THE POLITICS OF AMERICAN RELIGIOUS IDENTITY: The Seating of Senator Reed Smoot, Mormon Apostle

This outstanding historical study focuses on the national outrage a century ago when Reed Smoot, an apostle in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, was elected to serve as a Senator from Utah. Millions of Americans signed petitions urging the Senate to unseat Smoot, who endured several years of hearings to determine his status. Although he was not a polygamist, his opponents claimed that his alliance with the Mormon hierarchy would prevent him from being a faithful and patriotic Senator. Flake, a lawyer and professor of American religious history at Vanderbilt Divinity School, draws upon her legal expertise to help readers understand the trial testimony. She discusses the practice of Mormon polygamy, which had been officially abandoned in 1890 but was secretly continued by some church leaders, who persisted in taking multiple wives. Because of the scrutiny and public uproar when this fact became public knowledge during the Smoot hearings, the Church was forced to take more decisive action against polygamy in 1904. The Mormons' sudden sacrifice of their defining ideals raised an urgent question: how could they retain their distinctiveness when polygamy and theocracy, their two most singular features in the 19th century, were removed? In a particularly brilliant chapter, Flake traces the rise of Mormon restorationist impulses in the early 20th century—the period during and just after the Smoot hearings. A new emphasis on founding prophet Joseph Smith and his "First Vision" allowed Mormons to remain theologically unique while making themselves politically non-threatening. (Mar.)