A STUDY IN PARALLELS AND DIFFERENCES*
An Apocryphal Tale
Fifty years ago as a young Deacon, I heard a story recounted by a visiting General Authority (although I now no longer remember his name, which is why I must label the account "apocryphal") that shortly after the installation of the Bolshevik government of the Soviet Union in 1918, inspired by Count Leo Tolstoy's account of Mormonism, and impressed by the Church's rapid growth and success in colonizing the West, a senior official of the Soviet Union visited Utah to see how Mormons governed themselves. The General Authority story-teller went on to describe how Soviet communism had adopted many of its governing institutions from the Church -- albeit in somewhat perverse form.
It wasn't until many years later as an adult with a Harvard PhD in Economics and Comparative Government, and with a more than casual familiarity with the Soviet system as a result of my work as a member of a restricted NATO committee devoted to studying communist affairs in East Europe, that I began fully to appreciate how many parallels there in fact are between the Soviet system and LDS Church government.
There are, of course, also many profound differences. Some have even viewed Leninism/Marxism as the embodiment of Satan's well-intended but unworkable plan to save man from error and grief by trying to bypass Free Agency and the Law of Common Consent.
Over the years I've been preoccupied with the parallels and differences between the two systems; and, piqued by one of the few sermons whose general outlines I've retained in memory since childhood, I always had in the back of my mind to someday produce a paper along these lines. Motivated by the momentous events of the last couple of years which have been transforming the Soviet empire at home and its dominance in Eastern Europe, I've at last made the effort to analyze in an organized way the elements, as I see them, which enabled both systems to experience such great initial success, and the differences which after seventy years are threatening the dissolution of the Soviet system, while Mormonism still gathers strength for even more impressive growth.
Organizational Parallels
The Mormon Church is governed by a First Presidency, customarily consisting of three of its most senior priesthood officials (though at times an additional counselor or two have been added -- Brigham Young had five); a top policy-making body of Twelve Apostles, supplemented until a dozen years ago by a handful of "Assistants to the Twelve"; this top leadership supplemented by a larger group of (traditionally Seventy, but currently two quorums of 70) subordinate General Authorities.
The Soviet Union until recently was ruled by a Party General Secretary, who customarily has also served as Premier. The role of Soviet President, the nominal Chief of State, was essentially a protocolary office accorded to a superannuated senior official (as in the case of Andre Gromyko who was "kicked upstairs" when Gorbachev
* This paper was written well before the downfall of the Soviet Union, but like the author's 1917 State Department paper predicting the creation of an Arab Oil Cartel was, because of strongly expressed doubts on the part of others about its far out prediction, not widely circulated, thus robbing his ego of the rewards of considering himself both a prescient economic and political intelligence analyst. The paper has been slightly modified to bring it up-to-date.
wanted to remove him as Foreign Minister). The most recent General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev in 1988 transformed his office into that of President, naming a separate Prime Minister.
As with the Counselors in the Mormon First Presidency, the Soviet Premier was, until Gorbachev's transformation of the office, assisted by two or sometimes three Deputy Premiers, responsible to a Politburo usually numbering twelve, which sets overall policy for government and country. The Politburo also usually has three or four non-voting "Candidate Members" serving more or less the same function the Assistants to the Twelve served in Mormonism until that office was abolished in favor of an expanded group of Seventy a few years ago.
In both cases, the form of government is strikingly different than either the familiar parliamentary form of Cabinet government, or traditional Presidential forms of government, in which the Head of Government and/or Head of State serve without the constraint of Counselors or Deputies. Similarly, in both systems under review, the President or Premier is either independent of the legislature (or, in the case of Mormonism, the other General Authorities or the General Conference of Church leaders) or responsible to the legislature as a whole. In neither Mormonism nor classic Marxism is there an intermediary group corresponding to the responsible Cabinet or standing Legislature of the Parliamentary system. To be sure the Premier and Politburo report, now more currently than in the past, to a Central Committee of the Supreme Soviet consisting of some 250 or so individuals, most of whom hold positions in regional governments or important ministries, and who thus help the Premier and Politburo translate policy into practice. In Mormondom, the Central Committee is paralleled by the so-called General Authorities, who currently number about 158.
