rather than defining it as a fraudulent or criminal perversion of ‘‘true’’ religion. See Gary Shepherd (2007) for a discussion of these points. For sources on orthodox reactions to heresy and heretical movements in Christian history, see Christie-Murray (1989), Evans (2003), and Henderson (1998). For analyses of the tension between new religious movements and establishment religions and government agencies in American history in particular, see Davis and Hankins (2003). PAGE 135 ................. 18278$ NOTE 08-30-12 08:36:35 PS 136 notes to pages 3–9 6. For a summary of what social science research reveals about who joins new religions and why, see Dawson (1996). 7. Stark and Bainbridge (1985). 8. Kanter (1972). 9. For years, Rodney Stark has prominently argued that the rise and development of Mormonism constitutes the most significant contemporary case for sociological study of successful new religious movements. A compendium of his published arguments and analysis is found in Stark (2005). 10. Shepherd and Shepherd (1984, chaps. 5 and 6). 11. R. Bushman (1997, 198). 12. For studies of religious divisions that produce new religions, see J. Lewis and S. Lewis (2009). 13. Bromley (1998, 2004). 14. Shils (1965, 203). 15. Weber (1978, 1114–15). 16. The distinction between ‘‘oracular’’ and ‘‘inspirational’’ modes of prophecy, with movement from the former to the latter in Mormon history, is a theme that we expound in Shepherd and Shepherd (2009). In appendix A we offer a few examples of Joseph Smith’s oracular pronouncements in contrast to subsequent statements published as revelations in the LDS Doctrine and Covenants. These comparisons illustrate the striking language differences between Smith’s revelations and the declarations published by his successors in the LDS hierarchy on the momentous issues of nineteenth-century polygamy and twentieth-century priesthood eligibility for males of African descent. Along these same lines, it is instructive to note that in 1904, when Joseph F. Smith (Joseph Smith’s nephew and sixth president of the LDS Church) was being grilled under oath by Senate council during the Reed Smoot hearing, he assiduously resisted acknowledging that he had ever received any direct revelation from God binding on his co-religionists and claimed only personal inspiration with regard to matters of LDS faith. His testimony was intended to blunt charges of priestly...

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