LGBTQ forecast from Benjamin Park in “American Zion”
"Historians are bad prophets" said Simon Sebag Montefiore, himself a historian. At the same time, historians can look at past patterns and make interesting observations about possible future directions.
Benjamin Park’s American Zion: A New History of Mormonism is an engaging, behind-the-scenes look at the faith. New Yorker called it one of "The Best Books We’ve Read in 2024 So Far" [the year of its publication]. Park succinctly distills LDS history, warts and all, then makes these observations that are relevant to LGBTQ folks and allies:
Religions thrive when they transform with time but still convince followers they never change. Latter-day Saint leaders have been able to forfeit previously central doctrines—polygamy, theocracy, racial restriction—while simultaneously proclaiming compliance with eternal laws that never bend. Many observers wonder, then, if the faith will once again shift away from cultural allegiances that currently appear unshakable: right-wing politics, theological orthodoxy, and social conservatism, particularly in matters concerning gender and sexuality. History has shown that even the most unlikely outcomes can eventually become possible.
The push [for the Church to change its stance on same-sex marriage] comes from external forces, with LGBTQ organizations labeling the Latter-day Saint church as a hate group, as well as internal: BYU students in 2021 protested the school’s LGBTQ policies by lighting the Y with rainbow colors; a year later, a Deseret News study found that 58 percent of active saints, including 89 percent of Utah residents in the eighteen-to-twenty-four-year-old range, believed same-sex unions should be legal. Whether leaders recognize it or not, the war over preserving “traditional” marriage has already been lost.
Latter-day Saint authorities will see no need to surrender the fight as long as they are not fighting alone. The battle they are waging is not between Mormons and America, as the dividing lines are now within America. Their temples are not under threat of being seized, their tax exemptions are not at risk of being revoked, and they are not vulnerable to being cast as a pariah. . . . So long as the church is ensconced within a powerful cultural bloc that enables the stability, privileges, and backing indicative of an assimilated and sanctioned community—indeed, the benefits that the Latter-day Saint tradition has long sought—they will be unlikely to reach the tipping point necessary for change (pages 406-7, emphasis added).
Where does that leave us?
I think it will take a miracle — and I believe in miracles.
-Marci
Want to hear more from Benjamin Park? I’m currently binging his YouTube channel. It’s engaging and wide-ranging —current politics and historical context, modern media, and fascinating moments in history. His videos are excellent. Also enjoy Wayfare Magazine’s terrific graphic review of American Zion.
PS - Looking to support a "local" bookstore instead of a behemoth? NYT bestselling author Julie Berry also owns a brick-and-mortar bookstore in Medina NY that ships free all over the USA with no minimum and now also has e-books.