At irregular intervals, the Soviet government convenes a "Plenum", the full membership of several thousand members of the Supreme Soviet, being the legislature representing all the constituent republics and peoples of the Soviet Union, just as the regularly convened General Conference of the Church consists of some four or five thousand Regional Representatives, Stake Presidents, and Bishops, plus, at least for the time being, some four thousand non-office holding members of the Church lucky enough to find space in the unreserved seats of the Tabernacle. A recent General Conference was telecast by leased wire to groups of priesthood convened at prearranged locations around the world, with votes being taken by local authorities and transmitted to Church Headquarters by phone so that a larger and more representative body of priesthood could participate in the transaction of sustaining Authorities.
Another interesting, if peripheral, parallel is that both Soviet leaders and Mormon leaders are by practice seated in a series of rank-ordered tiers at Party Congresses and Church Conferences. Students of both Communism and Mormonism are given to careful examination of shifts in seating order to identify the rising or falling influence of individuals and constituent groups. A man from Mars would have difficulty determining at first sight whether he was viewing a General Conference of the Mormon Church or a Plenum of the Supreme Soviet.
Under both systems, policy initiatives and nomination of presiding officers come from the leadership. Those attending plenum sessions of the Supreme Soviet and those present at Mormon General Conference attend for instruction, not to participate in debate, discussion, nominating procedures, or campaigning for office. Political Scientists call this process "co-option of leadership" and it has proved remarkably effective in choosing Boards of Directors for Big Business, Directors for major charitable foundations, and Country Club Boards.
Approval of policies, programs, and nominations in both institutions is by raised hand, not by secret ballot, promoting consensus through the great pressure placed on attendees to conform, and reducing the possibility of meaningful dissent (though there have been manifest examples of vocal dissent at some Mormon General Conferences. See below.)
In the Soviet case, there was visible and audible dissent at a recent plenum of the Supreme Soviet when Nobel Prize winner Andrei Sakharov strode to the podium to argue with President Gorbachev before television cameras in favor of immediate introduction of a multi-party electoral system in the Soviet Union.
Interestingly, in both systems there is, at least in theory, a formal separation of Party (or Priesthood) from government. Joseph Smith taught that the function of Priesthood was not to govern directly, but "to teach correct principles", leaving the people to govern themselves. And in the Proto-Kingdom of God he organized, he made it a point to include non-members to represent the nations of the world, which in the fullness of time he expected would elect or otherwise provide their own representatives.
Mormons who have served in state and national legislatures and executive offices have by and large observed these principles, though there have been exceptions, as when Joseph Smith served both as President of the High Priesthood and as Mayor of Nauvoo and Brigham Young as both President of the Church and Governor of Utah Territory. As recently as 1952, Apostle Ezra Taft Benson received permission from the First Presidency and Quorum of Twelve to accept a call from President Dwight D. Eisenhower to serve in his Cabinet.
Theory to the contrary notwithstanding, Soviet politicians have never seriously tried to observe the separation of Party and Power, the Party General Secretary customarily also serving as Premier -- now President. Perhaps with the major reforms now underway in the Soviet Union, and particularly if a multi-party system is introduced, there will of necessity be a return to the basic pattern of separating Party leadership from office in the government.
Other Parallels
Communism is known for its cell structure to maintain party discipline and carry out party functions, and not only where Communism is illegal. In China, cells, or neighborhood committees, as they are known there, determine one's eligibility for work, government benefits, the right to pursue higher education, and even the right to get married and bear children.
Mormonism, too, has relied on small (though not secret) groups of priesthood holders, called "quorums", which are brotherhoods of ascending responsibility and numbering from twelve deacons, through twenty-four teachers, and extending eventually to 96 priests (the numbers in an Elder's or High Priests' Quorums have no fixed limit), whose purpose it is to instruct each other doctrinally, and look after one another's spiritual and material welfare. Mormons are noted for their "home teaching" in which pairs of priesthood quorum brothers visit each family two by two each month to inquire into each member's spiritual and economic welfare. It is perhaps this demonstration of close interest which maintains the relatively high active membership of Mormonism compared to most other religions. But in the Mormon case, no one may be ordained to priesthood office other than after public presentation of his name for a sustaining vote.
A further similarity is the distinction made in the Mormon Church between holding the Priesthood (which qualifiesone for office) and holding the "keys of the priesthood", which refers to having been publically set apart for a designated position in church government. The Communist parallel is the difference between being a member of the Party, and having been designated a member of the Nomenklatura, i.e. having a specific position in Party or Government rule.
