There will soon be a Mormon president, and I don’t mean Mitt Romney.
Last Sunday, Gordon B. Hinckley passed away at the age of 97. He was “the prophet, seer, and revelator” of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS). Gordon B. Hinckley was the actual “Mormon President” who was, in the view of faithful Mormons, entrusted by God with a prophetic authority to guide the LDS Church. President Hinckley was beloved by Latter-day Saints for his grandfatherly wisdom and humility, but he was hardly well-known outside the Mormon community. It was therefore somewhat surprising that President Hinckley’s passing received so much attention in national news reports. Much of that obviously has to do with the notoriety of the aforementioned Mitt Romney. But media commentary on the late President Hinckley is also a direct result Hinckley’s decades’ long effort to bring Mormonism out of the southwest and more fully into the American mainstream. While suspicions of the LDS Church have certainly not vanished from public discourse, anti-Mormon sentiment has finally begun to wane.
The Quorum of Twelve Apostles, the LDS Church’s highest leadership body, will soon meet and choose Gordon B. Hinckley’s successor. The next Mormon President obviously matters to Mormons. It also matters to the many non-Mormons like me who count Latter-day Saints as friends and colleagues. But as for other Americans, one could reasonably ask: does the next Mormon president really matter?
It should—and here’s why.
Over a hundred years ago, a German sociologist observed that the “Mormons preach the American religion.” Scholars have always recognized the essential “American-ness” of Mormonism. For Mormons, America is literally a promised land where Christ once appeared and where he will return. American optimism finds expression in the Mormon belief that we can “eternally progress” in the afterlife to become more like God. “American-ness” has also been reflected in external Mormon struggles for religious freedom as well as in internal Mormon struggles with issues of race and gender.
But while Mormonism still is very American, more and more Mormons aren’t. Mormonism is globalized and, like America itself, exists in a world with shifting centers of gravity. In the coming years, the “American-ness” of Mormonism will inevitably change and thus shed light on broader American dynamics and concerns. That Mormonism combines the distinctly American with the distinctly religious has always been one reason why Mormonism matters. That the new leader of the LDS Church will continue to shape this relationship is one reason why the next Mormon President should matter to everyone.
Mathew N. Schmalz is associate professor of religious studies and director of the College Honors Program at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass.