Communist and Mormon Youth Movements and Sports
Both movements place great emphasis on youth -- the Pioneers and Young Communist League in the case of Communism; the Primary and Mutual Improvement Associations in the case of the Church. The function of both groups is similar: to instruct children from 3 or 4 years to the age of 12 in the history and philosophy (theory) of the respective movements, and to secure thereafter the loyalty of teenagers, preparing them to participate actively in the organizations' programs as adults.
Both Communism and Mormonism similarly emphasize sports. Communism aims to garner attention and interest for its movement by fielding winners in the Olympics. Mormonism on the other hand has traditionally emphasized sports as a way to keep youth occupied and out of temptation's way, as well as instilling team spirit and cooperative attitudes -- leading Mormon virtues. Until Church-wide sports were de-emphasized a few years ago, competition having become more engrossing than the principles the sports were intended to foster, the Mormon Church ran the largest basketball tournament in the world, as well as international competitions in golf and tennis. Many church teams were so good that high school basketball players often chose to play on church teams in preference to school teams because the competition was better and the publicity greater. The Church also for many years sponsored public speaking and play writing/road show competitions -- though it has now been left to regional authorities to develop such programs in accordance with locally felt needs.
Both groups pay great attention to health and education. Joseph Smith taught as a "Word of Wisdom" that thoughtful people would avoid tobacco, alcoholic beverages, tea and coffee and other stimulants, as well as avoiding too much meat -- all of which contemporary science has found to be wise counsel. From Khrushchev to Gorbachev, Soviet authorities have contended with citizens to reduce their intake of vodka.
Despite other failings in the system, Soviet higher education has achieved notable success on a world scale in identifying talented youth and preparing them for careers in science, engineering, medicine, and languages; for its part, Mormonism has been noted for teaching that the "Glory of God is intelligence" and "whatever degree of learning to which a man attains in this world, will rise with him in the resurrection". This has resulted in Church members placing a high priority on education and academic achievement.
Utah, 80 per cent Mormon (though representing only 12 per cent of Mormonism's worldwide membership) constitutes the largest concentration of Mormon population in the world and has thus often been used by sociologists and medical researchers as a proxy to demonstrate the "fruits of Mormonism". Judging the Church by the performance of Utah (and most of the political leadership of the State is after all Latter-day Saint) the state is found to be first among the fifty states in the number of students 18-24 enrolled in post-secondary studies, first in the number of colleges and universities per capita, among the top two or three in high school graduates, among the lowest in drop-outs, second only to Alaska in birth rate, second to Alaska in low death rate, fourth in employment growth, fourth lowest in welfare receipts per capita, fourth lowest in murders per capita, fifth in millionaires per capita, sixth lowest in divorce rate, seventh lowest in assaults, seventh lowest in incarcerations, and SURPRISE seventh in the percentage of population living in metropolitan areas. Salt Lake City is one of only four cities in the United States with a civic ballet (rated among the best in the nation), a civic opera company, legitimate theater, and a symphony orchestra. The pattern is repeated in other Western States in which Mormons are a substantial proportion of the population.
Utah has the highest per capita number of native sons (and daughters) listed in Who's Who in Science and Who's Who in Public Affairs. Mormonism produced Philo Farnsworth the inventor of television, Henry Eyring a noted physicist/mathematician Nobel Prize runner up; the inventor of the artificial heart; George Romney the man who saved American Motors and was a leading (though unsuccessful) Presidential Candidate; the head of Ryder Systems; a recent President of Eastman Kodak: and the founder of the Marriott Corporation. The present Chancellor of the University of California, the largest university system in the world, is a Latter-day Saint, as was President Bush's National Security Advisor as well as his Domestic Affairs Advisor. A recent past President of the Church was a Member of the Eisenhower Cabinet and the immediate past President was a former Mayor of Palo Alta and a leading California attorney.
Both groups have an eye constantly peeled for converts, believing that they have the fullest version and latest edition of truth and -- at least until Mr. Gorbachev saw that applied Marxism just wasn't working -- both groups were dedicated to gaining the hearts and minds of all people everywhere. The USSR has for over seventy years had agitators working around the world to organize national communist parties: the Mormon Church has 50,000 full-time missionaries in the field, the largest missionary group of any denomination in the world, representing as a group more individuals than the entire priesthood of the Catholic Church in the United States.
In terms of the media efforts, the Soviet Union publishes, among other periodicals, an official newspaper Pravda , while the Church has for nearly a hundred and fifty years published the Deseret News -- with additional worldwide distribution for its weekly Church News section. National magazines known variously as the Millenial Star , l'Etoile , l'Estrella, the Liahona -- and variants, are published in every country in which the Church has membership, bringing the latest word on Church programs, policies, and practices into every Latter-day Saint home.
To further their diplomatic and propaganda efforts, the Soviets maintain some of the world's most impressive language teaching facilities. Radio Moscow broadcasts world-wide in a spectrum of languages. The Church, too, maintains language instruction and translation facilities of remarkable size, given its relatively modest size, to train missionaries and provide instructional materials to the over one hundred nations in which it has membership. The Church also has domestic radio and TV outlets, a major international shortwave station in New York, as well as film production studios which turn out a broad range of historical, biblical, doctrinal, and moral uplift-type films. It's Semi-Annual General Conferences are broadcast in a dozen major languages by satellite to members around the world. The Church has induced Hollywood stars like Jimmy Stewart to take part in such edifying films as Mr. Kruger's Christmas , while its public service messages appear daily on national TV and radio stations and in such print media as the Readers Digest . Mormonism is represented in Hollywood by such stars as Dean Jagger, and producers like Kieth Merrill Director of The Wind Walker . It has produced such music notables as Alvino Rey, the King Sisters, Donny and Marie Osmond, Hawaiin entertainer Don Ho, and Metropolitan Opera singer Ariel Bybee -- not to mention the rock group The Jets.
Further Worldly Achievements of Mormonism
Some parallels which some may find intriguing have been advanced in the foregoing paragraphs with respect to the Soviet and Mormon institutions of government and attitudes towards their role in the world.
A few more quasi-parallels might be added to emphasize the significance of what is being said.
The record of Soviet Communism is well known: high achievement in space and nuclear technology, one of the best educational systems in the world, exploration and control of a vast land area, development of an unprecedented social and economic system (which until its catastrophic failure was a paradigm for over half the developing nations of the world).
The contributions of Mormonism to the western expansion and settlement and to U.S. history, to education, science, and enterprise are less well known -- possibly because the notion of separation of church and state has become an item of "political correctness" in the school textbook publishing enterprise, depriving American students of a fascinating chapter in the settlement of the West. So some of these contributions and exploits will be reviewed to anchor the thesis put forward in this paper of the striking parallels between the Soviet Super Power and the achievements of Mormonism -- even if the parallels must for the time being be evaluated on a somewhat different scale of measurement.
Despite being looked upon by some as a quaint religion of teetotallers and straightarrows (neither of which view offends members), the Church has led the way in many areas beyond the founding of the industries and settlements recounted below. The statistic mentioned above on low per capita expenditures per student are of course skewed by the relatively large size of Mormon families, which also results in the misleading datum which shows Utah County with one of the lowest per capita incomes in the United States, a surprise to anyone visiting Provo or Orem, Utah expecting to see Poorsville, while observing nothing but better-quality middle class homes backed by the magnificence of the Wasatch mountain range, prosperous farms and businesses, large new elementary and high schools, and Brigham Young University, the largest (and one of the best rated) private universities in the country (Business School rated among the top twenty in the country, Physics Department home of the discoverer of the Cold Fusion That Works ( though all the kinks are not yet worked out); and a Law School which has provided more Supreme Court clerks since its founding twenty years ago than any other law school in the country during the same period). Utah County, the home of both Word Perfect and Novell was recently identified by Forbes Magazine as the new Rocky Mountain Silicon Valley, and U.S. News a couple of years ago defined the Ogden/Salt Lake/Provo corridor as the current center of Standard American Speech.
There is a persuasive argument that first department store in the United States was Zions Cooperative Mercantile Institution, today known as ZCMI and run much as any other successful department store with branches throughout Utah and Idaho and recently opened branches in Phoenix, Mesa, and Las Vegas, but which, when still run as a cooperative, would certainly have been of interest to a Soviet visitor.
Mormons have never taken a narrow view of things. During the course of settling the Provisional State of Deseret, Brigham Young sent pioneers to settle what are now parts of seven other states: Wyoming, Colorado, Arizona, Nevada, and a corner of Oregon, a corner of New Mexico, and a corridor through California to San Diego (whose first Anglo-Saxon settlers were Mormon) and the sea (which was to serve as post of entry for Mormon immigrants from Europe to avoid the long hike across the Plains). Deseret was thus envisioned as extending from the Lemhi range of central Idaho in the north to the Salt River in central Arizona in the south, and from the watershed of the Colorado Rockies and the Wind Rivers of Wyoming in the east, to the summit of the California Sierras in the west: which would have made it half again as large as Texas. In planning for the state of Deseret, Brigham Young showed himself to be among the most foresighted statesmen of his day, surely of far greater importance .Sam Houston, Stephen Douglas, or John Fremont in American history. Anticipating the outbreak of the Civil War (see Joseph Smith's prophecy that war would shortly break out in South Carolina over the slavery question: Doctrine & Covenants, Section 87), Brigham devised admirable policies to take into account the contingency that the Confederacy might defeat the Union, leaving Deseret and the Mormons to survive as best they could as an independent nation between California, Mexico, Canada, the Confederacy, and what remained of the United States. This was recognized and reported by the noted British explorer and military officer Sir Richard Burton who in his City of the Saints characterized President Young as having clearly out negotiated the President of the United States in the settlement of the so-called "Mormon War" of 1857-58, going on to express the view that the Mormons were destined to found an independent nation in the American Far West comprising a balancing power between Mexico, Canada, and the United States of America.
As things worked out, fortunately as the author believes, Utah eventually became a safe and secure member of the Union. What might have been Deseret, was kept out of the Union for another fifty years. In the meantime, ten less populous states were admitted (five adjoining ones carving large slices out of Utah Territory plus two others -- Oregon and New Mexico -- acquiring smaller corners of what might have been Deseret), leaving the rump that is now the state of Utah. While Deseret would have sent only two senators to Congress, as is the case with every other state, Mormons, who constitute an important minority of voters in seven other Western states, help send sixteen senators to Washington, reflecting fully one sixth of all the members of the United States Senate.
Mormons are also important politically in Canada and Mexico as a result of early colonies established in those nations. A Latter-day Saint was until a recent change of government Foreign Minister of Guatemala. And Mormons currently sits in the House of Commons in Westminster, a Pacific Island government or two, and a couple of Latin American parliaments.
The Lord's ways are not man's ways, and most would agree that current arrangements are superior to those for which Brigham strove. By remaining part of the United States, now friendly and supportive of Latter-day Saints who are today viewed as model citizens, Mormon missionary work has been facilitated world-wide under the Pax Americana just as the Primitive Church was able to spread rapidly under the Pax Romana . Ironically, plural marriage, or no marriage at all, is no longer even an eye-lifting matter in today's amoral society.
In the pursuit of the Deseret strategy, Mormons founded Las Vegas, Nevada and Barstow, California as way stations enroute to San Diego, which was to have been port of entry for immigrants to Deseret, sparing travelers the twenty-four hundred mile cross country trek west by covered wagon or handcart. It was discharged Mormon Battalion members who became the first Anglo-Saxon settlers of San Diego, and another Battalion member James Marshall who discovered gold at Sutter's Mill near Sacramento. Reno was first known as Mormon Station, having been founded as another way station between Salt Lake City and San Francisco. Sam Brannan, leader of the Mormon community in California was one of San Francisco's first millionaires, largest property owners, and earliest mayors.
All of the towns mentioned still have large Mormon populations, Las Vegas, San Diego, Los Angeles, Oakland (abutting San Francisco), and Portland each being a site of one of the 48 Mormon temples located in principal LDS population centers worldwide. Other LDS temples are located in Idaho Falls; Cardston, Alberta; Denver; and Mesa, Arizona.
Prior to the move west, Kirtland, settled by Mormons, had been one of Ohio's larger towns, and Nauvoo, on the banks of the Mississippi, was the largest town of its time in Illinois. Temporary Mormon settlements were established in Iowa and Nebraska as places of recruitment for pioneers traveling west. Mormons were also among the first settlers in what is now Idaho (Preston, named after an early Mormon Presiding Bishop), Colorado (Jack Dempsey was a Mormon boy from the Mormon settlement of Manassas), and Wyoming (Ft. Bridger, purchased by Brigham Young from the Trapper/Explorer Jim Bridger). Mormons also found their way into Montana, Washington, and Oregon, also founding colonies in Alberta, Canada, and Chihuahua and Sonora, Mexico. Splinter groups were first settlers in Peninsular Michigan and Texas.
Within ten years of their arrival in the Great Basis, Mormon settlers petitioned Congress for admission to the Union as the State of Deseret with boundaries, as noted, reaching from the Continental Divide in what is today Colorado to the Windriver range of Wyoming, thence west to the Lemhi range in central Idaho. The state was to include all of Nevada to the Sierras and stretch south to the Salt River in central Arizona -- a territory half again the size of Texas -- and all effectively settled by Mormon pioneers. Again, as noted, statehood was delayed for another fifty years because of the practice of polygamy, then a major moral issue, a Supreme Court decision holding valid ex post facto laws prohibiting a practice unmentioned in the Constitution or in previous state or national legislation. In the process a new legal principle was established: Mormons were held to be free to believe what they wished, based on the freedom of religion clause of the Constitution, but it was held that the law was free to ban putting belief into practice however deeply held a principle might be as an article of religion, if that practice offended the widely held views of others. It is ironic that three generations later, in a day when multiple marriage or no marriage at all hardly raises an eyebrow, but flag burning has become such an issue that a movement is underway to prohibit it by Constitutional Amendment, that the Court has held that this outrageous practice is protected under the Freedom of Speech section of the Bill of Rights -- abdicating its finding of a century ago in the Reynolds case which limited the right of Mormons to the free practice of their religion, by holding that actions can be clearly distinguished from Constitutionally protected beliefs when such actions grossly offend the majority and contravene the law, even as a result of clearly ex post facto legislation.
It remains a mystery how the Court overlooked the Reynolds precedent in holding that the act of burning the national flag, grossly offensive as is it to the vast majority, is protected under the Freedom of Speech provisions of the Constitution -- which the present day Court seems to be saying has a higher priority than Freedom of Religion.
The Church had a quite successful experiment with communal living, until its problems with regard to polygamy resulted in its properties being escheated to the government, which must surely have been of interest to Count Tolstoy and our reported Russian visitor to Utah. Unlike Israel, whose kibbutzes are subsidized by the state, Mormon United Order properties were either seized by the government or, as often as not, homesteaded out from under their noses by non-member settlers who were given preferential treatment by Federal Authorities sent out from Washington to tame the Mormons -- and who found that depriving them of their land was an effective way of doing so.
There is one more parallel between Marxism and Mormonism which should be mentioned: despite the nearly 300 million persons in the Soviet Union compared to the relatively insignificant nine and a half million members of the Mormon Church. The numbers of enrolled Party members -- who represent the operational intellectual cadre of the Marxist system -- are virtually the same as the number of baptized Mormons. Viewed from this perspective, the two institutions may be seen to have been running virtually neck and neck in terms of converts, if not in terms of the numbers ruled (which in the case of the Communist system have proved to have been hollow numbers anyway).
Mormons, of course, consider themselves as pioneers of the "Heavenly City", i.e. the establishment of the Kingdom of God on earth. And, while the Kingdom was technically established by Joseph Smith 140 years ago, it is still awaiting the coming of its Ruler and the nations of the world over whom He shall rule.
Looking at Marxism, many, if not all, Latter-day Saints have come to view the movement as a meretriciously flashy imitation of God's Kingdom, inspired by Lucifer, whom they believe can copy God's miracles and organizational structure, even to appearing as an Angel of Light, in order to lead people astray and themselves into his power. Indeed, the major attraction of communism has been its worldwide promise to the downtrodden and the idealistic of economic justice and equity. Regrettably, it has also appealed to many as a shortcut to political power and worldly success, as will be discussed below.
Perhaps an anecdote will illustrate the difference in the two systems and their effects on member morale and loyalty.
Over thirty years ago a member of the First Presidency visiting Paris took time to view possible sites for a Mormon temple someday to be built in this major European capital. He located a large vacant property on the south rim of the Paris basin, looking across the City of Light to the Basilica of the Sacre Coeur which is one of the city's most beautiful attractions, being located exactly opposite on the north rim of the basin. The chosen site was at the end of a new Metro extension, giving public transit access all the way from Charles DeGaulle airport, one of the principle airports of Europe, which would make the new temple accessible to members throughout Europe.
In the meantime, and for a variety of reasons, the Church adopted a policy of erecting more, but smaller and less expensive temples in several countries -- Britain, both East and West Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, and Spain.
For almost twenty-five years the property was held, appreciating greatly in value. As it became evident that it would not be used as a temple site in the immediate future, the Church property office in Frankfurt decided to sell it. The uproar was immediate. Responding to the principle of Common Consent, a member of the First Presidency came to Paris, visited the property himself, calling a meeting at which all local Church officials had the opportunity fully to ventilate their views before his return to Church Headquarters in Salt Lake City. When the final decision came several weeks later that it had definitively been decided to sell the property, the decision was accepted without demurral because it was now seen as the informed action of the Prophet of the Church rather than the bureaucratic act of regional functionaries.
Why Has Mormonism Prevailed While Communism Has Failed?
Were Count Tolstoy or our anecdotal Russian visitor to return today, they might reasonably ask why the Mormon Church without any accouterments of power -- fixed frontiers, sovereignty, an army, or compulsory taxation, has prevailed, being, according to latest statistics, the fastest growing church on earth, while Soviet communism, which in a brief seventy years flourished to become a world Super Power, has collapsed overnight like the walls of Jericho?
As I see it, and despite the numerous organizational and program parallels reviewed above, there are two fundamental and telling differences between the two organizations which our apocryphal Russian visitor did not recognize or did not report as essential elements in the Lord's system of government:
First, Mormonism rules as emphasized above by the Law of Common Consent while Communism rules by a dictatorship of the proletariat (by which is meant the decisions of the Politburo, whose acts are substituted for the preferences of the masses). This is a basic principle of Lenin, who was convinced that only the Party intelligencia was suited to lead the uneducated working class to victory over capitalist exploiters, based on the infallible principles of scientific socialism as propounded by Karl Marx.
Under Mormonism, each new program or nominee for office must be presented before the congregation for approval before being formally adopted or set apart or ordained to office. Despite the pressures towards consensus mentioned above, which result from public voting by uplifted hand, if even one person's hand is raised in the negative, procedures are stopped and the presiding authority takes the nay-sayer privately aside to inquire into the reasons for the objection. If the reason is germane, proceedings are adjourned pending fuller investigation. If it is not germane, the negative vote is recorded in the minutes of the meeting while the action is approved by majority vote, if not by acclamation.
Under Communism, little attention is paid to the possibility of negative votes since it is widely known what fate awaits those who oppose Party policies or programs (the gallows or Siberia during most of the Party's rule since Lenin until the startling events of the last Plenum).
The second profound operational difference between Mormon Church Government and the practice of the Soviet (and other communist governments) relates to the process of nomination for office . Mormons are taught from infancy that one must never seek or, conversely, decline a calling ; callings come from the Lord through inspiration to already serving leadership. Mormons are thus co-opted for leadership as a result of demonstrated worthiness, devotion, reliable performance in lesser positions (starting as young as twelve years of age), and evident administrative talent. The quickest way to assure being passed over for office is a showing of egotistical desire for advancement. Those who have risen to high office in the Church are virtually without exception men of great talent and great humility: (a former member of President Eisenhower's Cabinet; a former Solicitor General of the United States; two former Presidents of a great university; a former State Supreme Court Justice who, until his call as an Apostle, was frequently mentioned by national news magazines as a future Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court; one of the nation's leading heart surgeons; a nuclear scientist and former executive aide to Admiral Hyman Rickover in the design of the first nuclear submarine; a member of a leading California law firm; a former editor of a large city daily newspaper; the former Chancellor of one of the largest private school systems in the country and erstwhile senior staff aid to a noted U.S. Senator; and the former head of a major law school).
But anyone who has met or dealt with any of these individuals would be immediately impressed by their natural humanity, outgoing friendliness, and easy presence. Without exception their behavior is the same with king, congressman, or short order cook. This is not to say that no Mormon leader has never been overcome by pride or temptation: They are, after all, human beings subject to human fallibility. But the system, designed as it is, has shown itself able to handle such aberrations -- an American Indian General Authority was recently released from office when, despite months of compassionate and brotherly laboring with him, he proved unable to reconcile his traditional upbringing with the pressures of service at a high level; and there have been a handful of other top leaders disfellowshipped or excommunicated over the past hundred and sixty years.
With the exception of Mr. Gorbachev, (and more recently, perhaps, Mr. Yeltsin) who some Mormons believe may be among the elect of God who volunteered to be born "behind the lines" where they could work to prepare the way for the advancement of the work of the Kingdom in a manner which wouldn't have been possible had they been born at another time or in other circumstances, the contrast with Soviet leadership could not be greater. Soviet leaders have without exception been men of great political ambition, promoting themselves for office and advancement, often viciously and in the most brutal fashion. Under such a system great wisdom and great managerial talent are almost inevitably displaced by craftiness and guile. In such circumstances the instinct for survival compels one to alter personal views to reflect shifts in the Party line rather than encouraging the pursuit of principle and what one honestly believes to be in the best long-term interest of society. This is precisely why Mr. Gorbachev took the world by surprise.
Summing Up
Whatever the organizational parallels between Mormonism and Marxism, and from whatever source these parallels derive, the operational details just recounted have made all the difference. Marxism has crumbled because its system was structured on compulsion and self-advancement and thus produced leaders who relied on compulsion rather than Consent, and self-promotion instead of humility, self-restraint, and duty.
The Lord has cautioned His Church against this kind of vaunting ambition, warning that "It is the nature and disposition of almost all men, as soon as they get a little authority . . . [to] immediately begin to exercise unrighteous dominion. When [men] undertake to gratify [their] vain ambition or to exercise control or dominion or compulsion upon the souls of the children of men, in any degree of unrighteousness . . . Amen to the . . . authority of that man." (Doctrine and Covenants , Section 121:37-39). That it took only seventy years to prove the validity of this eternal principle despite an almost identical substitute version of the tried system of government of heaven, even taking into account all the techniques and powers of earthly government available to Soviet leadership, including a powerful secret police, perhaps the largest army on earth, nuclear weapons, modern communications, a monopoly of press, radio, television, and education, control of the banking system and industry, and the rewards and incentives derived from a monopoly over all positions of rank, privilege, and power, is one of the greatest miracles of human history.
The freeing of the Israelites from bondage in Egypt and the return of the Jews from Babylonian captivity appear little more impressive in comparison. Yet, taking account of drugs, illegitimacy, and endemic inner city and white collar crime which plague the contemporary world, one wonders whether the Lord's warning against self-promotion and compulsion over one's fellow beings, and his parallel urging that we be "constantly engaged in good works" (the thousand points of light?) will find response among a people rooted in materialism, pornography, immorality and the pursuit of the "good life".
One hopes that this essay provides some understanding of why Mormonism continues to prevail, advancing from strength to strength, while Communism has wilted like a cut flower in the noonday sun. It has already been noted that the cadre of Soviet Communist Party effectives and the number of devoted Latter-day Saints is virtually the same, despite the huge number of largely unwilling subjects ruled by this powerful minority within the USSR and its subject ethnic republics. A Mormon Apostle visiting Washington, D.C. told a March 1990 audience that it is expected that the Church will number 15 million members by the end of this decade. This would represent almost the entire population of Europe at the beginning of the Renaissance and comprise almost twice the cadre the USSR was able to muster from Party membership to advance its activities when it was still the world's second Super Power. A thoughtful, experienced, and spiritually minded former Stake President and recently released Mission President (whose brother is a General Authority) has brought to the author's attention as an additional thought the passage in the Book of Revelation (Rev . 8:1) which says that there will be "silence in heaven about the space of half an hour" (peace and harmony for about twenty years?) prior to the outbreak of the cataclysmic events heralding the arrival of the Lord to assume reign over his kingdom -- at which time "a little one shall become a thousand, and a small one a strong nation" (Isaiah 60:22).
The liberalization under President Gorbachev may represent no more than this brief interval during which the Church can spread its ministry to Eastern Europe and other lands where work has hitherto been prevented from being carried out. In the short period since the fall of the Berlin Wall, missionaries have been sent to East Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Romania.
Surely the coming century will experience some impressive manifestations of the Marvelous Work and Wonder the Lord promised at the time of the Restoration of the Gospel in 1830.
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